Fluid social change can only materialize if two circumstances are met. One, the human value system, which consists of our understandings and beliefs, must be updated and changed through education and thoughtful introspection. Two, the environment surrounding that value system must change to support the new world view. The interaction between a person’s value system and their environment is what influences human behavior.
For example, in our culture, “ethics” is really a matter of degree, for our social system promotes and rewards competition and self-interest. This perspective doesn’t just “lead” to aberrant behavior… it creates it directly. Corruption is the norm in our society and most people do not see this, for since the society supports this behavior, it is considered right and normal… or as a matter of degree.
Given this understanding, there is a fallacy that has emerged where certain groups are deemed “corrupt” and everyone else is “good”. This is the age old “us and them” world view which has no basis empirically, for it is, again, all a matter of degree.
For example, there is a large movement of people who constantly talk about “The New World Order” and this notion that there is an elite group of people who have been trying to take over the world for a long time and have manipulated society in various ways to further their goals.
This, of course, is true to a certain extent.
BUT, the failure of awareness is that this “group” is not a group at all. It is a tendency.
If you took out all the people at the top who are engaged in global hegemonic rule, it would simply be a matter of time before another group stepped in to seek the same ambition. Therefore, it isn’t the individual people or groups that are the problem. It is actually the conditions upon which those people have been accustomed and indoctrinated by. Of course, many argue against this view with the escapist notion that it is “human nature” that causes this competition and need for dominance. This is unsupported by the facts. In reality, we are nearly clean slates when we are born and it is our environment that shapes who we are and how we behave.
Therefore, in order for TRUE change to occur, we must spend less time battling the products of this sick social structure and more time trying to change the root causes. As difficult and daunting as it may be to think this way, it is the only way our world will change for the better.
We can continue to stomp on the ants coming out from under the refrigerator, but until we remove the spoiled food behind it, they are just going to keep coming.
There are races of people who are all slim, who are stronger and faster than us. They all have straight teeth and perfect eyesight. Arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia and cancer are absolute rarities for them. These people are the last 84 tribes of hunter-gatherers in the world. They share a secret that is over 2 million years old. Their secret is their diet- a diet that has changed little from that of the first humans 2 million years ago, and their predecessors up to 7 million years ago. Theirs is the diet that man evolved on, the diet that is coded for in our genes. It has some major differences to the diet of “civilization”. You are in for a few big surprises.
From INTRODUCTION TO THE PALEOLITHIC DIET, by by Dr. Ben Balzer, family physician
I’m reading a book on nutrition called “Protein Power” by Michael R Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D. who referenced a study of the Aborigines of Australia.
The aborigines are an interesting group in that they develop a high incidence of hyperinsulinemia and type II diabetes when exposed to an urbanized, Western diet. Like a huge number of American’s they are genetically predisposed to the development of these disorders, they develop them much more quickly.
The study (conducted by Dr Kerin O’Dea) consisted of taking a group of urbanized aborigines who were suffering from hyperinsulinemia, type II diabetes, and obesity and removing them from their current Western diet (white flour, white sugar, white rice, carbonated drinks, alcoholic beverages (beer, port), powdered milk and cheap fatty meat.)
They were then asked to return to their previous “Hunter / Gatherer” lifestyle for 7 weeks, which consisted of considerable protein, not a lot of fat, and very little carbohydrate. The nutrient composition was “protein 70-75%, fat 20-25%, and carbohydrate <5%.”
The basic diet of a hunter-gatherer consists of the following:
Meat, chicken and fish
Eggs
Fruit
Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes or sweet potatoes)
Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)
Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.
The effect of the study was astonishing. The aborigines blood glucose levels fell from an average of 210 mg/dl to 118 mg/dc. Insulin levels dropped by half, from 23 mU/ml to 12 mU/ml, near normal range. Triglycerides, which are storage fat molecules synthesized in the liver under the stimulus of insulin, fell by a factor of three, from 354 mg/dl all the way down to 106 mg/dl. All this improvement came in just seven weeks from a diet that was predominantly (64 percent) animal in origin.
Dr. O’Dea summed it up succinctly:
… All of the metabolic abnormalities were either greatly improved (glucose tolerance, insulin response to glucose) or completely normalized (plasma lipids) ina group of diabetic aborigines by a relatively short (7 week) reversion to traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
It’s no wonder that reverting to the diet we were following before the agricultural revolution would solve so many of today’s diseases.
Tags: Diet
In the film “The Matrix” written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry) there is a character named Agent Smith who has an interesting view of humanity:
“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we… are the cure.” -Agent Smith
Now if Agent Smith (or the Wachowski Brothers) had any experience with Daniel Quinn’s work they would have corrected themselves and referred to our culture, our Totalitarian Agriculturalist culture as a “virus.” Which is a fairly accurate description of the behavior of our culture.
Tags: The Matrix
