RE: Why Europe is so Contrary

From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 08 Dec 2002 - 19:42:09 GMT

  • Next message: Wade T.Smith: "Re: Toward a new US-World dialogue"

    >> > >
    >> > > At 08:12 AM 7/12/02 -0800, you wrote:
    >> > > Snip
    >> > >> for example, seems to mark the begining and end of the dynosaurs.
    >> > >> Mitocondrial eve marks the beginning of mankind. This way of
    >> > >> looking at the universe seems so engrained in our nature that it
    >> > >> must occupy some deeper place in our makeup than a cultural meme.
    >> > >>
    >> > >> Grant
    >> > >>
    >> > > I don't think so Grant cos some cultures, mostly ones that we have
    >> > > defeated, had achieved stability and sustainability within their
    >> > > environments. These folk view 'development' as undesirable or bad.
    >> > > For them harmony with the nature that they found themselves in was
    >> > > the primary goal of existence. In all cases that I have found, such
    >> > > cultures have narrative patterning and content which predicates this
    >> > > cultural 'norm'. That's the short answer. Jeremy
    >> >
    >> > Not many cultures that I am aware of have achieved this stability with
    >> > their environment, unless you include the possibility of 'die back'
    >> > when things are scarce. Most cultures expand to the extent of their
    >> > resources. If Hitler was not aware of this we would have been spared
    >> > WWII.
    >> >
    >>Other examples of enviromnetally suicidal indigenous tribes are the
    >>ancient Easter Islanders and the Anasazi indians of the American
    >>southwest. It is a meme and a myth, kinda like the old 'noble savage',
    >>'ancient sage' saw, that older cultures were always wiser.
    >>
    >>
    >But did these peoples have the technological capacity for wreaking havoc
    >that we do now? Did they have oil spills, tailpipe emissions, clear
    >cutting, Chernobyl, or DDT? What was their population level compared to the
    >billions we have now?
    >

    You can bet your bottom dolar that if there's an ecological niche that somebody can exploit, someone will step up and do it. If it's not some large company, it will be some poor peasant whose way of making a living has become redundant.

    Grant

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