Saturday, December 10, 2005

Posted on Dec 7th:

I've been doing a bit of reading lately... its more or less an offshoot of searching for something else. I went searching for a phrase that I was using in a small essay to make sure that I got it right; and there was a website that jumped up at me and said this: "How to save the world".

The sarcasm in me spoke up and wanted to see how crazy the website really was. I was expecting some ultra-liberal environmentalist BS... but it wasnt at all. It did deal with the environment in sort of a way, but thats also how you say reality deals with gravity in a sort of way :) Its on a whole seperate plane of thought, actually. The articles I read were so big in their scope that it really made me think. It combined creature physiology, anthropology, archeology, sociology, biology, history, phsychology, philosophy, etc all into one BIG science. Its very hard to explain... you take sociology, which studies cultures and how they interact, but sociology doesnt go into the mental part deep or into the history enough... Its like no particular science covers it; it takes almost all of them.

Basically, it deals with the opposite side of the civilization argument. All of our lives, we have been taught that civilization was the beginning of modern man, how agriculture changed everything. How God or 'the gods' created this world FOR US... how we are the epitome of evolution.

The opposite side of this argument being that civilization, in itself, is the very reason we are on a collision course with extinction. It comes down to overcrowding partly... An example: Conventional wisdom tells you that we must combat famine by growing more food and feed those that have none and then the famine would be cured. While this is very humane and almost anyone would do it to help these people... that is not true. Evolutionary Science, sociology, and several other sciences downright prove that when you increase the food supply, your population grows. If farmers make more food to sell, the world population increases. Its just how it is. Its how the world went from 6 million 10,000 years ago when humanity first started using massive agriculture to conquer the environment; to 60 million around 5000 years ago, to 600 million 500 years ago, to 6 billion today.

I cant explain all in a simple blog entry like this, its much much more complex, and I fear I may state something wrong. I'm reading currently, 'Ishmael', it tells of another set of 'natural laws' that go along with laws like gravity, or laws of thermodynamics... laws that govern how people are supposed to live. Normally our 'Great Prophets' tell us how to live right. Up until 10000 years ago, we KNEW how to live right, there were no wars, no cancer, no disease (other than quick localized things that died off because they couldnt spread), etc... so why today, do we have greedy, selfish, evil people running around? There's nothing out there in our world, completely seperate from religion of course, that shows you how to live. And people have shown that they, by themselves, dont really know how to live. You're told that you have to suffer a bit, because thats the price of living... its why people drink, why people use drugs. Is humanity REALLY flawed? If you were HONESTLY brought up without any instruction on 'what is right or wrong' you'd have no concept of it; you wouldnt know how to balance your life (not being too giving so that you may still live comfortably, but also not being so selfish that you dont help others). I don't believe its inclusive in the human psyche... at least not how we live now anyways.
The religious right would tell you 'TOLD YOU SO!' because that is also what they believe. They believe that humanity is flawed and that X religion is the way to live so that your flaw may be tended. This is common myth. And honestly if you really LOOK at it, its hard to debunk the evidence against it. And its what I always believed as well. Humanity was flawed (I was more optimistic and thought it a small flaw) and needs guidance in some form or another to live right.
But these arguments go much deeper than that. There are many compelling stories that give GREAT evidence to back it up. The argument again goes back to civilization being the root of all evil; are we 'supposed' to live like this? Maybe the reason we go crazy and kill each other in war, or use alcohol and drugs as an escape is because this isnt the natural way to live. Not that we are flawed, but that very ROOT of our existence is lying to us. It would definitely be histories greatest story if it were true: All 10,000 years of human history, nothing more than a flawed story.

Just like in the early days of pre-flight in the 19th century, people would use flapping wings and all kinds of gizmos to allow them flight. There were no laws of aerodynamics because people didnt know they existed. It didnt mean they werent there, its just that no one knew of them because no one had really looked hard at it. Technically when we fly, we are NOT defying gravity. By that logic, we are defying gravity by simply sitting upright in a chair... it is merely supporting us. We use aerodynamics to support our weight in flight. So when someone jumps off a cliff flapping their arms; they are sure they are flying... until they hit the ground. We were sure that civilization was the right way to live (and hell there MIGHT be another way of doing it that isnt so deadly to the environment) but we don't TRULY know about it until the end when we become extinct. It worked just fine until the end... just how flapping your arms works just fine until you hit the ground.

I won't go into the viscious cycle of everything, I'm sure everyone already knows that. Its become almost a dogma, and that can be blamed on the environmentalists... most of them don't see the BIG picture and offer no solutions... they only merely donate their money to Green Peace, the Green Party, to some other environmental-conscious charity, recycle their goods and at the end of the day, they feel they've done their part. Well unfortunately, its not enough. The worst part about saving the world? You can't do it yourself, its completely impossible.
I've gone on enough now. But right now, I'm making an effort to read about 2 books a week, up from my very slow 1 book every 2 weeks. Maybe I can expand my mind in a different direction eh?

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