Anthropologist Jane Goodall Poses an Excellent Question
Oooo! Oooo! Call on me!!!
It’s because, along with that superior intellectual capacity, comes some really nasty stuff: greed, tribalism, bigotry, selfishness, credulity, lazy thinking, and an indifference to the suffering of others.
We could be looking at an evolutionary cul-de-sac; it’s possible that we simply didn’t have the genetic equipment to navigate the choppy waters of population growth, the development of nuclear weapons, and demagogues; our governments often wind up being led by the lowest common denominator. We created a civilization, but maybe, due to flaws in our basic nature, we simply weren’t able to make it sustainable.
We need to remain hopeful, though deeply concerned. But more important than our thoughts are our actions; we all need to be involved in turning this around.
Craig,
Now you surprise me! I would have thought you an admirer of Jane Goodall, a primitologist and anthropologist, who favours an ’empathetic’ emotive approach to her studies rather than objectivity and carefully monitored scientific rigor.
Jane Goodall suffers from prosopagnosia, which may account for her love of Chimpanzees.
She also confesses to preferring animals to people and lacking maternal instinct toward her own child in favour of planet saving activities. So maybe, the two of you share a common hatred of the human species and all works? Or, then again, maybe it’s just your puritan education showing through?
Mankind is a wonderfully complex species, there is nothing to “turn around”.
We live and thrive by our advancements and errors. We are inventive, with an ability to retain the best aspects of our ingenuity while reducing, modifying and replacing any negative aspects. it’s not possible to have only the positive without creating downsides.
What really sets humans apart is our faith in hope. The one gift from Pandora’s box that has proved our salvation.
If we discover negative aspects within the aspect of human activity such as the coal industry, we don’t just abandon 40% of the world energy, thereby plunging the world into economic chaos and driving the world’s poorest citizens into even more desperate circumstances. Indeed not! We either find an superior alternative or invent technology to eliminate the negative aspects of coal, without losing the positives! (or both simultaneously).
Our creativity,curiosity and ingenuity is boundless. The human species always sees adversity and downsides as opportunity and a challenge.
Prophets of doom, and alarmists are always proved wrong.