Thursday, December 7, 2017

No. 221: Do Over!

...hunter-gatherers considered their environments to be eternally provident, and only ever worked to meet their immediate needs. They never sought to create surpluses nor over-exploited any key resources.

If in “civilization” you “choose” to partake,
you have to acknowledge it's been a mistake.

Our hunter-gatherer forebears
cared for themselves (AND theirs!)
with minimum bother and much less fuss
than day-to-day living requires of us.
They ate what they found as they wandered.
They did not save. They did not squander.
They lived off the land with what came to hand
and as a whole the whole thing was grand.

Then an evil need planted a seed
which led to farming which led to greed
which led weapons which led to war
which led to us AND all we are good for:
exploiting, killing, breeding, diseases,
destroying whatever, whenever it pleases.
If ancestors from 10,000 years past
could visit today, they'd be aghast.
They'd return to their time, uproot their crops
to try ensure development stops.
They'd go on a hunt, they'd eat a weed,
they'd pray that the wheel doesn't succeed.
To suppress their distress, they'd end “progress”
leaving us better off for it. (I guess.)

[updated/corrected: December 7, 2017, 11:56 am EST]