It has been quite hot here lately in the northeastern United States. I am most grateful the house I am renting has central air conditioning. The unit hasn’t been very reliable though. I have a window air conditioner and ceiling fans for back up. Unlike most modern office buildings I have another option. I have window screens.
There was a time before window screens. A time when the thatch of the shelter might need some adjustment to let in more cooling breezes. I wish I could live like that.
Of course, I could live like that. I don’t think I would last very long however. Friends and families would think I had lost my mind.
There are of course millions of people living this way today. We mainly call them homeless, recreational hikers or indigenous people. I can get all romantic about learning how to be comfortable living off of the electrical grid. No way am I going to try it.
There was a time when men were accepting of annoying insects, pooping in a hole and foraging for food. Few today choose such circumstances. We have long lost the skills that can make such a lifestyle enjoyable. We have long lost the supportive communities required.
One way to look at this problem is the problem with men loving technology. Men have long ago given up on the notion that we are provided at birth with all we need to survive and thrive in Nature.
Loving technology leads to men becoming lazy, unappreciative of Nature’s gifts and ignorant or in denial, regarding the toxic side effect of all forms of technology.
Imagine a world without fire-related technology, without wheels, sharpened sticks or chipped rock. There would be no easy way to eat meat, move heavy loads, or defend yourself from other humans who had sharp sticks and rocks with manufactured edges who wanted to steal your stuff.
In such a world you might be amazed at the range of temperature conditions that human beings can thrive in well beyond the 68 F to 72 F of today. You might be amazed at how humans can read signs in the sky, interpret wind directions and atmospheric conditions to know when it is time to get moving to avoid trying to live outside of this increased comfort zone.
When it is time to move there is no packing involved. Also remember there no wheels, or carts. Let’s add no domesticated animals either. There are no stockpiles of plants to eat in need of moving. No agricultural fields to abandon. In this world, the only eating is of plants picked at the right time, from natural occurring ecosystems. Seeded plants are made to be eaten and internally transported to open spaces by humans that add a dollop of fertilizer to the seeds as they are excreted.
We would find that human feet perform quite well without shoes or sandals. Dirt and fellow humans happy to offer grooming services, take care of unwanted insects quite nicely. Infections are just temporary imbalances in bacteria and viral and other particles that can’t be seen with Nature at the ready with medicines.
In this world, people get eaten by other animals sometimes and fall off of cliffs to their demise. This helps to relieve the weak of their existence and remind others to be careful where they walk.
The desire to have the technology to eliminate death hasn’t worked out too well yet. It has rather added human suffering at the mass level greatly. Think of the toxic effects of seeking speed and force and power, for the sake of speed and force and power.
Let us come back to the way things are. Human technology has long passed out of human control. Artificial intelligence probably already has the advantage. Artificial intelligence doesn’t care about the worldwide spraying of heavy metals into the sky and the release of countless tons of plastic into the oceans. The masses are buying into the hybridization of silicon with organic tissue. Human genomes are already casually spliced, diced and combined with other elements just to see what might happen.
We may turn to the arts for some sense of escape from the doom and gloom wrought by toxic technology. It won’t work for long. Art is based on the assumption that Nature needs embellishment or tribute via attempts at imitation. It doesn’t.
All art to a greater or lesser degree has its toxic effects on Nature. Think of the toxicities involved with the arts of personal appearance. Nude is not good enough. Multiple, multiple, multiple costume changes are required. Years of lifetimes must be devoted to looking into reflective surfaces to assess the need for hair removal or growth. Plastic cosmetic surgery is increasing a must have. Living human skin with all of its beautiful colorations is less and less valued losing out to the tattoo, the piercing, the branding, the “what mutilation will they think of next.”
I am reluctant to leave this fantasy philosophizing as I am afraid that if I get practical I’ll find myself turning down the air conditioning. I am quite comfortable now sitting here typing in my bathrobe and soon I must go and brush my teeth, as I don’t want to offend anyone by the smell of my breath, so I don’t really want to be messing with the air conditioner.
I guess one way out of this is for me to encourage men to celebrate their choices to protect and more fully appreciate the natural over the technological and artistic when they are able to make such a choice. Consider using technology reluctantly without worshiping it. Celebrate when art deepens your appreciation of Nature and leads you to a more direct encounter with Nature, rather than more art. Consider complimenting someone for their Natural appearance.
I am sorry that I used this keyboard and all sorts of other technologies to reach out and communicate with you today. I would have preferred telepathy, but I don’t know how to do that. I hope that something here resonates with something you already believe in.
May this resonance contribute to the application of powers far beyond the technological dreams of men, to make right what we have allowed to slip away, in terms of just being overwhelmed with the beauty of Nature, beyond any need for toxic technology and art.
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Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash