Primitives in a Modern World

The nature of an individual human has changed very little in hundreds of thousands of years, dating back to the neanderthal, making us modern primitives. What has changed is the nature of how we communicate and work together, how spoken and written language serve as the foundation of our complex culture and growing understanding of our universe.

As our lives become more complex and abstract, and our understanding from metaphor instead of from nature, we risk losing our grip on reality. We are less obviously connected to the Earth for our survival, and depend on far removed gears of society that out of sight and mind, that consume and pollute our dwindling resources. In three generations humanity has consumed resources and threatened species and ecosystems that took the Earth five million generations of our ancestors to create. We likely have only a decade to embrace our ancient ancestors sustainable relationship with the carrying capacity of our environment instead of expecting it to endlessly absorb our careless expansion and exploitation.

We can learn from both our modern society and our ancient ancestors to take the best of both and remember our connection to the land while drawing on society's incredible capability to learn and adapt. If we can make the right changes grounded in plain truth we may yet avoid the second loss of Eden and the terminal sin of man.

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