Civilisation and question of love: part VI aggression, nature and our illusions

Taken from http://en.artoffer.com/Ricardo-Ponce/O-T-Emotions-Aggression-People-Men/4780

One of kaleidoscope's favourite philosopher-cum-Archaeologist Professor Gordon Childe commented that civilisation is  time when people started to have an aggressive attitude towards environment.

What is an aggressive attitude?

It means at least three things,
A. You forget that the thing you are dealing with has its will and consciousness (at least it has its internal working)and you tend to deal with it as only a material to be tamed for your own purpose.
B. you tend to make it twisted for your own purpose.
C. You tend to behave violently when it resists!

How does it affect you?

When you are aggressive towards anything, what you do is that you pursue self interest maximization, you behave rationally (from your often restricted and selfish economic rationality only) to undermine the value of everything else.

Hence throughout the history of human civilisation we devised several shortcut methods for our own good. Here are few examples of such shortcut methods and potential dangerous outcomes.

1. No need to hunt grow your food
Result: high level of malnutrition in most part of the human civilisation, crop failure and famine even in 21st century Africa.

2. No need roam around, settle down
Results: power inequality, slavery, class formation (hence struggle!), resource accumulation, greed and warfare (even today)

3. No need to have individual identities, remember people in classes(kinship, age set,caste and so on)
Results: you tend to objectify people and do not dwell on the richness of individual relationships. You suffer when you cannot fit in to categories (everyone knows the pain of being attracted towards a kin and not being able to tell, even share with others)

So, what's now?

On the one hand we have developed aggressive attitude towards nature, people and other things, and on the other hand we have forcefully created our environment and the violently tried to adapt ourselves in. Today we occupy several different built in environments everyday where we are constantly adapting. In the morning we are at home then on road then on vehicle then at office with work then we break at canteen then again back to work then again on road, in a vehicle then back home again. I know the above sentence has been monotonous but just think about the tremendous psychological and also physical pressure we are taking to adapt ourselves in environments in which we are forced to adapt. To adapt to this complex world human babies have to spend almost one third of their life in learning!

When we tend to dwell in this complex world  of ours we are being told and made believe that civilisation is  gift to make our life easy! Kaleidoscope with his pea-size intellect is still searching for 'how civilisation has made our life easy?'

It has rather made us forget fundamental beauties of consciousness like falling in love, making love, appreciating nature as it is, living in harmony with others and appreciating the fact that world is a home for not only the human species but for all!

An Afternoon with the Hunters

Kaleidoscope was making his yearly trip to the field, often a romantically described native place to interact and gather social experience to be transformed into anthropological knowledge. Kaleidoscope had to leave his comfortable AC, PC, internet to adopt weak mobile network, unfiltered water, stinking bed, mosquito bites and miles of walk. Kaleidoscope also had the camera, a notebook, a GPS, an energetic bunch of students, loads of field reports to be corrected and a freedom to go anywhere and everywhere. Kaleidoscope enjoyed every bit of it. Took photos and after a while left the place anthropologists call field.

Among several experiences which Kaleidoscope had this year's visit is a permission to accompany a bunch of young stars in hunting.

Not an ordinary day:

Kaleidoscope was excited with the permission he had from the village headman - Laya to accompany a bunch of young adults with whom Kaleidoscope already had good deal of interaction. So on the day Kaleidoscope took his camera, and started roaming around the nearby jungle.

National Geographic Scenes:

Kaleidoscope being an admirer of National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet channels, and also having little exposure to the villages of the region did not expect anything dramatic. Nothing dramatic happened, therefore, readers must not expect that the story will thrill them in a sense those channels do. 

However, at first Kaleidoscope accompanied them to the near by forest surrounding the hillock popularly known as Baroghutu Pahar. It was difficult for kaleidoscope to make up the speed difference with his weak lung that often requires puffs of Asthalin and Seroflo. However, the village boys did not leave him. 

Portion of the Jungle pathway

Portion of the Baroghutu Pahar

Hunting implements:

They were carrying a long bamboo shaft, Gulti, a couple of clubs and loads of small stones. The clubs were useful to hit and injure rabbits and other smaller animals including rodents were manageable with the bamboo shaft and Gulti.

The missed opportunities and hunts:

While they climbed the baroghutu hills a rabbit was seen... before Kaleidoscope could see the animal had jumped away. The entire group explored the the hills region for three hours without results. Kaleidoscope was exhausted and had already consumed half of the water he had in his small bag. The group, headed by a tall and relatively experienced Moresh, got together for a quick meeting. They made a change in plan and went towards the farmlands. 

Moresh watching his young guns in action 

In the farm land they started to insert the long bamboo in the rodent's holes. With application of water and constant insertion of bamboo a few rodents came out. They quickly took shelter towards the trees. The young members of the group quickly climbed up through the trees and tried to catch them. From the ground the rest of the group constantly kept throwing small stones with gulti. After about an hour, they injured one of the rodents and caught it. They made several other catches in the bamboo bushes. Kaleidoscope was amazed by the skills that these little fellows have in climbing up the bamboo bushes without getting themselves injured by the small bamboo branches that acted like spikes.

In the end they could catch a dozen of rodents... 

Kaleidoscope came back, exhausted knowing that the group will make similar efforts tomorrow... perhaps everyday when Kaleidoscope will be gaining more weight and loosing fitness even more.

The results...