We either blot them out entirely or assume that the sane people of earlier periods were Unenlightened Barbarians. We find the rare idiots who suffered from modern-style brain disease, and we call them Pioneers or Prophets. We blame the sane people of previous eras for punishing or ignoring Our Prophets.
If we had a little more empathy, a little more understanding of The Other, we might be able to draw proper conclusions about our current behavior. We might be able to see that our current behavior has failed every time it was tried. Again, this applies to all realms of behavior. Religion, government, economics, family life, MEDICINE.
Because we can't see The Other in 300 AD or 1500 or 1860 or even fucking YESTERDAY, we have no feedback mechanism. We only see ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW. We aren't able to adjust our behavior to avoid disaster. Like Gulliver's Laputans or The Monarch Of Pointland, we are tightly locked inside our little bubble of pure delusion. We have built a WALL between us and reality. We think THIS wall, unlike all the walls we joyfully smash, is impenetrable. Nature knows better.
= = = = =
Footnote on ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW: The spatial side of this infantile sprawl, the ME ME ME part, is expressed best by Neocons and Exceptionalism. I've discussed this many times.
= = = = = END REPRINT.
Labels: Jackboot stomping forever
The current icon shows Polistra using a Personal Equation Machine.