The End of Nature's Great Ape Experiment.

[georgephillip]

"'If we fail in this great experiment, this experiment of apes becoming intelligent enough to take charge of their own destiny, nature will shrug and say it was fun for a while to let the apes run the laboratory, but in the end it was a bad idea...'"

For the last 500 years white European and Euro-American ape-descendants have plundered, polluted, pillaged, and exploited planet Earth to the brink of extinction.

In his most recent post, Chris Hedges argues this particular Great Game is nearly at its end:

"But the game is up. The technical and scientific forces that created a life of unparalleled luxury—as well as unrivaled military and economic power—for the industrial elites are the forces that now doom us. The mania for ceaseless economic expansion and exploitation has become a curse, a death sentence."

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

 

[Katzndogz]

Africa is a paradise of peace and prosperity.

 

[georgephillip]

Africa is a paradise of peace and prosperity.

"Complex civilizations have a bad habit of destroying themselves.

"Anthropologists including Joseph Tainter in 'The Collapse of Complex Societies,' Charles L. Redman in 'Human Impact on Ancient Environments' and Ronald Wright in 'A Short History of Progress' have laid out the familiar patterns that lead to systems breakdown.

"The difference this time is that when we go down the whole planet will go with us."

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Africa has been pillaged and plundered by western colonial interests for the last two hundred years.
Did you forget?

 

[Katzndogz]

Maybe it should go down. After all we don't have dinosaurs anymore either. You believe that Planet of the Apes is real. Sorry, it was just a movie.

 

[georgephillip]

Maybe it should go down. After all we don't have dinosaurs anymore either. You believe that Planet of the Apes is real. Sorry, it was just a movie.

"Maybe it should go down."
Maybe what should go down?
Do you think evolution is a myth?

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Evolution isn't a myth, it is a theory.

 

[georgephillip]

Evolution isn't a myth, it is a theory.

"A scientific theory is 'a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment.'"

Scientific theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Michelle420]

A Theory non the less.

Even theories change

Accepted theories are the best explanations available so far for how the world works. They have been thoroughly tested, are supported by multiple lines of evidence, and have proved useful in generating explanations and opening up new areas for research. However, science is always a work in progress, and even theories change. How? We'll look at some over-arching theories in physics as examples:

Classical mechanics
In the 1600s, building on the ideas of others, Isaac Newton constructed a theory (sometimes called classical mechanics or Newtonian mechanics) that, with a simple set of mathematical equations, could explain the movement of objects both in space and on Earth. This single explanation helped us understand both how a thrown baseball travels and how the planets orbit the sun. The theory was powerful, useful, and has proven itself time and time again in studies; yet it wasn't perfect …

Even theories change

 

[georgephillip]

A Theory non the less.

Even theories change

Accepted theories are the best explanations available so far for how the world works. They have been thoroughly tested, are supported by multiple lines of evidence, and have proved useful in generating explanations and opening up new areas for research. However, science is always a work in progress, and even theories change. How? We'll look at some over-arching theories in physics as examples:

Classical mechanics
In the 1600s, building on the ideas of others, Isaac Newton constructed a theory (sometimes called classical mechanics or Newtonian mechanics) that, with a simple set of mathematical equations, could explain the movement of objects both in space and on Earth. This single explanation helped us understand both how a thrown baseball travels and how the planets orbit the sun. The theory was powerful, useful, and has proven itself time and time again in studies; yet it wasn't perfect …

Even theories change

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious — the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science."
— Physicist Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, in Living Philosophies, 1931"

Thanks for the link

 

[techieny]

 

[georgephillip]

Something like that:

"'There is a pattern in the past of civilization after civilization wearing out its welcome from nature, overexploiting its environment, overexpanding, overpopulating,' Wright said when I reached him by phone at his home in British Columbia, Canada. 'They tend to collapse quite soon after they reach their period of greatest magnificence and prosperity.

"'That pattern holds good for a lot of societies, among them the Romans, the ancient Maya and the Sumerians of what is now southern Iraq. There are many other examples, including smaller-scale societies such as Easter Island.'"

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

 

[Oldguy]

Maybe it should go down. After all we don't have dinosaurs anymore either. You believe that Planet of the Apes is real. Sorry, it was just a movie.

"Maybe it should go down."
Maybe what should go down?
Do you think evolution is a myth?

