Elasticity of Time

It never ceases to amaze me how variable time is. It seems like Saturday was a week ago, rather than a day or two. Yet, the last few years seem like a month. I'll never quite get used to the lack of linearity in the things that are linear by definition.

In the grand scheme. I think the idea of relative percentage of experience explains why a week or a year seems like eternity to a child. A year might be more than ten or twenty or fifty percent of his total life, depending upon his age. And your whole life is kind of like eternity. I feel like I have always been here because I don't have a sense of any beginning. How could you, really?

I have early memories, but it is not as if that was the beginning. Awareness is a tricky thing, I guess. It seems I was aware of good before I was aware of evil. Maybe kindness and happiness are actually more natural than sadistic oppression and anger. Not that all of it is not in human nature. I think the cultivation of qualities develops with cultural habits. And some things, like anger, tend to feed upon themselves.

NOTE: My facts about the tribe described below are most likely incorrect in the details. The point is still the same. It may be that group in Malaysia that didn't have any cavities.

That tribe which was found maybe forty years ago in some rain forest which had no concept of murder or any of that sort of thing really paints the picture. They were very pretty people, and they had been roaming the rain forest forever. They didn't do any building, farming or much of anything but run around naked, look beautiful, and be content. Enter contact with anthropologists, who, of course, thought it would be great to give them one machete. Adios peaceful, happy culture.

They soon learned about murder, jealousy, greed, etc. That all indicates to me that the out of control, destructive traits are not a requirement for human life, but it doesn't take much for the dark side to have a life of its own in a society. Dumbass behavior is like a virus-it spreads rapidly. Just check out gang areas, and the things that go on with those who truly control power and money. It is dumbass behavior. Religious war is dumbass behavior.

Anyway, it is all continually changing, and what was once one unit can be compressed or stretched, whether we are talking time or beliefs or values, or levels of relative importance. But those who insist that certain behaviors have always been with us as a species, and that they always will, are assuming that they have the whole history of our kind in view.

They may be right, and they may not. Some people don't even remember as far back as one or two years old in their own lives, so they have no clue about when they became jerks. How can they assume mankind never did anything but defend against, or be controlled by, jerks?

They don't know. It just feels good to say, "we've always had wars, and we always will." Nothing pisses me off more than people who spout unprovable bullshit while pretending to be very logical and scientific. We've always had pompous know-it-alls who are full of themselves. Or maybe we have. We sure have them now. They don't have any answers, just dire pronouncements on fate. I'd hate to think people will forever have to deal with as much of that as we do now. We've dealt with the struggle to pretend to know all the truth for a long damned time. And it usually serves egos but not much else.

Truly seeking answers, and pretending that nothing different can possibly shed more or different light on the world of science and reality do not go hand in hand. The latter defeats the effort to know. People were burned at the stake for seeing that accepted truth was not on the mark. Just how it goes.

For some reason those peaceful people in the forest, pre-discovery by anthropologists, could wander around in naked bliss without the usual rashes and problems someone like me would incur. So, think twice if you were considering emulating their lifestyle at home. You may have a group of like-minded friends, and you think you can start a new isolated society of peace and happiness. But chances are, you will get savaged by bugs, fungus, and your own offensive odors. You might not survive the period of adaptation, which could take generations.

So, may as well be one of the pushy jerks, who pretends not to be a pushy jerk, in this culture. If you can make sense of it otherwise, and thrive, then yay for you, go for it.

One thing that tribe of hot looking people did not have; Subaru cars. No kings, as far as I know, either. Would I give up my car if the world became free of monarchs, dictators, and those who weild power but pretend they are "public servants"? Get back to you on that...