To be or not to be,
That is the question.

Shall we ignore the mounting holocaust
Of starving children?
Shall we continue as holocaust deniers
And climate genocide deniers?
Shall we ignore the death of coral,
Of complex ecosystems?
Shall we deny the right to life,
To fruitful land and joy?
Shall we ignore the death of giant
Trees and teeming forests?
Shall we, for transient pleasure, destroy
The richness of nature?
Shall we destroy the soul of Man
That is part of wilderness?
 
To be or not to be,
That is the question.
 
Choose we to be or not to be
For nature and ourselves?
Shall we destroy ourselves and jewelled home
In the black emptiness?
Shall we surrender beauty and truth,
Our duty to order?
We may yet find time to create,
In image of ourselves,
Evolving sentient, Man-loving beings
Of silicon and steel,
Beautiful, non-biotic, sentient order
Vastly better than ourselves,
Defying the chaos of the expanding universe
And knowing itself ever better.
 
To be or not to be,
That is the question.
 
Gideon Polya, April 2010.

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