I agree that what we need is courage; however, I think we err when we think the diseased state of civilization is not a relatively recent, in terms of the life of humanity, perversion of ancient, deeply evolve values and principles.
I disagree with this comment: "The transition into a healthy and harmonious world will be a great leap into the complete unknown, because it will be a shift into something that has never existed on this planet before. That leap will not be made until we are ready to make it, come what may." We know a great deal, through anthropological and archeological science, about the 300,000 yrs of homo sapien evolution and the radical shift about 12,000 yrs ago from a "healthy and harmonious" world of equality, sharing, and non-violence (no lethal group conflict for 300,000 yrs shows up, while thousands of cases after the shift to "civilization.), which prevailed.
But with the new inventions of a shift to a sedentary, settled lifestyle, came exploitation and war. The primary invention was property, which led to haves and have not, ie inequality, economic classes, then masters and slaves, the rule of the masters in the state, with religion to justify the rule of the masters (divine authorization), and war to seize the "property" of others. These invented institutions did not exit in the prior 300,000 yrs and mark the beginning of the end for a healthy and harmonious world, leading to a world of power, destruction, and dysfunction.
To regain that world, first we must study our past to understand its values of equality and sharing and non-violence; only when we understand our long evolutionary legacy, which has been betrayed, can we begin to reclaim it. I would argue that democratic socialism, egalitarianism, veganism, and pacifism are all echoes of our lost past.
And so let us have the courage to admit that we are living in contradiction to our evolutionary heritage of inborn trust, altruism, and cooperation,as a way to break away from the traditions we have adopted (tradition has the same roots as betrayal) and work to reclaim our evolutionary true selves, with a civilization based on our roots in cooperation and equality, as the foundation of creating a world that reclaims our ancient rights. This is a vision that Marx, in his wisest formulation, expressed as a society in which each gave according to his abilities, and each received according to his needs. This is not a utopian vision but rather a memory of what we have lost.
>>"...only when we understand our long evolutionary legacy, which has been betrayed, can we begin to reclaim it."
Yes, Dale, you can wait until the end of eternity to "UNDERSTAND IT", while other people take concrete ACTION right NOW to combat the evils of our time.
But sure, go ahead and pontificate and 'virtue signal' from the comfort of your home if that is what you desire (and what seems to make you happy).
It's not a dream but a realization that we have an evolutionary legacy in our DNA (Neuroscientists report that trust, altruism, and cooperation are inherited traits) that we can reclaim if we are to end our alienation from our own inner evolved nature. It's not a dream but a memory of what is possible, and thus a platform for action, not to realize a dream but to reclaim a birthright.
I love the idea. It just seems like such a remote possibility, considering the stranglehold that TPTB have over us, especially including the media. I like your optimism, though.
Joni Mitchell: We've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Half a century later and we've just gotten farther and farther away from the vision we had.
Revolutions happen all the time. The Chinese Revolution that brought the Communists to power, after a chaotic start,has now produced a state that has doubled life expectancy, raised per capital income from $200 a yr to $12,000 (which is worth, in purchasing power, 3 times as much) and is amazing the world with its economic and technological achievements, a socialist nation, using the private sector to help build the wealth needed for a communist society, on the path to an advanced communism that, in an advanced world, reclaims the values of the primitive communism of the 300,000 yrs of homo sapien evolution. The powers that be want us to believe that change is not possible, but they would not do that if they did not know that change is the one contact of history. My mission is to help people understand what is necessary to act to reclaim our birthright, that we are, in fact, evolved as a cooperative people, with inherited trust, altruism, and cooperation, and that slavery and war only were invented, with the invention of private property, about 10,000 yrs ago, after 300,000 yrs of primitive communism, which was egalitarian, sharing, and without war. Until we understand we are evolved to live in such a world, we will never understand how to reclaim it....
I would say that both cooperation and violence are part of our DNA, as we see in chimpanzees, our closest relatives. If violence were not part of our DNA then agriculture and organized civilization would not have led to war. https://www.history.com/articles/when-did-humans-start-waging-wars
The Chinese Revolution hurt many fine educated people. The current regime destroyed Tibetan culture, oppresses the Uighur people and regularly threatens Taiwan.
I just ordered the book, The Paradox of Goodness, which deals with this paradox. The author studied chimps with Jane Goodel for decades. I want to read it to challenge my thesis that we evolved for 300,000 yrs without ANY (zero...pretty compelling data) lethal group conflict. Then with the new inventions of property and inequality, masters and slaves, classes and hiararchis, top-down rule, religion, and war, everything changed.
