City Of God 33

It is amazing that we have survived this long as a species. Not so amazing that we seem to be taking down the biodiversity of this planet and soon, by extension, ourselves. Kind of a mass, slow-motion suicide, methinks. We could blame any number of factors, but I think the Greeks got it right in the myth of Prometheus, as the Bible gets it right in the first chapters of Genesis. This is to say that very early in our evolutionary development, we humans were already too big for our breeches. Prometheus gave us fire, and was eternally punished by the god Zeus, who had him chained to as cliff face forever while a vulture came regularly to feed on his liver, which kept regenerating. Fire was received, of course, as a boon. It warmed us at night and on winter days, frightened away predators, and cooked our meat. This helped us transform from largely vegetarian omnivores to hunting carnivores. Apparently, that is how our brains grew and we became earth's most intelligent and by extension, most destructive species. We became peripatetic and the most opportunistic species to ever crawl on the surface of the earth. Our high intelligence made us very able exploiters and our self-interest was so tied to our survival that we were not going to even consider the wellbeing of other lifeforms. Our brains grew before our hearts. We became thinking organisms without conscience, without compassion. Empathy only existed within the family, the tribe, where there was kinship. The gods, in the Promethean myth must surely have known this, for which reason they did not want us to be like them. We weren't ready. We would simply be always like children playing with matches. By the same token Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, not simply for disobeying God, but because of the consequences of disobedience, and the reason why they were forbidden from eating the forbidden fruit: they would become conscious before they had the maturity for being able to handle this new power. has anyone ever noticed how teenagers never seem to be ready for puberty? This has given our species a very long, sad and violent trajectory of learning very hard lessons. We still haven't got it yet and we are teetering on planet destruction from global warming, caused by our own very human and selfish activity. We live together in cities and communities for the simple reason that we are not able to cope alone, not physically and certainly not psychologically. We are cursed by being a highly social species that hates itself and each other, weak, half-formed things consumed by fear and hostility. it isn't so much that we are better than that, but that we are capable of improving, and some of us are equal to the task, but it is going to be a monumental task getting others to follow in this way, when ourselves can hardly get moving without a lot of kicking and screaming. It is very hard to survive being a role model. Even when we are not being self-righteous and obnoxious about it. One ends up chronically hated because of envy, but someone has to take the bullet. Are we improving as a species? Are we even improvable? That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question. The Enlightenment did help us move forward, but then it was declared that we are not part of nature, but superior and in control of nature, and this hubris infected our sciences and our social and political institutions, and the Industrial Revolution gave us lots of easily and cheaply manufactured goods and a compromised natural environment. Being part of nature, but in denial of it, we of course are negatively impacted by environmental degradation, because as big as our brains are, we are still creatures made from dust, and to dust we shall return. Those of us who refuse to pull our heads out of our asses, of course, aren't even going to care. Those living in the US or Brazil or Russia or Italy or the Philippines or elsewhere, will go on electing fear mongering demagogues who coast on violence and oppressive policies. This could also happen hear in Canada, where the Conservative Party enjoys thirty percent support. Are there solutions? I can think of one idea: don't give up. Despite our many defects and obstacles we have made incredible gains in history, and this is not going to be easily forfeited. Conflict is part of growth. We will get through this. Our asses are going to be very sore for a while.