Life as an adventure

[auroraglacialis]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Fair enough on evolution then. Humans have evolved to a certain environment and lifestyle, yes, but then again, humans that are close enough to be fully biologically compatible are still found anywhere from the arctic to rainforest to deserts to cities, with only minor differences.

Well the extent of that differences is probably subjective. I would say the development of a white skin is very much a large difference and an adaptation to the darker climate zones up North. [To make sure no one misunderstands this - this kind of adaptation does not generally mean an overall fitness or superiority - it merely is a value neutral adaptation to the circumstances - white colored people in turn have sever problems in areas with more sunshine]. Other differences are adaptations to other influences of the region while others may be merely random - as long as they do not have a negative effect, evolution will not remove these traits.
Interestingl there are already 2 adaptations to a "civilized" lifestyle that developed over a long time - the ability of some humans to eat wheat (gluten) and to drink milk (lactose). But these things develop over a very long time and only if evolution is allowed to run its course, which in turn is something we do not really like to see in respect of humans (we'd hate to see a fellow human die because of lacking the adaptation of lactose or gluten tolerance). It certainly is a dilemma that we have stopped or changed the course of human evolution in a way that does not allow adaptation to the new circumstances by our desire to help others. Still, this means that we as humans are due to this feature and due to the rapid changes in our self-created environment not well adapted to that environment but rather remain in our bodies and in our brains tuned in to the way of life our distant ancestors lived - to a world filled with living beings, to a "life of adventure", to sharing with our kin and defending against unknown enemies, to eating and exercising in a certain way. It would be foolish to ignore our ties to that and claim that we are some kind of real Homo sapiens industriens that differs vastly in anything but the set of memes, the culture we live in from our "primitive" ancestors or present day aboriginal people.
Sadly it is these memes however that destroy our world right now and they have to go away and be replaced with a set of memes that are more evolved to living on a finite and living world. If it turns out that these memes, this culture then is compatible with anything we consider an achievement right now is only seen as a result of that change. My take is that a lot of the things we consider normal will look insane, as they do to present day aboriginal people. Others may well persist. But I think that this change is more important than to cling to these achievements, which is what I mean with the distinction of primary versus secondary.

I do not think that prioritizing any of it is implying that they are exclusive. i can well have a job and have children. But I can have a priority - I can prefer children over job or job over children and that will influence me in the kind of job I do, the region I desire to live in, the family bonds I keep up or - when it comes to it - actually deciding upon an either/or question. To prioritize means of course that one can have both if it is possible but it also means that when decisions have to be made, the priorities would play a role or even be decisive. So if it is clean water for the fellow peoples of an indigenous person in Alberta or enough oil to drive cars, then he probably will prefer clean water. And what happens now is a whole lot of these decisions. The only reason "we" can decide the way we do and choose in favour of that oil to drive that car is because we are removed from the consequences of our actions - these consequences are paid by the Alberta indians and by indigenous all over the world - and of course by all the nonhuman beings - and at the end of the "cycle of life" they will with a long delay also hit us or our descendants (in the shape of climate change).

So what I mean with the prioritization is that we should not value the gadgets and advances we have over life or other human beings. I know I am hypocritical again because I also use transportation driven by oil and I heat my warm water with oil and I use a computer that probably is made from copper from destructive mining in South America, "Blood Gold", and devastating rare Earth mining in China and all that - but that is the situation I am in now, so I try to deal with it, but I try to raise awareness that the way we live, also the way I live myself is a privilege built on the suffering and blood of humans and nonhumans and that if it is my priority to stop that suffering, I (and others) will eventually have to "give up" the things that are so destructive, even if that means that some things have to go away that we got used to in our priviledged lives.
Maybe we even can or have to prioritize in that area then - I certainly would rather give up personal computers, a TV and a car than medical help in emergencies for example.
So I think choosing priorities is a very valid and important thing to do and it cannot only encompass our own lives but they have to stretch far beyond that because in the end, we are "all sitting in the same boat"

[redpaintednavi]

Here is another article about how the Hunter Gatherer life-style is a remedy against clinical depressions.

But how are hunter-gatherers able to weather life’s storms so effectively? Based on the available research, it seems that the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is profoundly antidepressant. As they go about their daily lives, they naturally wind up doing things that keep them from getting depressed, things that change the brain more powerfully than any medication. These range from exercising regularly and eating plenty of omega-3 fats to belonging to active social networks and getting enough sleep.

http://experiencelife.com/article/a-...of-depression/