Mitchell J. Rabin: Koyaanisqatsi, Life Out of Balance

Without heart, love, and respect, the world collapses

The world over, on every continent, indigenous wisdom holds that “life is to be held in balance.”

Spoken in different languages and with distinct cultural nuances, all refer to the same fundamental idea of honoring and respecting Mother Earth and Father Sky, at the beginning of a day and at its end, and the same with all sentient life, to live a life in balance.

Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi word that means “life out of balance.” Koyaanis means “corrupted” or “chaotic” and quatsi means “life, existence.” In effect, it is a word describing, our daily lives, at least here in the West, if not at this point, most everywhere

Many people know the word from the film Koyaanisquatsi by Francis Ford Coppola with the music written by Phillip Glass. The film gives one a visual/visceral experience of the tensions between Nature and Technology—and the distinct kinds of development each represents and positing differing potential futures.

The balancing act is not easy

It appears that at this moment in time, our human world is wholly out of balance. Surely we’ve been out of balance to varying degrees over millennia but what is happening currently between eco-system collapse, the nuclear clock ticking ever closer to midnight, the specter of AI ticking up, the disappearance of water, real food and democracy, the loss of trust and respect for self and other, I suggest is pushing the limits.

On the macro-level, Mother Earth Herself is in an uproar, seeking to re-balance the chaos human activity has thrust upon her elegant, efficient eco-system, and she is firing back. This eco-system is highly intelligent, is attuned to the higher vibrations of the Universe, which gives rise to its own extraordinary cycles and rhythms, truly a cosmic orchestration and harmony.

Human activity that comprises massive drilling through her skin, polluting her waters, fouling her air, poisoning her soil over generations has led to an extremely painful experience through her feedback loop, resulting in massive flooding, sudden weather catastrophes, tornadoes appearing where they never were before, and utterly anomalous climate activity virtually on a daily level all over the world.

Weather patterns have become so severe that Pacific Island Nations fear for their very survival, deeply concerned that they will be underwater in the foreseeable future. And this isn’t new.

The Environmental Protection Agency was formed to protect

On the micro-level, a Federal Agency in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency, was tasked with protecting our environment from the onslaught of water, air, and soil pollution. Interestingly, it was set up during the Republican Nixon Administration in 1970 to protect Americans from the pollution generated by industries across the board.

In 2025, under the Trump Administration, the head of the EPA just fired thousands of scientists and dismantled the entire purpose the EPA was tasked with 55 years ago. It has now gone so far that the latest news is that the Trump Administration wants to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, in order to “appear” to dominate the space race.

These are yet other measures of how sociopathic this Administration is and blinded from reality, so far from a reasonable sense of proportion and balance. Without which any structure would topple. […]

 

Read the entire article at www.meer.com/en/95943-koyaanisqatsi-life-out-of-balance