A Brief History....
Oct. 29th, 2004 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloWe are very new.
I find this a comforting thought.
When I consider the seediness, depravity, cruelty and greed of humankind, I reflect that we are only beginners. We are still practicing; we haven't worked it out yet; we have time to improve. We have been around in our present form for a few million years- nothing in evolutionary terms- and civilization- the attempt to live in a civil society- is a very recent development.
We have only had writing for about three thousand years.
The written history of my own country goes back (and then only patchily) for two thousand years. If we want to know what happened before that we have to get out our spades and trowels and dig.
Two thousand, three thousand, four thousand years- these are ridiculously brief stretches of time. We have emerged from the forests, blinked and looked around a bit. That's all we have had time for. We are still little more than beasts.
I find this a comforting thought.
When I consider the seediness, depravity, cruelty and greed of humankind, I reflect that we are only beginners. We are still practicing; we haven't worked it out yet; we have time to improve. We have been around in our present form for a few million years- nothing in evolutionary terms- and civilization- the attempt to live in a civil society- is a very recent development.
We have only had writing for about three thousand years.
The written history of my own country goes back (and then only patchily) for two thousand years. If we want to know what happened before that we have to get out our spades and trowels and dig.
Two thousand, three thousand, four thousand years- these are ridiculously brief stretches of time. We have emerged from the forests, blinked and looked around a bit. That's all we have had time for. We are still little more than beasts.
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Re: At the risk
Date: 2004-10-29 01:58 pm (UTC)In fact, our tiny effort: we only buy eggs from free-range chickens. And I understand (and I hate hearing this! I turn away from hearing this, but now I know) that chickens are not only stuffed into cages but are de-beaked. Just typing that gives me chills. I only know this because, at a new organic grocery store in Knoxville, they advertise that all their chickens were raised with beaks intact.
When my daughter was 16, she became a vegetarian to protest caged animals and animal treatment. One day I was getting ready to bite into a piece of chicken and she began to cry, and asked me how I could be so cruel, and I, being irritated, swatted her away with a facile and shallow response: "Consider me a microcosm of the uncaring world."
She ran from the table sobbing, as well she should have.
In order to be clever, I wounded her deeply. More, I made light of something that was gravely important to her in order to swat away my own uneasy guilty feelings.
I've never forgotten that self-serving, ugly moment with my daughter. I'm still ashamed of my behavior toward that gentle, caring person sitting across from me.
How often in our lives do we really care about something? How terrible, to take the light out of someone's eyes in order to be clever.
Your response was much more mature than mine, and at a much younger age! You are correct: one must begin where it is possible, and take it step by step.
I have more than once told my daughter how much I admired her stand. She is no longer a vegetarian, but she loves animals very much and shops now at places like that organic store. It's a start for her, too.
Friending You!
Date: 2004-10-29 03:01 pm (UTC)Re: Friending You!
Date: 2004-10-29 03:08 pm (UTC)