Tyndall Center Director Anderson: Rapid Emissions Reduction Hard: 4-6C Far, Far Worse

[NoOneMan]

22. Here is my kooky, quasi theory:

Firstly, it is clear that humans have instincts that promote beneficial behaviors that help them survive. We instinctually eat to store energy (creating minor euphoria) and breed to spread genetics (creating large euphoria), even in the absence of culture. Likewise, we have negative instinctual reactions to make us not engage in certain behaviors. Studies have shown that newborns avoid heights and have negative reactions to pictures of mutilation. There are simply residual feelings we have that show us how to live from birth.

I posit that there is distinct, common forgotten instinct that we have stopped listening to (but its still there); an instinct that tells humans how to belong to nature and live sustainably in harmony with the natural systems. Perhaps its the same instinct that governs how animals behave, as we can observe that they only take what they need to survive efficiently and propagate (if they did not, they would die off--thereby showing how this basic drive could be evolutionarily selected). In fact, it would follow that any animal that is alive would have this instinct or their overshoot and habit destruction would have eliminated them.

Now, it is proven the viewing nature scenes (or being in nature) elicits euphoric responses in the human brain and encourages feelings of harmony and community. This is also labeled, in studies, as a "spiritual" feeling for lack of a better description; whatever we call "it", most humans feel it in nature--being there elicits a unique neurological response that can induce behavior. You can also easily induce this same "spiritual" type of neurological response with LSD and psilocybin: you as an individual fades, and you belong in harmony to a whole, which you wish to promote and revel in. It is this great positive reinforcing response to being in nature that promotes us to act beneficially to it, as a member of it.

Now, to bring this back to human development, we didn't just decide to stop listening to an instinct (as that is nearly impossible). Instead, I believe that at some point in human development something manifested that hijacked this instinct and dictated to humans that it didn't mean what they thought it did; namely, religion. Religion has systematically tried to destroy many human instincts in an attempt to edify our "souls" and abandon our natural, limiting bodies. Just a single look at ascetic behaviors that have had humans fasting, refusing sex and embracing pain clearly illustrate this tendency. Then it is no great leap to suggest that the neurological response we call "spritiality" has been reinterpreted by religion so that humans no longer act on this instinct to be in harmony with nature; instead, it is now viewed as a powerful human signal used to transcend the very bounds of nature.

We know that the original agriculturalists were not simply farmers; they were also zealous warriors and priests. But their religious practices were distinctive in that they were not pantheists or animists, but rather, they were monotheists. Agriculturalists not only demonstrated a mastery of nature (rather than being confined by it), they developed a new-found belief system that solved any cognitive dissonance a harmonious "spiritual" instinct would have caused. To be an agriculturalist, you have to not only cultivate nature, but the very nature of mankind. And as history has shown, those who refused to embrace the very notion that *they* owned the earth were systematically destroyed.

Humans didn't change genetically. Controlling nature allowed a few assholes with a bad idea to spread it or kill everyone who refused, so that they could obtain more energy today to fuel their growth tomorrow (forever). It wasn't the moment they planted that first seed (as native Americans were agro-forestry farmers too), but rather, it was the moment they abandoned their instinctual feelings in order to reconcile their cognitive dissonance (they wanted to know why they were an exception and the explanation of God giving the earth to them seemed like the best answer). Once the early agriculturalists realized they controlled nature, a belief system manifested to allow them to continue and control the sustainability instinct that would have stopped them. From there, its history.

So you speak of moving forward, and my answer to that is for humanity to once again get in touch with their instincts to live sustainably, in harmony with nature. If we can accomplish this (which involves a mass rejection of modern religion & culture, and perhaps even a resistance to atheism which can repudiate a necessary Pantheistic outlook), we are one step close to accepting a simpler world and seeing the value of nature without iPads. Humans must embrace their instinctual feelings of harmony with the natural system and begin to see themselves as a part of an incredible and awesome universe that we are not the center of. Even if there isn't more in the sense of the "divine", our brains are prime to see the universe in this manner so we should embrace it in the name of existence.

Or perhaps I've jumped down the rabbit hole one too many times on my drugged-up outdoor fishing excursions. I've just transitioned to a mental state where everything I have need & enjoy is out there and not a part of this artificial system of unnatural growth, and these are the conclusions I've come to in a few years of getting back in touch