Only Roughly Speaking

Roughly speaking, the USA’s GDP is the same size as the 2nd largest, 3rd largest, and 4th largest economies in the world… Combined. Put those numbers into perspective. China has 1.3 billion people, Japan has 127 million people, Germany has 80 million people… this means 1.5+ billion people generate the same output compared to ~300 million people. This is 5x the output on a relative basis.

Wall Street Playboys. wallstreetplayboys.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://wallstreetplayboys.com/america-the-good-and-bad/&gt;.

Optimistic news for America’s future is not the norm these days. Facts like these restore perspective of where we stand in the world.

Infinite Time and Space

Humans occupy a very small space in the infinite universe. They also occupy an extremely small space in the infinite timeline. It is awfully arrogant of us to claim that we are “special,” “individuals,” something a prime mover could “cherish.” The world is so massive and infinite. Each reader here is only one of an estimated 7,158,000,000.

In a world where rare objects tend to be valued what does that say about us? Humans are everywhere. Does that make us worthless?, cogs in a machine?, replaceable? It certainly seems so sometimes. In space and time so infinite how do we maintain our sanity? It is so easy to be overwhelmed by the pure size of infinite space and time. How is it possible for us to leave a legacy in something so vast?

“Shut off the past! Let the dead past bury its dead… Shut out the yesterdays which have lighted fools the way to dusty death… The load of tomorrow, added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past. … The future is today. …There is no tomorrow. The day of man’s salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future. …Shut close, then the great fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of life of ‘day-tight compartments.” – Sir William Osier

As Sir William Osier says, we must shut off the past and future. The weight of our own past and own future “makes the strongest falter.” Just as Osier suggests our own pasts and futures should be shut off. Contemplation of our place in humanity’s infinite timeline must also be ignored. We struggle under the weight of our own time; the sheer possibility of infinite time overwhelms man. We cannot bear its weight.

Sir Osier should have also said that we must also defend ourselves from the infinitude of space. Just as we worry about our place in infinite time we also worry about our place in this infinite universe. However, like infinite time, our minds are not equipped to fathom infinite space. We build mental schemas and when we spend too much time staring into the abyss of infinite time and space it is easy to become overwhelmed.

Worrying about these things causes an ironic self-fulfilling prophecy. If we let these anxieties control us we will never make a mark on the time or space to which we belong. If we panic under the weight of time our lives will be over before we know it. If we panic under the weight of space, and our place in it, we will be intimidated by the necessary vastness of the action required to make a scratch. By purposely focusing taking a small view of time and space it causes mental anxieties to dissipate. By making small things big it is easier for us to find a niche in space and time. When one finds their niche they can focus on it with all their strength there so they can make a mark on their space and their time.