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Just some thoughts on July 4th |
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| By Pharaoh | 2011-07-06 16:54:27 |
| Note: By "we" "us" etc. I mean the human race as a whole in general, no specific people in mind, just observations on the world that is presented. When one considers the way in which the human race as developed and evolved, many would say we are the masters of survival. This statement is true, as we have evolved to become the dominant species on Earth and have left almost no place on the globe away from our influence. However, this may be the most detrimental thing about us. We have become so good at surviving, that we have lost our intimate relationship with the world around us that truly provides for a fullness of life, and for the long-term success for us as a species. We have worked as hard as possible to remove ourselves from nature. While this may have been a survival instinct at first, it has developed through the millennia to become a need to prove to ourselves that we are more than just animals, and relatively recently has become a desire for us to become as mechanical as possible because of our need for survival and avoidance of death. In this essay I will show you how this thought process has evolved throughout our history as a species, and where it will lead us if we fail as a collective to realize what it is we are doing to ourselves. Every species on earth has a desire to survive. It is essentially why we are all on this earth, to survive as long as possible and ensure the future of our species through procreation. However, the human race has taken this to the extreme. First, let me explain the basis for our ability to take it to the extreme, and then I will explain how we have done so. The principle reason that we are able, and subliminally almost required, to go far beyond what other species are able to do for themselves is simple: we can ask ourselves 2 questions, “Why?” and “How?”. It is these 2 questions that enable us to develop the various technologies that we do, and enable us to attempt to understand the intangible parts of life that we so desperately try to avoid. This has lead to the quality and longevity of life improvements that we continue to develop, the complex sociological structures that we have established, and the interconnectivity that we have with one another that has (thanks to the internet) been expanded to be instantaneous on a global scale. However, because of this, we have become a detriment to our own existence. Originally, we were a species that operated much like any other species. We were tribal, and we had community units that cared for those inside of it, and frequently would get into conflict with other communities. This is entirely normal in the animal kingdom. However, we humans began to dislike this way of life. It is difficult to apply a specific time period to when this happened, but I like to do so somewhere between the ascension of the Greek city-states and the rise of Rome. It was not until this time when the term “savage” began to be applied to those who were not “civilized”. Those who remained in the tribal system of life were looked and tread down upon by their “civilized” counterparts. The term “savage” being applied to those people really does tell a lot. It shows that those who were pushing toward the civilized world were truly attempting to rid ourselves of animalistic characteristics of our lives. Through time we continued this process by trying to regulate ourselves in a way that began to become on a larger and larger scale. We went from the tribal system, to the city-state, to the “state”, to the state by definition that we have now thanks to the treaties of Westphallia which gave us the sovereignty, to the system we have now where truly the only ruler is money. Essentially what we have now is a larger tribal system, but with define borders and rights to land based on nothing but a belief and a piece of paper. We view this as a more civilized way of living, one that is superior to the animals, that people were meant to live as. However, when one considers it, what is it to be “human” rather than “animal”? As animals ourselves, how can we have our own definition of what it means to live in a way that is not like the animals, except to compare what we do to animals and try to differentiate as much as possible? The fact is, we can’t. But as we continue to push away from animals, we push more toward living like machines, and that is where we are headed now. If one were to view type of life on a spectrum, one would say it goes Animals à Humans à Machines, in terms of quality and longevity. As we push away from animals (who have a main goal of survival, a short life time, and emotional connections to each other) toward machines (who have a main goal of productivity and efficiency, a life time that is indefinable except for the decomposition of its parts, and no emotional connection to one another), we lose what life really is about. We have worked as hard as possible to defy death. In doing so, we have improved the life of many people, but inadvertently, we have also harmed ourselves almost irreparably. I will consider two main examples: retirement, and divorce. Retirement is a relatively novel thing that has come to play within a short time period of human history. As we continue to add our longevity of life, we extend our usefulness to a point, but after that point, we just continue to raise our time of being useless to society. This may be a harsh view but one must consider the reality. Retirement homes are essentially (for the purpose of society) a place for those who no longer produce for society to stay until they die. It is sad to think about. As we have become able to live longer and longer, we have elongated the time in which we live in relative uselessness. If one retires at age 65, and the average lifespan of a human is supposed to be predicted to be 85+ years old by the time I am elderly, that is 20 years of time when society considers you to not be productive anymore. The harsh truth is that in our fear to die we have started to make it so that we stay alive simply not to die, we no longer stay alive to truly LIVE. Another thing that has become an issue with us living so long is marriage. Over 50% of marriages fail now, and we try to think of why. I believe it is because we have extended our lives so long that it is no longer possible for us to stay with positive feelings toward someone for that long unless they are TRULY special. When one lives with a partner, then every day has a potential to implant very deep and behind the scenes negative feelings toward that person. When someone had to be married for 20 years, that was fine, we could do that, but when someone gets married at 25 and lives to be 85, 60 years is a very long time to have day to day negative annoyances implanted into one’s psyche and still love that person. I wonder if emotionally we are not built to be able to handle it. This is just a thought that can be considered at a later time (perhaps in another writing piece). Our longevity has come along with a lack of emotional connection between one another. In addition to love, we have lost the ability to form true communities. It is rare that neighborhoods know all of its members anymore, in truth, I only know two families of the 5 that live surrounding me. I have found this to be true with almost everyone. With the loss of connection has grown a subtle feeling of distrust. When was the last time a neighborhood was able to leave all their doors unlocked at night because they know and trust all of their neighbors? It has been years since such a phenomenon has been considered acceptable. The community love, respect, and trust that we felt has be almost completely lost, as we become little productive minions of the national machine for economic stability and prosperity. We have mechanized how we talk (text/email), shop (internet), work (internet/computers in general), and essentially live. We have lost the feeling of value for our work. There are few of us who can look back at the end of the day at a tangible thing and say “I built that, I put my work into it, and here is the result”, and because of this we have grown soft. If one looks at it realistically, all a lot of us to now is just push information back and forth electronically without any face to face contact or tangible results being acquired, just a lot of zeroes. The more zeroes the merrier. The mechanization of our whole lives is on its way to full fruition, and it is sickening to see the results. I have more to say on this, but I am tired of writing for now. |
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