Nature can be quite unforgiving. When life and
death are on the line, nature will grant you no extra chances, show no pity,
make no exceptions. Nature can be cold, uncaring, indifferent to your survival.
At such moments, people have to put aside excuses, realize there is no point in
asking for pity, and do whatever they have to in order to survive. Because
nature simply does not respond to our wish for a kinder, gentler, world. Nature
can often be a jerk.
It is for this reason that humans have created
societies and civilizations, in order to provide some sort of cushion against
unyielding, unforgiving, uncaring nature. Sure, being tough and sucking it up
is one way of dealing with the harshness of nature, but there are a lot easier,
less taxing ways of surviving. It may be manly to learn how to
sleep in an igloo or eat squirrel, but it’s a lot more fun to be civilized and
sleep on a nice warm bed in a climate-controlled house. The civilization we’ve
created offers many perks such as this.
But nature is not always heartless. In fact,
nature often gives humans—and all other species— wondrous blessings from her
bounty. Primitive humans were as likely to come across a field of berries or a
grove of apple trees as they were to come across a period of hunger. They were
as likely to be blessed with more food than they could hope to eat as they were
to go without. Indeed, any primitive human being would have had frequent instances when they were blessed by the generosity of nature: a time
when the river ran thick with salmon, the fields rumbled with the hooves of
bison, the boughs of trees hung low from the amount of fruit they bore.
For primitive man, all that nature gave, it gave
for free. Though effort was sometimes required to harvest or prepare what was
given, no price was placed upon what nature gave. Primitive houses might need
to be built, but there was no charge for the lumber. Water might have to be
carried from one place to another, but nobody had to go into debt to acquire essentials.
And when it came to the non-necessities, those
things we do not need but which make life truly beautiful, nature gave without
asking for anything in return. A person in nature did not have to pay to go to
the beach, nor were beaches deprived them because they were not in possession
of a piece of paper proving ownership of said stretch of waterfront property.
Man could wander where he would without paying tolls, could sleep where he
wished without paying rent, could eat what he wanted without having to pay for
the privilege. Camping out beneath the stars and hanging around the campfire
did not require a park permit or a lot site.
Nevertheless, man realized he could purchase an
insurance policy of sorts against nature by creating societies and civilizations,
and in so doing, reduce the risks of being eaten by a cougar or being undone by a failed
crop. By working together, humanity could absorb the overall costs that would
sometimes be too much for individuals and smaller groups. Groups in areas experiencing
the excess nature often provides would be able to share from their excess with
those experiencing a drought or other misfortune. When this is working well,
humanity is able to thrive.
But somehow it is going all wrong. While society
is still capable of providing wealth and comfort for many, it not only does not
give freely, it no longer allows nature to do so. Visit any place where great
populations of humans are assembled together, and you will soon find that
nothing is available without cost. Whereas nature was often quite generous in
providing food, humanity has replaced that abundance with qualifiers. Yes, you
can have all you care to eat, if you can give something in return. Otherwise,
perhaps you will be able to find something in the garbage of others that will
give you strength to live another day. Yes, you can sleep somewhere, but only
if you can pay for the privilege. Otherwise, police will rouse you from your
sleep upon the cold pavement and send you on your way. Yes, you can live
wherever you like, if you can pay rent to those who have claimed ownership of
the land that once belonged to no one. Your choices of beverages are virtually
endless. If you can pay. Otherwise, even life-giving water is becoming
something which society can no longer provide to all.
You see, capitalists have taken all of nature’s
blessings, of God’s blessings, and claimed them for their own. Your very
existence depends upon your ability to increase their wealth. Whether you live
or die does not matter to them, only whether you can increase their bottom
lines or not.
You are now living in an artificial world created
by capitalists. Your connection to others and to the planet is dead. They want you
to think that capitalism is a natural extension of nature. They are very big on
reminding people about the natural law of survival of the fittest and how merciless nature can be, but they are
quite mum when it comes to reminding you of how nature is often quite free with
its gifts. No other species but our own is required to pay for what they
acquire. Even today, there exist cultures living close to nature for whom such
a capitalist system would appear quite unnatural.
The society we created in order to protect
ourselves against the savageries of nature has now become feral as well. It has
devolved from a way of allowing people to work together for the benefit of all
into a jungle in which the strong prey upon the weak.
The lesson the capitalists would have you learn
is that it is up to the parents to protect their children from the dangers the
capitalist system thrusts upon them. It is the parents’ responsibility to shield
their children from the vulgarity and immorality that passes for
culture in a capitalist society. It is the parents’ responsibility to keep
their children away from the unhealthy foods created by corporations, foods that are causing record obesity and diabetes in children. Short of kidnapping
your children, the capitalist advertisers do everything in their power to
insure your children spend their (your) money on things that are neither good
for them nor for society. But the blame is all yours should they succeed.
But this is not the way our primitive ancestors
would have dealt with this threat. They would have taught their children to stay
away from danger, yes, but when there was a dangerous beast lurking nearby, they
understood something had to be done about it. They set traps, or they hunted it
down and killed it. Primitive man did not hesitate to neutralize a problem that
threatened their children. Not so in a capitalist society. Children of a
primitive culture were never threatened by the dangers of obesity, diabetes,
corporate branding, and a host of other ills foisted upon them by corporate
marketing. But the answer is always to blame the parent, never the
corporations.
There are very few threats we face from nature,
nowadays. Humanity has created technology that has allowed us to grow more food
than we know what to do with, to provide shelter and clothing to all. The main
threats to our children now are the ones created by us, by people looking to enrich
themselves at the expense of others. Predatory capitalism is the most prevalent
manifestation of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. We must learn from our
ancestors how to protect ourselves, our children, and our very species from the
threat of such predation. We must create civil structures strong enough to
defend against predators, and we must do whatever it takes to remove such
threats from prowling around wherever our children, our elderly, and ourselves are potential prey.