Evolution isn't a myth, but Darwin never said we evolved from apes in "On the Origin of the Species."

So...your whole premise is flawed.

 

[konradv]

A Theory non the less.

Even theories change

Accepted theories are the best explanations available so far for how the world works. They have been thoroughly tested, are supported by multiple lines of evidence, and have proved useful in generating explanations and opening up new areas for research. However, science is always a work in progress, and even theories change. How? We'll look at some over-arching theories in physics as examples:

Classical mechanics
In the 1600s, building on the ideas of others, Isaac Newton constructed a theory (sometimes called classical mechanics or Newtonian mechanics) that, with a simple set of mathematical equations, could explain the movement of objects both in space and on Earth. This single explanation helped us understand both how a thrown baseball travels and how the planets orbit the sun. The theory was powerful, useful, and has proven itself time and time again in studies; yet it wasn't perfect …

Even theories change

It wasn't prefect, but it wasn't thrown out either. It's still taught as a useful explanation of everyday mechanics. Neither will evolution. It's concepts will be modified from time to time as new data becomes available, but it will never be thrown out altogether, just like Newton's theories.

 

[georgephillip]

Maybe it should go down. After all we don't have dinosaurs anymore either. You believe that Planet of the Apes is real. Sorry, it was just a movie.

"Maybe it should go down."
Maybe what should go down?
Do you think evolution is a myth?

Evolution isn't a myth, but Darwin never said we evolved from apes in "On the Origin of the Species."

So...your whole premise is flawed.

My premise isn't found in the title of this thread.
It is the same premise Hedges presented in his post, namely that human progress is largely a myth:

"'The experience of a relatively easy 500 years of expansion and colonization, the constant taking over of new lands, led to the modern capitalist myth that you can expand forever,' Wright said. 'It is an absurd myth...'

"This 500-year run made it not only seem easy but normal.

"We believe things will always get bigger and better. We have to understand that this long period of expansion and prosperity was an anomaly. It has rarely happened in history and will never happen again."

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

 

[jwoodie]

"Maybe it should go down."
Maybe what should go down?
Do you think evolution is a myth?

Evolution isn't a myth, but Darwin never said we evolved from apes in "On the Origin of the Species."

So...your whole premise is flawed.

My premise isn't found in the title of this thread.
It is the same premise Hedges presented in his post, namely that human progress is largely a myth:

"'The experience of a relatively easy 500 years of expansion and colonization, the constant taking over of new lands, led to the modern capitalist myth that you can expand forever,' Wright said. 'It is an absurd myth...'

"This 500-year run made it not only seem easy but normal.

"We believe things will always get bigger and better. We have to understand that this long period of expansion and prosperity was an anomaly. It has rarely happened in history and will never happen again."

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Do you ever have an original thought of your own or do you just quote others?

 

[Oldguy]

"Maybe it should go down."
Maybe what should go down?
Do you think evolution is a myth?

Evolution isn't a myth, but Darwin never said we evolved from apes in "On the Origin of the Species."

So...your whole premise is flawed.

My premise isn't found in the title of this thread.
It is the same premise Hedges presented in his post, namely that human progress is largely a myth:

"'The experience of a relatively easy 500 years of expansion and colonization, the constant taking over of new lands, led to the modern capitalist myth that you can expand forever,' Wright said. 'It is an absurd myth...'

"This 500-year run made it not only seem easy but normal.

"We believe things will always get bigger and better. We have to understand that this long period of expansion and prosperity was an anomaly. It has rarely happened in history and will never happen again."

Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Human progress will continue. It'll just look different.

All we're doing is going through a transition from an industrial society to an information society. Just as the change from the dark ages to the enlightenment and the change from an agrarian society to the industrial age resulted in turmoil, violence, fear, revolutions and chaos, so too will this sea-change.

It may take 100 years, but it will eventually settle out into something brand new and different, perhaps with different masters and for certain, a different form of government.

 

[skookerasbil]

Well, so far, we know that socialism and communism are abject failures, which is fact and not theory.

 

[Antares]

Yawn, kill us all george.

 

[Oldguy]

Well, so far, we know that socialism and communism are abject failures, which is fact and not theory.

Really? They don't seem to have failed all that badly in China, Vietnam and most of western Europe.

 

[Aristotle]

God, I hate you Fucking racists