This comment of mine
was not removed, I was just unable
to post it. I emailed Cif twice to ask what the problem was and to
suggest that if they were not opening the piece by Michele Hanson up
for comments they should remove it form Cif and send me her email
address, so that I could send my comment to her personally - but no
response. "One minute most people are
charming, the next the human race seems like nature's freak mistake"
by Michele Hanson (15/07/08) A nice piece, Michele, which rings lots
of bells with me, as I'm sure it does with many other readers.
It is something I have spent a lot of
time thinking about and trying to understand. Basically, I have come to
realise, the problem is this:
The environment in which we now live is
an artificial one, far - very far - removed from the environment in
which human nature and behaviour evolved and are thus adapted to.
This, I am sure, is why we often get
such intense pleasure from experiencing Nature, the
<i>natural environment</i>, as contrasted
with our own, now often so ugly and oppressive, artificial
environment.
Following on from our forebears,
we have created an artificial,
<i>socioeconomic</i>, environment intended
to facilitate its material exploitation in continuing pursuit of our
Darwinian struggle for survival and (reproductive) success (why should
it suddenly stop?), but quite misplaced and now largely reduced to a
struggle for POWER (especially for MONEY, but also for social
and professional status, for the <i>moral high
ground</i>, etc, etc).
What your piece does, Michele, is
report the seemingly harmless (notwithstanding the
<i>killer cyclist</i>) symptoms of a
<i>fatal disease</i> that infects our whole
civilization.
The question is, will we recognise it
and be able to find a cure, before it kills us (our
civilization)?
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