Quote:
Originally Posted by marvin /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm about a generation or two removed from a subsistence farming existence, and may still be there if it wasn't for the Vietnam War. It's not nearly as rosy as a picture as your imagination would have it. And those South American natives? Yeah, a few millennia behind that. Screw that. I'd take our modern technological society any day of the week.
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Well i disagree that a technologically advanced society is a necessarily happier one. Sure, we like indoor plumbing, central heat and air, and the information superhighway. I could never be happy without those things having had them all my life (well, not the information superhighway).
My point is that those societies that still exist as they have for thousands of years, in a hunter/gatherer community where everyone contributes in a meaningful way to the group as a whole, do not have the problems that our modern world has. Problems like chronic depression, obesity,pedaphelia, drug addiction, domestic voilence and many more I can't think of at a quarter to midnight. Are they a perfect utopia? Of course not. But the world we have made for ourselves is only better to us because that's what we are used to.
I don't have a rosy picture in my mind of a group of modern people eeking out a meager existence from a patch of land that barely allows for survival of a small group in an overpopluated region. In Southeast Asia that kind of living is surely unsustainable and I'm sincerely happy that Vietnam, in particular, has raised it's standard of living significantly over the past 30 years. I have a close friend that is Vietmanese. His name is Hoan Nguyen, and he is an IT professional who trained me in my current job. He lives in a half million dollar home close to lake Travis in Austin, TX. He grew up in Houston, about as poor as anyone in Houston TX was in the 1970's. The guy is living the American dream and I'm truly happy that I live in a place where hard work and perseverance can give you the life you want and opportunities for progress exist. He's an inspiration to me.
There are plenty of regions where people work like slaves all day every day just to put food on the table, and that's it. Africa is riddled with such poverty stricken places. The problems of those places can usually be traced to greedy and corrupt governments.
What Fight Club said to me was: There was a time when humans were as free and happy as is likely possible. That time has passed, and now the freedom and happiness is only possible for the fortunate few who are not burdened by the need to get up and go to a job that we don't like so that we can pay or mortgage and bills. There are some who have enough money to just say, "I think I'll take a year off and work on my putting". Those folks have freedom that most of us in the modern world will not have until we're old and retired. My friend Hoan is not quite that free but he's a lot closer that I am.
My reference to the Amazon natives is that they are very close to that freedom. Their jungle and it's rivers provide more than enough food. Those cultures don't have to work 12 hours a day to feed themselves. They probably enjoy more leisure time than many of us 40 hour work week guys do. That's what I mean when I say that they are probably happier as a whole. And "as a whole" is a key phrase here. Our modern societies have millions of people that are very happy with their lives. But then take a drive to an inner city gheto or look at how many people we have locked up in prisons. The segment of our society that is not making it, probably makes up a much larger percentage than that of the native Amazons.
Ok. Well it's late and the teleprompter just went blank.
