The autonomous vs. the obedient, the generalist vs. the specialist, the rural vs. the urban, the left vs. the right – these are all just variations on the same basic hunter-gatherer theme
And admitting that this isn’t where the article is pointing but taking the liberty anyway…A.M. Hickman wondered recently an idea that I was sure I was alone in having, that maybe why the west stays so angry at Iran/various Stans is that they’re the only places with real shepherds left.
Edward Abbey used to chuck empty beer cans out the window, saying that the can was nothing compared to the road. The machine has a way, intentionally or not, of making it nigh impossible for nature to flow. It’s like a dam in so many ways. Where nature can’t flow, a hunter-gatherer is just a wistful abstraction, a lifestyle but not a necessity. An cultural anachronism like cowboys wearing boots…the west kills off real shepherds as fast as they spring up.
Excellent post. This is one of my favorite subjects.
I truly believe that the majority of modern errors of thought (and probably all of the existential angst) are a result of not being fully integrated in the ancestral environment, particularly the simple HG system.
We have an ancestral shaped hole in our lives, and right now it is being filled with many poor replacements.
And admitting that this isn’t where the article is pointing but taking the liberty anyway…A.M. Hickman wondered recently an idea that I was sure I was alone in having, that maybe why the west stays so angry at Iran/various Stans is that they’re the only places with real shepherds left.
Edward Abbey used to chuck empty beer cans out the window, saying that the can was nothing compared to the road. The machine has a way, intentionally or not, of making it nigh impossible for nature to flow. It’s like a dam in so many ways. Where nature can’t flow, a hunter-gatherer is just a wistful abstraction, a lifestyle but not a necessity. An cultural anachronism like cowboys wearing boots…the west kills off real shepherds as fast as they spring up.
Excellent post. This is one of my favorite subjects.
I truly believe that the majority of modern errors of thought (and probably all of the existential angst) are a result of not being fully integrated in the ancestral environment, particularly the simple HG system.
We have an ancestral shaped hole in our lives, and right now it is being filled with many poor replacements.
Thank you for this post.