Neurotscientists report that we still have the old DNA in us, tho we are manipulated into betrayng it by fighting wars, etc. Trust is inherited; distrust must be learned. That tells us that our older inheritance still dominates and that if we "alter or abolish (to cite the Declaration of INdependence justiyng revolution) " our institutions, we can overcome the alienation we experience by living in contradiction to our evolutionary nature as sharing peaceful beings, born to trust, by replacing property, inequality, hierarchy, and violence with the values still intact in our DNA, based on trust, altrusim, an cooperation....and in this revolution and reclaiming of values that we inherited from those 300,000 yrs, we can overcome the fabricated "nature" that we are molded into from birth, teaching us to hate, to distrust, to compete, to fight. I am open to being persuaded otherwise, which is why I am going to read the man who studies chimps, but we have as much in common with bonobos who are a peaceful primate. "bonobos are notably peaceful and cooperative, especially compared to their close relatives, chimpanzees. And genetically, we share about 98.7–99% of our DNA with bonobos—roughly the same amount as with chimpanzees. But behaviorally, the differences are stark.
✅ Bonobo behavior: peaceful and cooperative
Bonobos are often described as the most egalitarian and least violent of the great apes:
Low aggression: Bonobos rarely engage in lethal violence. Male dominance is weak, and there’s no known case of a bonobo killing another bonobo in the wild—a striking contrast to chimps.
Female cooperation: Females form strong coalitions that curb male aggression and reduce dominance hierarchies.
Conflict resolution through sex: Bonobos use sexual behavior (including same-sex interactions) to diffuse tension, form bonds, and resolve conflict—a unique trait among primates.
Food sharing: They're more likely to share food with unrelated individuals than chimpanzees, and even with strangers in lab experiments." To claim we are lie chimps is to deny that homo sapien evolution, for 95% of its duration, was bonobo-like, not chimp like,is to recognize the truth, as I see it, base on the evidence of centuries of peaceful bonobo like behavior, which favored survival and today, even more so.
I agree that what we need is courage; however, I think we err when we think the diseased state of civilization is not a relatively recent, in terms of the life of humanity, perversion of ancient, deeply evolve values and principles.
I disagree with this comment: "The transition into a healthy and harmonious world will be a great leap into the complete unknown, because it will be a shift into something that has never existed on this planet before. That leap will not be made until we are ready to make it, come what may." We know a great deal, through anthropological and archeological science, about the 300,000 yrs of homo sapien evolution and the radical shift about 12,000 yrs ago from a "healthy and harmonious" world of equality, sharing, and non-violence (no lethal group conflict for 300,000 yrs shows up, while thousands of cases after the shift to "civilization.), which prevailed.
But with the new inventions of a shift to a sedentary, settled lifestyle, came exploitation and war. The primary invention was property, which led to haves and have not, ie inequality, economic classes, then masters and slaves, the rule of the masters in the state, with religion to justify the rule of the masters (divine authorization), and war to seize the "property" of others. These invented institutions did not exit in the prior 300,000 yrs and mark the beginning of the end for a healthy and harmonious world, leading to a world of power, destruction, and dysfunction.
To regain that world, first we must study our past to understand its values of equality and sharing and non-violence; only when we understand our long evolutionary legacy, which has been betrayed, can we begin to reclaim it. I would argue that democratic socialism, egalitarianism, veganism, and pacifism are all echoes of our lost past.
And so let us have the courage to admit that we are living in contradiction to our evolutionary heritage of inborn trust, altruism, and cooperation,as a way to break away from the traditions we have adopted (tradition has the same roots as betrayal) and work to reclaim our evolutionary true selves, with a civilization based on our roots in cooperation and equality, as the foundation of creating a world that reclaims our ancient rights. This is a vision that Marx, in his wisest formulation, expressed as a society in which each gave according to his abilities, and each received according to his needs. This is not a utopian vision but rather a memory of what we have lost.
>>"...only when we understand our long evolutionary legacy, which has been betrayed, can we begin to reclaim it."
Yes, Dale, you can wait until the end of eternity to "UNDERSTAND IT", while other people take concrete ACTION right NOW to combat the evils of our time.
But sure, go ahead and pontificate and 'virtue signal' from the comfort of your home if that is what you desire (and what seems to make you happy).
