What I want to explore next are the reasons why we are teetering on the edge of a crisis that will soon disrupt the normal life of the entire human race.
To get to that, however, I first need to lay some initial groundwork. And since this is a weblog and not a thesis, I’m going to try to move quickly (from an ideological standpoint) and I’m going to work on the assumption that any reader really interested in this will already have some degree of preparatory background. Put another way, I’m going to assume my target audience has some sense already that things in this world “are not as they should be”, and that they are in fact beginning to take on an ominous tone. From that starting point, we can begin to establish some means to verify the what, the why, and importantly, the when….
Initially I’d like to posit that the whole of Mankind is not simply a haphazard, circumstantial collection of individual people sprawling out-of-control like bacteria in a Petri dish. Rather, I believe that it is—albeit from a much larger viewpoint—actually an homogeneous and somewhat unified organism, very like an organ within its host body. If we can agree on that, then we can begin to examine the unifying forces which maintain this organism and relate it to the whole. If not, then click here and you can pass your remaining time with a very amusing game that I feel is somehow strangely applicable: www.jagex.com/fleas.html
Still here? Well, here we go….
It has long been recognized—and only recently forgotten—that the creature Man occupies a very unique place in the world. He doesn’t belong completely to the world of Nature, and not completely to the world of pure Awareness. He has his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds, and he was especially designed that way in order to fulfill a particular function. What this implies, and it’s something that seems to have been understood as far back as Sumerian and Egyptian times, is that Mankind is just one “cog” in the larger “machine” (on second thought, I think the organ/body analogy was more appropriate…). And it might further be assumed that if Mankind ceased to be meeting these requirements—or meeting them only inadequately—then either the entire body would eventually begin to break down, or an adjustment would need to be made in order to put the cosmos back on course.
Now I won’t pursue this line of thought much further, since it’s rather “heady” stuff and therefore lends itself too easily to fuzzy thinking. Our concern for now is with the problems we’re making for ourselves. But I think we could rationally state that if Mankind truly maintains this inter-relationship with the Earth and the Heavens, then it should be evidenced in his actions and in his psychological framework, and in fact this is so...for this I would point to the fields of Spirituality and Agriculture (encompassing on a practical level both farming and animal husbandry, or simply “caring for our food and water”).
Spirituality may take as many forms as there are cultures of people, but is nevertheless ubiquitous. Joseph Campbell described it eloquently when he said that the root of Religion must have been the first time a man looked at a deceased friend and thought “here he was walking around, talking, making faces…and now he’s lifeless and inert: what is it that was there a few moments ago but is gone now?” I’ll use the terms “Spirituality” and “Religion” interchangeably for this report, but I use both to generally describe Spirituality as “Man’s relationship with the world of unseen, higher forces”. And hopefully we’re in agreement that this “unseen” world, however it may be comprehended, does indeed exist, and that Mankind maintains a degree of inter-relationship with this world.
I’m using the term Agriculture to refer to Man’s relationship with the Earth and Nature, which can also exhibit a sense of the Spiritual (especially in animistic traditions) but is embodied more essentially in the responsibility and respect with which we engage the Natural world. The term Agriculture doesn’t sufficiently embody this relationship, but I cannot find a more suitable word. Farming, Animal Husbandry, caring for our food and water…these are the practical aspects of it in the daily life of individual human beings. But we’re trying to understand Mankind as a singular organism, so the term ‘food’, for instance, must have a larger scope than simply an individual person’s meat and potatoes. It would have to include fuel and energy resources also, as well as the culling of natural materials such as wood and the altering of rivers and streams. Furthermore, the by-products of our existence need to be considered as well. All the things the Whole Earth Catalogue told you were important…. Now hopefully we can agree that Mankind also engages in a two-way relationship with the Natural World as a fundamental aspect of its existence.
So now we have a rudimentary diagram of Mankind: related to the higher world through his Spiritual yearnings, and caring for the Natural world through the way he employs its natural resources. Soon we can move on to examining the uniquely human forces that bind and maintain these billions of separate itty-bitty human beings into the holistic organism called Mankind that coats the surface of the globe. But I want to introduce one more idea before we do.
