Andrew D Atkin
Modern humanity can be described as a normal developmental reaction to an abnormal environment. The environment begins with the womb and the reaction begins with epigenetics. Later the reaction becomes trauma-imprinting and later still it becomes what we call socialisation. The problem is we have become so normalised to our abnormality, so mad to our madness, that we can't see it for what it is.
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The biblical idea is that Adam and Eve were forced out of Eden because they got clever from eating apples. Putting aside the bible story, I believe the human story is kind of similar:
Our intelligence has made us mad as a species, because our intelligence has allowed us to achieve long-term survival in a seriously neurotic state. Basically, it has empowered us to survive in spite of ourselves. Other animals cannot do this. Other animals, once neurotic and deprived, abandon their offspring (they do not attach) and leave them for dead: a ruthless but totally effective way of stopping the intergenerational spread of neurosis in its tracks.
For humans, our neurosis has become a potent survival strategy in that it allows us (emotionally) to exercise "inhumanity" by dominating and exterminating our own kind, of whom we must compete with for available resources. And brutal competition is indeed inevitable - why?
Because the norm for our species has obviously been no contraception, so active population control has never been a realistic (or common) option. In turn, it becomes only a matter of time until a population expands out to the point where there are too many people and not enough resources, over a given accessible geographical area. From here, passive population control must set in - and that means wars and/or famines. You can either watch your children starve, or you can go to war with your neighbouring tribes so as to claim their hunting/farming grounds. I would assume that wars are the norm.
The brutalities associated with war in turn leads to neurosis. Neurosis is the psychological event of going numb to conditions that are emotionally overwhelming. [See my Understanding Mental Sickness]. Serious neurosis, once established, spreads inter-generationally as damaged parents create damaged children, because they are emotionally incapable of responding to their children as they otherwise need to, to avoid the development of their children's neurosis.
However, due to the human intellect, and the development of stabilising cultures, we respond to our children adequately enough so that they can still survive. No matter how emotionally damaged we are, we obviously can (and do) still know what needs to be done to ensure the physical survival of our offspring. Alas, this is a short-term blessing but a long-term curse. The result is an embedded neurosis that goes on, and on.
So why do neurotic human tribes dominate non-neurotic tribes? The best answer is that neurotic humans tend to be far better equipped for ruthless domination. They sooner celebrate war than feel its horror. So, in turn, the more mild and "humane" tribes become exterminated by their competitors, or progressively become the same as their competitors. There is no way out of this. In the end, the competitive strength of inhumanity will win out and dominate as a normal mode of operation.
How could it be otherwise when you cannot actively balance population to resources? It is only in this modern age that we can realistically choose to have less children.
A model case:
Several hundred years ago New Zealand was populated by immigrating Polynesians. The New Zealand islands were a tremendous bounty for the original settlers. However, as time went on and their populations grew, they came to the point where there were too many people as a ratio to the available resources. The result? The New Zealand Maori rapidly developed into a waring culture, engaging in all the typical waring activities, from cannibalism to living in fortified communities.
Curiously, there were other people living in New Zealand at that time called the Moriori. They had in fact engaged in active population control by castrating much of their male population. These people refused to go to war. They are now an extinct people, literally eaten by the waring Maori.
Other examples:
Vikings. Same story; the Vikings were originally forced out of Scandinavia due to relative over-population, and then migrated to and survived by pillaging northern Europe. Desperation ruined them, and in their madness they went on to ruin others.
And maybe the most famous example of the rampaging growth of social cancer, is with fundamentalist Islam. Here is a good video on that: https://youtu.be/t_Qpy0mXg8Y
Today:
And maybe the most famous example of the rampaging growth of social cancer, is with fundamentalist Islam. Here is a good video on that: https://youtu.be/t_Qpy0mXg8Y
Today:
Peace for most of us in the western world feels like the norm. Most of us have not known any different, other than the somewhat controlled, non-threatening and, to us, essentially abstract battles that we hear about on our TV's. But this of course will prove very temporary if we do not accept the eventual need for active population control. Luckily we now have this option, and it is from this basis that, over time, we can finally develop away from our otherwise normal neurosis.
Towards a permanent Golden Age:
You can see why the author considers contraception to be mans greatest invention, ever. It can and will empower us to permanently balance population to resources, and without the famines and blood-baths.
However, to create and maintain a permanent "golden age" we require probably two things: certainly internationally applicable laws that, when and as necessary, dictate how many children people can have; and also some degree of negative eugenics. The latter is obviously a very sensitive imposition in terms of social acceptance, but the fact remains that if we are to undermine natural eugenics (which is basically nature leaving its less fit members to die of their own shortcomings) via the enforcement of universal prosperity, then we may in turn need to impose some human-focused negative eugenics to substitute, so as to ensure the long-term genetic health of our species.
I believe that the world is ready to accept population control, as required, but the imposition of eugenics will obviously be a tougher nut to crack.
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A final note: One thing that everyone should realise is that what we know of human nature today and from recorded history is not human nature by default. It is human nature after it has cocooned itself into neurotic repression. We have every reason to have much more faith in the potential of our species than what we are accustomed to assume of ourselves today. It is only a matter of confronting the true "root of all evil", and that is Deprivation.
The war against human deprivation will be the war to end all wars.
