Global Greek Tragedy

1 year ago
37

I used to think that all we needed, as humanity, to see ourselves through the myriad of problems we face, is the right words, or the right speech, or the perfect moment in time, and all will be good.
The naivete! Related to this is the idea that someone will eventually come save you. This is something I’ll have to expand upon in another video. But the conclusion is: Nobody’s coming to your rescue. Only YOU can come to YOUR rescue.
Anyway, in their book “A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying run through some very important concepts we’ll have to become much more familiar with should we stand a chance of surviving the next century. In the last chapter of the book called “The Fourth Frontier,” there’s a little paragraph that is packed full of explanatory power (as are many of the paragraphs in this wonderful book!)
When our ancestors reached the point of “ecological dominance,” when the major threat to their existence was no longer some sort of natural disaster, like a tsunami, or earthquake, but was OTHER HUMANS, we began exercising a genetic program that we moderns should instantly recognise as immoral and unjust. As soon as we became globalised, and no longer feared Darwin’s abiotic hostile forces as much as we had before, other humans became both our main threat and opportunity.
They can steal from us, but we can steal from them too. And if we steal from them first, then we win. So there was an evolutionary arms’ race to become the people who win in inter-tribal warfare.
This is why history reads as it does. And unfortunately (or has it been fortunate?) we moderns have lived through the most peaceful times yet. Where the major superpowers have left each other in relative peace. This was because of the unprecedented period of economic growth we experienced post WW2. Itself thanks to our tapping fossil fuels as a source of energy. We no longer had to fight each other to win. But instead, we could turn our plunderous impulse to nature. And exploit nature.
This meant STEALING FROM OUR DESCENDENTS. Because when you extract resources at a rate beyond which they can replenish, and create waste at a rate beyond which the earth system can assimilate, we destroy the viability of the planet for the sake of economic growth.
We are behaving in the same way as our ancestors, except instead of stealing from others in the present, we’re stealing from our descendants who have yet to be born.

Loading comments...