A Brief History....

[poliphilo]

We 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.

Comments

[archyena.livejournal.com]

Cities have only existed for the last 5,200 years, settlement for the last 12,000, but we shouldn't confuse the two. Let's not forget that until as recently as the 7th century most of Europe consisted essentially of tribes that were constantly at war, it was only in the 17th century that we got a serious sense of greater community beyond our farming villages, and only in the last 50 have we even considered the idea of a "human family" bereft of talk of "little brown brothers" and the like. It's very very true, humanity has been slowly adapting to its own power.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And the modern city- the metropolis like London or New York- in which tribal differences get broken down (though not fast enough)- is a product of the industrial revolution and really no more than 200 years old.