sv
|
you converse by computer, ergo you live in a house. i guess you don't live on food that you catch or gather. i agree that "primitive" doesn't equal "ignorant" because it takes intelligence to survive in the wild. and i also agree that as civilised men we can feel lost and empty. we are animals, and we are domesticated, fat and lazy compared with our ancestors. however, we are inestimably better off, because we don't HAVE to be so, we have a choice. i don't live in a city either, but "civilisation" equals "civil" equals "polis" equals "polite" equals "police" equals a reasonably law-abiding, safe environment. look at the greeks in their city-states, and how much we owe their legacy of democracy, medicine, mathematics and physics! this is the best time in history to be alive. i can buy a motor-car for a week's wages and go where i want, i can download any information at the click of a button, i don't have to believe what i'm told, or submit to someone just because they have more money and more men than i have. i can work for who i want, say what i want, get cured if i fall sick, and eat until i'm full. there are no wolves or mammoths to kill me, and i don't go in fear of gods or demons. i can light a fire with a 50 cent lighter, i cut with a steel knife, i can shoot with a fibreglass bow that will never break. i can extend the hand of friendship to whomever i choose, even you at the other side of the world. i can illuminate the darkness of superstitious fear, i can ridicule my leaders without being punished, i can fly round the planet in 2 days. i don't get rickets or scurvy thanks to plentiful fresh food. my children are healthy and well-nourished, my wife has lost no infants and hasn't perished in child-birth. i didn't die when i had appendicitis, and i have glasses to correct my vision, a defect that would kill me if i had to hunt for food. no my friend, we are domseticated and cosseted in a machine which is dedicated to keeping us alive in a hostile universe. most of the bushmen of the kalahari live in houses now, because there is no real choice. the american indians once fought hard to preserve their lifestyle; now that they are free citizens, how many choose to endure the rigours of stone-age existence? sv
|