Mankind is a funny creature, we like to think we are so far above everything else but I really wonder about that perception. This week two news stories really contrast each other in a very interesting way. First is the story about the 'lost tribe' in the jungles of Brazil. It is possible they are saying that these people have never had contact with the out side world. First I have to rant about the 'lost' title, I don't think they are lost, they are probably exactly where they want to be I would assume. Just because they are not mindlessly watching TV in between shopping at Wal-Mart and eating fatty fast food does not make them lost. I feel sorry for them now, imagine all the people who want to go and try to change their way of living, from the pressure of getting money to converting them to the latest religion. Maybe they have had contact with us at one time, said "no thanks" and keep moving away to not be in contact with us! Could you blame them, the first thing modern man would do is make them lose their ability to fend for themselves, then because they are not educated, people would stick them in a slum somewhere, not sure how that is a better way of life.
It is interesting to think of a tribe of people who are living the same way they have for thousands of years, that nothing has changed much for them from the days when people lived in caves. It is shocking to us in the western countries to think in this day with computers and cell phones that there could be people like this. We automatically think that we are better than them, that they are somehow less than us, almost like an animal, but are we really better. We think they would be so lost in our world, however how long do you think one of us would last if dropped into the jungle with no tools of any sort. This brings me to the second story and that is of the probe that just landed on Mars. We see the pictures traveling back through space of another planet and when you think about it, that is quite an awesome feat. To send a small ship through space, at a distance that we can't wrap our minds around, to land on a strange planet while being directed from here. Very breath taking to think in the last few years, man made objects have been flying through the skies of Mars where nothing from the beginning of time has ever moved before, other than dust from the wind. It shows what mankind can do when we put our collective heads together to create something wonderful. Think of the contrast between the group of people in the control room, the people who designed/built the probe, the math freaks who had it fly and land there without missing Mars by a million miles, compared to the people in the rain forest.
Back to my point about us thinking we are better than the people of the forest, yes we know it is wrong to think that way but deep down most of us would see ourselves as being above them, that is why there is this fascination with them and a need amongst some people to 'modernize' them. We would like to think of ourselves as having more in common with the people who sent the probe to Mars than the people in the forest, but do we really? As a society we like to think we are very advanced, even over our grandparents time but it has not come from evolving into a superior human over people like the tribe, we just have more knowledge collectively of how things work. However most of 'us' only have a very basic understanding and would be in trouble fast if required to use our knowledge. Imagine if suddenly a very deadly virus broke out, one so deadly like never before. Lets say extremely contagious and people died within a week, what if also it was so bad that only one person in hundred thousand survived. Now suddenly the living could not keep up with all the sick and dead, things would start to break down. People would have to leave the cities because of the bodies. Fires would start and without someone to stop them the cities would burn. Unless you were the correct type of engineer, could any of us keep power stations running, water treatment plants, hospitals, fuel refineries. No power means no computers for knowledge, no working appliances, fires mean loss of a lot of records. Once things settled and it could take years to recover, the world would be a very changed place, the people left would have to just concentrate on feeding themselves. How many of us know how to build an engine, a light bulb, create power or anything about medicine? Society would have completely fallen apart and we would be back to scratching out a living from the earth, so I ask you, how different, advanced, superior are we over the people in the forest, it is surprising to see, not as much as we would like to think.
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4 comments:
Interesting too that if a global catastrophe destroyed 'civilization,' these jungle folk could be in a significantly superior position, at least temporarily.
The very technology that sets us apart could end up exposing our ultimate vulnerability. I suspect there would be enough residual population left, though, for a semblance of civilization to return fairly fast.
I have mixed feelings about newly discovered tribal people and societies. In some ways I think they're superior.
We're not superior to them, just different and differently raised. I feel sorry for those people. First of all, that plane clearly scared the crap out of them, since it kept passing over, and they felt the need to go put on what apparently is war paint and then shoot arrows at it. There's nothing good about scaring them that way!
And as for your point about people getting to them, you're probably right. I wouldn't be surprised if some ridiculous missionary type is right now planning to go try to convert and "civilize" them. Sad.
What brings change in any group of humans is communication. A single person possessed of the greatest knowledge is meaningless without a way to transmit that knowledge.
The tribe in Brazil will inevitably change with communication with other societies. In the apocalypse you describe, communication would be necessary to transfer the knowledge required to maintain whatever was needed for survival. This is the way of the world, good and bad.
Communication has sped past our ability to accommodate the knowledge transmitted. We are now like the tribe in Brazil will be, pedaling as fast as we can to deal with the ramifications of information being used in ways that come at great cost to societies, our environments, and our souls. This is the great moral struggle of the Information Age.
As a race, I think the biggest misconception is that there is (or should be) one *best* way to live...and most of our problems are born in the struggle to make other people think like you. If you haven't, read "Ishmael," "My Ishmael," and "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn. You don't need a "lost" civilization in the jungles to shoe you that there is no one right way for humans to live; look at city slickers and farmers. Learning and embracing our differences is what will empower all of us, unlocking the next steps in our evolution as humans. We have gone far when we can see that we are right where we started.
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