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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-29 05:59 pm (UTC)But I don't think it's fair to forget that bloody beginning to our country.
Come to think about it (and I remember this from sociology class, and also a little from botany) it's the way of bigger, stronger things to take over and eradicate smaller, weaker things--whether weeds taking over gardens or men with guns taking over countries.
As Carl Sagan said, on our planet at least, it's "us against them, right down to the amoeba."
It would be a merciful thought to think that on other worlds there is some other mechanism of "positive checks" than predatory behavior. Maybe that's why the idea of heaven seems so dreamlike and wonderful. The competition, the tooth-and-claw is over, and we drift on clouds and sing.