Cause and Problems of our Nature

Civilization was a well-intentioned response to a sudden drastic shortage of human food (possibly arising from overhunting of large game and/or the last ice age). But it was not an instinctive way to live, and needed a lot of artificial constructs and controls to work. Our civilization systematically brainwashes us into staggering cultural homogeneity and imaginative poverty, and to believe ours is the only way to live -- that there is no other human way. To do so it must get us to forget or deny the





5 truths above, and teach us these great myths:

• That our instincts are unreliable (what nature 'tells' us to do), and logic and morality are infallible (what human codes tell us to do);
  
• That life is a struggle of 'good vs. evil', and that we are inherently weak, selfish and lazy;
• That it's good to be 'normal' and to be like other people, and that we're all part of society and not ultimately, terribly alone;
  
• That we must be unconditionally obedient to our 'superiors', their hierarchy and their laws, or society and order will collapse;
  
• That our well-being is appropriately measured by our material possessions and our ability to acquire more;
  
• That disparity of wealth, health and dignity is necessary and inevitable and that with hard work 'have-nots' can become 'haves';
  
• That we must all work long, hard hours at unsatisfying jobs or we will all suffer and starve;
  
• That humans have an inherent right to all the land and all the resources of Earth (and even beyond);
• That history began with civilization, before which life was short, fearful, nasty and brutish (and in nature and tribal cultures, it still is).
6. We are instinctively responsive to, and responsible for, everything we have control over. In nature that is the immediate community -- what goes on outside is not one's business. But now that we, as a 'global community' control the whole world we cannot respond, cannot bear the commensurate responsibility. This conflict between our instincts and reality, along with the stress of overpopulation and separation from nature, has made us all mentally ill. This illness manifests itself in violence and war, hatred, abuse, greed, jealousy, and fear. We are helpless to do what we 'know' we must. It is like facing 'Sophie's choice' (being asked by the Gestapo to decide which of your children to spare from the gas chamber) over and over and over. We cannot bear to know, so we turn off, we hide inside, we distract ourselves. It is only when we don't know, and cannot even imagine, that we can go on, and tolerate the world we have created. This makes it easier for us to accept the brainwashing that ours is the only way to live, to tolerate the abuses and outrages that weknow are going on behind closed doors, and to accept the arguments of skeptics and apologists and holocaust denyers that it's not really that bad, or perhaps it's even good, or at least it's divine will so it's beyond our control, there's nothing we can do about it, we're not really responsible
7. As a consequence, we are poised, by the end of this century, to create a world that contains one billion Americans and fourteen billion people, and uses eight Earths worth of resources (at current regeneration rates) just to meet human needs. A world that will, as a direct consequence of this overcrowding and unsustainable consumption, be preoccupied with catastrophic famines, epidemic (new) human diseases, crop failures, cannibalism, crop failures, nuclear and biological wars, water rationing and desertification, economic depression, catastrophic terrorism, cascading weather disasters, and the decline of democracy, constitutional liberalism, and the rule of law. A world, arguably, not worth living in.