Theos-Talk Archives (June 2001 Message tt00073)

What happens to us (humanity) when this happens?


WASHINGTON (AP) - Ever hear someone speak Udihe, Eyak, or Arikapu?
Odds are you never will. Among the world's 6,800 languages, half to
90% could be extinct by the end of the century. One reason is that
half of all languages are spoken by fewer than 2,500 people each,
according to the Worldwatch Institute, a private organization that
monitors global trends. Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to
pass from generation to generation, says UNESCO, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. War and
genocide, fatal natural disasters, the adoption of more dominant
languages such as Chinese and Russian, and government bans on
language also contribute to their demise.

99999999999999999999999999999999


THEO. Take an instance. A plant consists of a root, a stem, and many shoots 
and leaves. As humanity, as a whole, is the stem which grows from the 
spiritual root, so is the stem the unity of the plant. Hurt the stem and it 
is obvious that every shoot and leaf will suffer. So it is with mankind. 



ENQ. Yes, but if you injure a leaf or a shoot, you do not injure the whole 
plant. 

THEO. And therefore you think that by injuring one man you do not injure 
humanity? But how do you know? Are you aware that even materialistic science 
teaches that any injury, however slight, to a plant will affect the whole 
course of its future growth and development? Therefore, you are mistaken, and 
the analogy is perfect. If, however, you overlook the fact that a cut in the 
finger may often make the whole body suffer, and react on the whole nervous 
system, I must all the more remind you that there may well be other spiritual 
laws, operating on plants and animals as well as on mankind, although, as you 
do not recognise their action on plants and animals, you may deny their 
existence. 
(The Key to Theosophy)