If we turn our attention now to the organization of civilizations throughout history, Mankind can be said to show two distinct tendencies. One is the Nomadic tendency, and the other the tendency toward Settlement. The distinction between the two tendencies is important, because they define polar differences in the way that the people relate to the Heavens and the Earth.
Ayn Rand pointed out that there are two types of activity or work: work that is circular and work that is linear. Linear work is easiest to define: it is any work that builds on itself and creates identifiable results. Building a house is one example. You work on it for 8 hours one day, 6 the next, 12 hours on the weekend, etc, etc. Each period of work adds something additional, shows continual “progress” or development, and builds toward a result that is new and which did not exist before. Circular work, however, is that work that does not create anything new, per se, but rather returns things to their previous or desired state. Circular work generally needs to be repeated with some periodicity. So for instance, you prepare a meal, then it is eaten and the dishes washed, perhaps even the food is re-stocked. Yes, your family has been nourished—it’s not that the work doesn’t have a purpose and temporary result. But at the completion of the cycle the kitchen has been returned to essentially the same state it was in before you started. And the work will need to be repeated again that evening. Think of mowing the lawn…I know that gives me the necessary sense of redundancy that is involved….
I quote Ayn Rand’s idea because it communicates the essential difference in the approach to life between Nomadic (circular) peoples and Settlement (linear) peoples.
The Nomadic lifestyle is one of continual movement, and is invariably tied to the seasons, the weather, topology, and herd animals (whether following them or shepherding them). As such, nothing (in the external sense) is permanent or rooted in place. Some farming may be pursued, but only modestly and during periods of encampment. Generation after generation passes, but what is “developed” is an inner, psychological growth: traditions, arts and crafts, and the peoples’ sense of cultural identity. The progress of Time would be measured by a kind of “rhythm” of events and experiences, and their harmony or disharmony with the flow of the Natural world. Nomadic life is difficult and uncertain, but it did allow for the community to flourish within natural limits. There is little disparity of wealth. And it should also be noted that there is ample evidence from the handful of modern nomadic peoples that still exist that their health is exemplary, generally far superior to that of most modern “Settlers”. (One African tribe, the Kalenjin, began entering runners in Olympic and international competition in the late 1980’s, and have since shown an unprecedented domination of the sport, winning some 40% of cross country and track events over the last decade). This is without doubt attributable to dietary differences, most especially the need to “process” food that the Settlement lifestyle demands in the face of mass distribution.
For Settlers, community begins with the first buildings and the first planted crops. Each generation (hopefully) builds on the last, and as more and more resources are consumed, the community grows. Wood structures give way to stone, stone to iron, iron to steel. The community gradually becomes more and more independent of the events and changes occurring in the Natural world. Wealth accumulation (and the resulting disparity) grows. Traditions give way to Customs, and Custom gives way to Fashion as the community expands. Knowledge gives way to Education, and Education gives way to Specialized Training in response to the continued needs of progress. Time, for the community, is measured largely by the growth and decline in the material environment, as “history” and “generations” are increasingly seen only as hollow information.
The distinction between these two modes of life will be important later. But for now it’s helpful to be reminded that the civil organization and accompanying world-view that has become dominant worldwide—so that it is effectively seen as the only one there is or could be—is in reality not so. Without a doubt, the lifestyle of Settlement has been universally adopted by the human race (the Lapps left the last vestiges of their nomadic lifestyle just a few decades ago, and the Maasi in Africa are under intense pressure to conform to “land-ownership”). This is not surprising, because the dominant features of the Settlement way of life are permanence, continual progress, unceasing expansion, and notably, the insatiable consumption of resources. These traits are generally antagonistic to the Nomadic way of life, which stands in balance and harmony with Heaven and Earth. An interesting parallel is noted in the Sufic tradition regarding the story of Cain and Abel, in that Cain is a farmer and Abel a shepherd. They argue over whom God prefers, and it becomes apparent that God prefers Abel as the fruits of Cain’s labor shrivel in the sun. Cain becomes angry over this, and, well…you know the rest of the story….
"...True huntings over, no herd to follow,
Without game, Men prey on each other
The Family weakens by the bites we swallow."
--"Three Days" by Jane's Addiction
