Environment & Energy

hunter

(38,313 posts) Tue Feb 18, 2014, 04:43 PM Feb 2014

It's human nature to identify with the living and not the dead.

After all, your ancestors going back to the beginning of life managed to survive and reproduce.

We identify with the living and not the zombies.

That's why we can't deal with complex problems like global climate change and resource depletion.

So long as we live it is difficult for us to count ourselves among the future victims of climate change, resource depletion, and subsequent social collapse.

4 replies

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It's human nature to identify with the living and not the dead. (Original Post) hunter Feb 2014 OP

"as we live" dipsydoodle Feb 2014 #1

I am reading a history KT2000 Feb 2014 #2

Sad thing is the old ways of exploitation often work. hunter Feb 2014 #3

I really like your point. defacto7 Feb 2014 #4

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)

1. "as we live"

Reply to hunter (Original post)

Tue Feb 18, 2014, 04:48 PM

Feb 2014

after that don't really matter.

KT2000

(20,579 posts)

2. I am reading a history

Reply to hunter (Original post)

Tue Feb 18, 2014, 05:00 PM

Feb 2014

of Chinese medicine. Their ancient basis for healthcare had everything to do with one's relationship with their ancestors. Sickness was a sign that a person's relationship to their ancestors was impaired and needed to be repaired if possible.
OR
"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations" ..Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

I mention this only because whether or not people identify with their past and ancestors (the dead) of future generations, is a societal construct. America is very much in the here and now and cannot imagine what lies beyond. I consider it a form of greed.

hunter

(38,313 posts)

3. Sad thing is the old ways of exploitation often work.

Reply to KT2000 (Reply #2)

Tue Feb 18, 2014, 05:37 PM

Feb 2014

We, in the U.S.A., live in a society that truly believes God, Providence, whatever, will bless us with some new form of exploitation when the old one fails. Fusion power, fracking, who knows?

And then, throughout human history, our human "leaders" are always surprised when things don't turn out as they expected.

defacto7

(13,485 posts)

4. I really like your point.

Reply to hunter (Original post)

Wed Feb 19, 2014, 12:55 AM

Feb 2014

Humans have a very inept concept of time in general as well as being unable to see humankind as a single organism on the planet. Humans tend to see individuality above a broader sense of communal life.

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