Great piece. Morality existing before language is a crucial point to me. I am also a systems thinker and believe ancient humanity had a much stronger sense of our place within the system of nature. On a gut level you knew if what you are doing is wrong because it boils down to if your actions are aligned with the success of the wider group or not. But now we have largely abstracted away our ability to feel the direct consequences of our actions as a species. Selfish people were a threat to the cohesion of the entire tribe in the past and would have to be dealt with somehow in the past, but modern culture rewards them for it. Our tribe is now 8 billion strong and selfishness rules our species and it has been a disaster. How do we go back.
We have to scale up the truth and method that gets rid of short-sighted, ignorant, and egotistical behavior/ tribalism and shout it from the rooftops. The good news is that every new generation grows more hostile towards and alienated with these delusional worldviews and ways of life which originated in an entitled and ignorant complacency exhibited by older generations.
Let's just make sure we don't join that lot while aiming at leaving a positive ledger through our own personal existence. In the end, the real fight of our time is increasing global capacity for adaptive curiosity while combatting destructive and ignorant fear. What we need is compassionate but causally ruthless information in our own societies, where necessary outright condemnation and a steadfast vigilant defense when threatened by traumatised, fear-ridden nations.
Great piece. Morality existing before language is a crucial point to me. I am also a systems thinker and believe ancient humanity had a much stronger sense of our place within the system of nature. On a gut level you knew if what you are doing is wrong because it boils down to if your actions are aligned with the success of the wider group or not. But now we have largely abstracted away our ability to feel the direct consequences of our actions as a species. Selfish people were a threat to the cohesion of the entire tribe in the past and would have to be dealt with somehow in the past, but modern culture rewards them for it. Our tribe is now 8 billion strong and selfishness rules our species and it has been a disaster. How do we go back.
We have to scale up the truth and method that gets rid of short-sighted, ignorant, and egotistical behavior/ tribalism and shout it from the rooftops. The good news is that every new generation grows more hostile towards and alienated with these delusional worldviews and ways of life which originated in an entitled and ignorant complacency exhibited by older generations.
Let's just make sure we don't join that lot while aiming at leaving a positive ledger through our own personal existence. In the end, the real fight of our time is increasing global capacity for adaptive curiosity while combatting destructive and ignorant fear. What we need is compassionate but causally ruthless information in our own societies, where necessary outright condemnation and a steadfast vigilant defense when threatened by traumatised, fear-ridden nations.