Being a reverend and all, I tend to ponder things from time to time. Sometimes religiousy things, sometimes spiritual things, sometimes food things, sometimes random things (honestly it’s mostly random things), and sometimes downright dirty things…like politics. I much prefer when I’m pondering elements of all of the above simultaneously or nothing at all and just enjoying the moment but in reality it’s a daily – if not hourly – crap shoot. Which got me thinking (and I do love it when pondering leads to thinking, it’s not so much a redundancy as it is a more focused take on otherwise incoherent and fragmented pondering, but I digress) about what people did before we had all of our modern conveniences and technology. I mean besides the obvious work their asses off farming, raising animals and livestock, making the stuff that they need (clothing, weapons, wagons, etc.), and finding and maintaining shelter, what did they do to find fulfillment in their lives? Did they need to do anything other than that which their seemingly harmonious life with nature provided? Was there any time left at the end of the day to actually do any of the things they thought about while working?
Before I get too critical of the status quo I should remind myself that human nature dictates that back then we were not living a harmonious life with nature and regardless, here we are. In fact, it is because of the ‘here we are’ part that it is safe to conclude that life was not all that fulfilling. The work was hard, humans are naturally lazy (an observation not a judgement). It would stand to reason that every technological advancement was an attempt to make life easier. Is working in an office for 8 hours a day better than contributing to the self-sufficiency of your own small family farm or commune? For some, yes. For others, no. Regardless, somewhere and somehow along the way we ended up valuing industries that strip the land of minerals to power our gadgets more than we do the agriculture workers who are the backbone of our food supply which ‘powers’ our people. In giving up self-sufficiency on the quest to build a modern utopia chockfull of leisure time and digital devices, has the human has lost touch with their place in the actual universe and created its own version of the universe in which they are the king and law of the land which is both self-perpetuating and self-consuming at the same time? Has our society has become a neurotic and narcissistic Ouroboros?
I suspect the apes have been monitoring the situation on humans progress for centuries and have decided to stay tribal while they wait and watch how the whole human societal evolution thing plays out before making their move.
Is there a moral to this story?
Here we are and it is what it is. Respect the natural world and learn your place in it. Get a hobby, or don’t. The apes will be taking over soon.