Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t really believe in Mother Nature. It’s just an allegory. A dramatization. The tech company’s latest video features Octavia Spencer as the vengeful deity of thunderstorms, queen of the seasons, clothed in the appearance of human flesh to pass judgment upon the works of man.
As a metaphor, of course.
You see, what Tim Cook and his PR team actually believe, or think their audience believes, is this: the physical world exhibits certain unchanging tendencies of cause and effect. Human actions, like putting carbon in the air or drilling for oil, damage the planet and make it harder for living things—including humans—to survive. This is bad, because taking life is wrong. All perfectly rational.
I just have one question: if Octavia Spencer as Mother Earth is a metaphor, what would be the “literal” way of representing the statement, “taking life is wrong?” What could you say or show besides a scowling human form to convey the impression that what modern industry does is evil?
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