Humans Rule The World - Our
Cultural Belief
When our culture
decided that man should rule the world the world did not agree. It fought back.
Man used to eat whatever the earth provided for him. But then our culture decided that full-time agriculture was the best way to feed the people as we set out on our mission to gain mastery of the planet. Rather than supplying a fruitful abundance with little effort the world attempted to thwart us at every turn.
Weeds and pests conspired to take our crops, wolves and foxes stole our livestock. The jungles and forests encroached on our fields. Agriculture wasn't easy. It required long hours of back-breaking labour to defy nature and grow our food.
Man used to build houses out of earth materials - mud bricks and wood. But then we decided that we needed something much more grand, something befitting our species whose job is to rule the world. So we built with stone and with timber, to separate ourselves from the environment. But the elements didn't surrender and let these buildings stand without a fight. The wind, the rain and the sun chipped away, never letting the buildings rest in peace.
The rest of nature did not accept our self proclaimed destiny to rule the world.
The forests did not recede at our command, the oceans did not part, and floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and droughts did not stop.
The world carried on as it always had.
When the earth did not meekly submit to our rule there was only one thing our culture could do. We had to conquer it and force it to submit to our will.
Amongst tribal people there is no conception that mankind must rule the world and thus there is no belief that we must conquer it.
But our culture believes that we rule the world. And since the world does not agree we shall make it agree. You will hear this everywhere you go in our culture. "Man is conquering mountains, conquering oceans, conquering disease, and conquering hunger."
But this doesn't strike anybody as odd in our culture because this, we are told, is what man has been preordained to do.
Our Rule Is Ruining The Earth
However this is just a cultural story. We are no more destined to conquer the world than phytoplankton or three-toed sloth are. This cultural belief has led us to wage war against the planet and we have brought her to her knees. The earth is suffering under our rule.
But when we look around at the havoc we have wrought and we ask ourselves why we are destroying the world mother culture's answer is never the truth. Instead of saying we are destroying the world because we are trying to conquer it mother culture tells us we are destroying the world because haven't conquered it enough.
The myth says that if we carry on conquering the world we will eventually obtain complete control. And when we gain complete control then the world will be a paradise. When we have limitless energy, limitless food production and control over the weather and the elements, then the earth will be perfect. But until that day comes we will just have to accept that there will be a degree of destruction.
Destruction is an inevitable result when a species tries to gain control of a planet but mother culture tells us that the only thing holding us back is the fact that humanity is flawed. We should have created a paradise, all the mastery we have should have made things perfect, but human nature, as it is, keeps screwing it up. This is how we explain away disease, poverty, war and inequality. Humanity's lust for power, it's greed, it's short-sightedness, it's stupidity, all thwart the paradise we should supposedly have.
Mother culture says we have not conquered the world enough.
So all we can do is keep pressing forward, keep gaining mastery, continue with the quest to rule the world. And blindly hope that one day we reach that paradise.
This mythology is what allows people to talk about deforestation, mass extinction, global warming and overpopulation without worry and without despair. Mother culture has lulled them to sleep with the story that if we just keep on going the way we have been going everything will be okay. Technology science and more mastery of the planet will save us.
But those who have woken up from mother culture know that if we carry on as we have been it will only lead to more destruction and more pain. There is no paradise waiting around the corner. If we want to save ourselves we need to let go of our grip over the planet. We need to relinquish our attempts at mastery and take our place as a creature.
Mankind has lived for a very long time without thinking we needed to rule the world. And contrary to what mother culture says it was actually a very satisfactory lifestyle. Once we can see that holding this belief is just a choice and not something we have to do we then have the ability to let it go.
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