[at-l] Re: drilling and trees, etc.

[silas_wright@yahoo.com (Ben Wright)]

Ron,

The words that you wrote are very to the point
and I share a number of these thoughts with you. It
is my BELIEF that the problem is truly a cultural
one rather than a biological inevitability. The
problem is there have been a number of cultures
that probably weren't this way that were overrun by 
those that are or were this way. We've already lost
those models. The problem with our culture,
other than what I believe to be some maladaptive
culturally-transmitted conceptions of growth, is a
odd contradiction of claiming to be able
to surmount any problem of thought and action and at
the same thing claiming powerlessness to change
a supposed flaw in human make-up. I personally
believe that humans are neither flawed nor perfect.

My main concern on a impersonal, big-picture level is
the unprecedented scale that current consumer culture
exercises itself. Where earlier smaller cultures may
have dissolved with eventual environmental recovery, I
don't know what the end-game might look like in our
future. It just seems to me that this is all the
more reason to play it as safe as possible. We all
have to try to make that change even in the face of
steep odds. The real steep odds are set ironically
by the biological system itself. A culture that tries
to control its population and consumption growth is
put at a disadvantage to a culture that
expands its population and consumption growth. The
culture is literally bred out of existence.

In any case, thanks to yourself and others for all
your thoughts. I'm standing down from the soapbox
now as well.

Ben (formerly known as Turbo Turtle)

> Ben through your studies, I'm sure your aware of>
several human civilizations
> that have overrun their environments by consuming>
all the surrounding
> resources, and ultimately collapse in to social>
disorder. In a few short
> years they dwindle from a great power to a few>
groups of disorganize tribes.
> > I see no reason to believe that just because
we've> achieved a high
> technological state where we're able to do more
with> less, that we won't at
> some point suffer the same fate as our fore
fathers.> We are not that
> biologically or emotionally different. We have
those> same hidden and often
> uncontrollable forces driving us. 

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