Quote: (10-15-2016 01:36 AM)roberto Wrote:
I cautiously agree. However, this argument is often used with supporting statistics to promote any viewpont one cares to mention. Common example is polgyamous relationships. People into sort of this are quick to point to Africa and say 'It takes a village to raise a child. When anyone could be the father they are all invested'. My counter argument is that food is abundant, they breed like rats (and die in times of hardship like rats also). Whereas in Northern climates, where food was much scarcer, the pair bonding played a greater role in the formation of that society. As these people built the world we all know today, I think it's safe to say which reproductive strategy advanced mankind the greatest. On balance, and referring back to my cautious agreement, I think humans can adapt faster than they are sometimes given credit for. It just may not be can adaption in the direction that you agree with. We are at a new frontier right now- in a few years time, kids will come of age who have been able to watch hardcore porn for as long as they have been wondering about the birds and the bees. What will they turn out like?
I know nothing about people using my argument (that we're evolved for a more primitive world) to try and prove ridiculous points (such as polygamous societies being superior). You're absolutely right that the "it takes a village...anyone could be the father..." example is quite ridiculous. Anyone who actually believes that is an idiot. However, I don't see how my argument about being evolved for a more (technologically) primitive world could be used to support polygamy and fatherlessness in Africa. Monogamy (true monogamy, not the perversion of monogamy we have today) has been the norm in European societies for millennia; since before Jesus Christ. I also don't have a problem with our colonization of Africa, Christianizing the Africans, and teaching them about monogamy and the family unit.
When I say we're evolved for a "tribal" world, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm against the nation-state. Nations have existed in Europe well before the Industrial Revolution and all this technological advancement. Some people would argue that the problem with nations is that, over time, the nations tend to get bigger and bigger, and there tends to be fewer and fewer of them. Essentially, power gets more and more centralized with time. I would argue, however, that this is only true due to technological advancements, namely automobiles, communication technology (computers and phones) and advanced weaponry. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, nations usually did not grow that big, and national borders were constantly changing. There were many, many small city-states throughout Europe. For a long period of time, Italy and Germany were just made up of lots of little city-states who would often go to war with each other. Large empires surely existed, but usually conquered the lands of primitive Africans and Native Americans (like the British Empire) or conquered mostly uninhabited land (like the Russian Empire). You would have never seen something like today's European Union prior to the Industrial Revolution.
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"I think humans can adapt faster than they are sometimes given credit for"
This is biologically impossible. Maybe you're referring to an individual person adjusting to his surroundings and adjusting (mentally and emotionally) to the modern world. But I am referring to biological evolutionary adaptation of our minds and bodies. The Industrial Revolution happened 200-300 years ago. It is physically impossible for us to have "adapted" to anything, or evolved at all, in such a relatively short amount of time. We are still biologically the same people we were 500, 1000, and even 10,000 years ago.
2) Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Nothing in this world is free. This means that for every benefit we get from technology, we pay for it in one way or another. Take modern medicine for example. It saves lives, but in the long run, it greatly weakens the gene pool. Telephones and computers help us communicate, but they also make it easier for the government to influence and control us. This basic dynamic is true for every single piece of technology out there, even if at first you don't see it.
No generation truly has it better than the last. If anything, each generation probably has it worse than the last. I'm sure many people here have heard someone say "today's working poor live better than a king from 500 years ago." This may be true if one defines "living better" as having access to more advanced technology. However, a counterargument to that would be that an upper-middle class man, or even a rich man, in this day and age has less freedom than a serf from 500 years ago.
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I believe your peasant from 500 years ago may have begged to differ. Many on here have exceptionally free lives as they have seen what opportunities there are, and taken them. The peasant knew nothing other than growing turnip and handing 95% over to the Lord of the Manor.
You're buying in to the media/elites' bullshit. I'm sure that you learned in your school textbook that peasants and serfs were basically slaves who were tortured and killed at the slightest display of insubordination. I'm sure you learned that monarchy is baaaaad, and that most people spent their entire lives obeying the king's every command and kneeling before him, with young women even giving up their virginity to him, out of fear of being killed.
While I'm sure these stories you learned about in school actually happened, it's easy to cherry-pick through thousands of years of history and find stories of monarchies being evil and people not having freedom. What your high school history textbook doesn't cover are the thousands of years when a society was at peace, under a monarchy they respected. Remember when you learned about the ancient Chinese dynasties? Each dynasty lasted several hundreds or thousands of years, until they were overthrown. The reason each dynasty lasted for so long was because the people were satisfied and did not revolt.
Your textbook only covers wars and conflicts, and only the ones they want you to learn about. Did you learn in school about the Barbary Wars that America fought against North African Muslims shortly after the American Revolution? I didn't think so.
Even if a king was evil, people still had more freedom than they do today, simply because the technology to track and control everyone did not exist. There could not be all the laws and regulations we have today, because there would be no way of enforcing them. There could be no wide-spread gun control, because they did not have a database of who owned the guns, and if they tried to confiscate them, entire villages would revolt, and the governments did not have today's advanced weaponry to subdue them.
There is a reason why first-world governments don't get overthrown anymore, and it ain't because we're any more satisfied with our governments than in the past. It's because it has become close to physically impossible to overthrow them, which empowers them to enact whatever laws they want (on behalf of donors and lobbyists).
The peasant or serf from 500 years ago also didn't have to deal with living in a society where everyone was brainwashed by the mainstream media and would then go out and vote for the next king based on who the media told them to vote for. They didn't have to marry sluts. They didn't have to accept their daughters were going to experiment with sex before marriage, and they didn't risk life in jail for marrying their daughter off at 14 to a good man. There were no lifelong criminal records database that ruins your life if you committed a petty crime in your youth.
I could go on and on. Sure, technology has made our lives easier. The serf from 500 years ago had a rougher life, obviously. But he was also
freer to make decisions in his life without societal and/or governmental interference.
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Technology can be used as a measure of 'living better' as it provides opportunity and knowledge. However, it is self-limiting- as technology develops, every modern day peasant has access to it.
Not sure I understand what you mean by that.