9/12/07
For years now I have been a huge proponent of the idea that we humans are not terribly special. Sure, we have these gigantic brains that are capable of both rational and abstract thought and we are perhaps the only truly self-aware creatures on the planet. And sure, we are the wizards of invention and have quite literally built mountains, lakes and rivers. We are also just a scant few years away of creating human-shaped golems of plastic and metal. And let me not forget bipedal-ism! We are the kings of walking on two legs. But as mind-bogglingly cool as all of this is, we are still primarily driven by the same urges as the wee rabbits in the fields. We are slaves to our appetites for food, power and sex.
Initially, our drive toward creative thought and invention - whether we evolved these traits over the course of millions of years or were endowed with them by a benevolent creator or whether these came by some other means or a mixture of several, it is the same - was a tool meant to keep us unified and, more importantly, alive. Our ancestors studied the world in which they lived and sought to understand it, principally by correlating the behavior of plants, animals and natural phenomena to human thought and action. By doing this they not only discovered ways of coexisting with their physical surroundings but also began to understand how they could utilize and exploit them. Thus the domestication of livestock developed, as well as agriculture, and from there soon cities sprang up. As cities grew larger and more populous job specialization occurred. Certain men found more time on their hands to sit down, think and create, and from there art and religion became more complex and varied. Other men came into positions of leadership and authority, and with this came a certain degree of impunity. They could eat, drink, make love to, and kill whoever and/or whatever they pleased. Without a sense of impending judgment for their excesses and abuses, they in large measure resorted back to those most basic and primal of urges.
Flash forward to today. As scientific thought has led more and more people to reject the concept of religious piety to a deity of exponential power and wisdom, an as they have been given more and more freedoms through both governmental and technological invention, the trend of humanity has been inevitably back toward our animalistic roots. We eat far more than we need simply because it's available. Society's interest in sex and sexuality has moved beyond even Roman proportions. I'll refrain from going on a diatribe about the popular resurgence of potty humor, but it is worth mentioning.
As a species, we have accomplished things no other has come even remotely close to, and our capacity to learn and understand will continue to be unrivaled for millions of years. Yet we are not nearly as superior as we think we are. I'll speak more on this later and on how I think we can prove ourselves more worthy of distinction. Right now, though, I'm tired of writing, and I don't think there's a way of saving these blogs without posting them, so I'll leave it as it is. (FYI, it's nearly two years later, and I never bothered to finish this thought. I doubt I'll get back to it.)
Initially, our drive toward creative thought and invention - whether we evolved these traits over the course of millions of years or were endowed with them by a benevolent creator or whether these came by some other means or a mixture of several, it is the same - was a tool meant to keep us unified and, more importantly, alive. Our ancestors studied the world in which they lived and sought to understand it, principally by correlating the behavior of plants, animals and natural phenomena to human thought and action. By doing this they not only discovered ways of coexisting with their physical surroundings but also began to understand how they could utilize and exploit them. Thus the domestication of livestock developed, as well as agriculture, and from there soon cities sprang up. As cities grew larger and more populous job specialization occurred. Certain men found more time on their hands to sit down, think and create, and from there art and religion became more complex and varied. Other men came into positions of leadership and authority, and with this came a certain degree of impunity. They could eat, drink, make love to, and kill whoever and/or whatever they pleased. Without a sense of impending judgment for their excesses and abuses, they in large measure resorted back to those most basic and primal of urges.
Flash forward to today. As scientific thought has led more and more people to reject the concept of religious piety to a deity of exponential power and wisdom, an as they have been given more and more freedoms through both governmental and technological invention, the trend of humanity has been inevitably back toward our animalistic roots. We eat far more than we need simply because it's available. Society's interest in sex and sexuality has moved beyond even Roman proportions. I'll refrain from going on a diatribe about the popular resurgence of potty humor, but it is worth mentioning.
As a species, we have accomplished things no other has come even remotely close to, and our capacity to learn and understand will continue to be unrivaled for millions of years. Yet we are not nearly as superior as we think we are. I'll speak more on this later and on how I think we can prove ourselves more worthy of distinction. Right now, though, I'm tired of writing, and I don't think there's a way of saving these blogs without posting them, so I'll leave it as it is. (FYI, it's nearly two years later, and I never bothered to finish this thought. I doubt I'll get back to it.)
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