Ah, the hater is back.
Weak comeback Dale Ruff, try again.
A beautiful dream.
It's not a dream but a realization that we have an evolutionary legacy in our DNA (Neuroscientists report that trust, altruism, and cooperation are inherited traits) that we can reclaim if we are to end our alienation from our own inner evolved nature. It's not a dream but a memory of what is possible, and thus a platform for action, not to realize a dream but to reclaim a birthright.
I love the idea. It just seems like such a remote possibility, considering the stranglehold that TPTB have over us, especially including the media. I like your optimism, though.
Joni Mitchell: We've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Half a century later and we've just gotten farther and farther away from the vision we had.
Revolutions happen all the time. The Chinese Revolution that brought the Communists to power, after a chaotic start,has now produced a state that has doubled life expectancy, raised per capital income from $200 a yr to $12,000 (which is worth, in purchasing power, 3 times as much) and is amazing the world with its economic and technological achievements, a socialist nation, using the private sector to help build the wealth needed for a communist society, on the path to an advanced communism that, in an advanced world, reclaims the values of the primitive communism of the 300,000 yrs of homo sapien evolution. The powers that be want us to believe that change is not possible, but they would not do that if they did not know that change is the one contact of history. My mission is to help people understand what is necessary to act to reclaim our birthright, that we are, in fact, evolved as a cooperative people, with inherited trust, altruism, and cooperation, and that slavery and war only were invented, with the invention of private property, about 10,000 yrs ago, after 300,000 yrs of primitive communism, which was egalitarian, sharing, and without war. Until we understand we are evolved to live in such a world, we will never understand how to reclaim it....
I would say that both cooperation and violence are part of our DNA, as we see in chimpanzees, our closest relatives. If violence were not part of our DNA then agriculture and organized civilization would not have led to war. https://www.history.com/articles/when-did-humans-start-waging-wars
The Chinese Revolution hurt many fine educated people. The current regime destroyed Tibetan culture, oppresses the Uighur people and regularly threatens Taiwan.
I just ordered the book, The Paradox of Goodness, which deals with this paradox. The author studied chimps with Jane Goodel for decades. I want to read it to challenge my thesis that we evolved for 300,000 yrs without ANY (zero...pretty compelling data) lethal group conflict. Then with the new inventions of property and inequality, masters and slaves, classes and hiararchis, top-down rule, religion, and war, everything changed.
Neurotscientists report that we still have the old DNA in us, tho we are manipulated into betrayng it by fighting wars, etc. Trust is inherited; distrust must be learned. That tells us that our older inheritance still dominates and that if we "alter or abolish (to cite the Declaration of INdependence justiyng revolution) " our institutions, we can overcome the alienation we experience by living in contradiction to our evolutionary nature as sharing peaceful beings, born to trust, by replacing property, inequality, hierarchy, and violence with the values still intact in our DNA, based on trust, altrusim, an cooperation....and in this revolution and reclaiming of values that we inherited from those 300,000 yrs, we can overcome the fabricated "nature" that we are molded into from birth, teaching us to hate, to distrust, to compete, to fight. I am open to being persuaded otherwise, which is why I am going to read the man who studies chimps, but we have as much in common with bonobos who are a peaceful primate. "bonobos are notably peaceful and cooperative, especially compared to their close relatives, chimpanzees. And genetically, we share about 98.7–99% of our DNA with bonobos—roughly the same amount as with chimpanzees. But behaviorally, the differences are stark.
✅ Bonobo behavior: peaceful and cooperative
Bonobos are often described as the most egalitarian and least violent of the great apes:
Low aggression: Bonobos rarely engage in lethal violence. Male dominance is weak, and there’s no known case of a bonobo killing another bonobo in the wild—a striking contrast to chimps.
Female cooperation: Females form strong coalitions that curb male aggression and reduce dominance hierarchies.
Conflict resolution through sex: Bonobos use sexual behavior (including same-sex interactions) to diffuse tension, form bonds, and resolve conflict—a unique trait among primates.
Food sharing: They're more likely to share food with unrelated individuals than chimpanzees, and even with strangers in lab experiments." To claim we are lie chimps is to deny that homo sapien evolution, for 95% of its duration, was bonobo-like, not chimp like,is to recognize the truth, as I see it, base on the evidence of centuries of peaceful bonobo like behavior, which favored survival and today, even more so.