Less than Human?

Stone Age - Stoned Age

This link leads to an interesting piece in The Independent about newly discovered historical remains found in France, which suggests that our very own Stonehenge was something of an anomaly.

Basking in the recent heat, I'm currently reading "Evolution - A Novel" by Stepehen Baxter - one of a new generation of writers carrying on the tradition of sound-science fiction in the vien of Arthur C. Clarke and others. As co-incidence would have it, the above article caught my eye just as I've reached the "dawn of human civilisation" in the novel. The book itslef is a fine set of interlinked stories spanning pre-history to the near future. As fiction, there is some postulation regarding the unknown, but it is all based on known evolutionary knowledge.

In both the novel and in conventional wisdom, it is gernally accepted that humanity as we know it began when the brain providing processing power to our bodies acquired "self awareness" - that is, the ability to question one's environment, one;s own existance and behaviour and that of others. Such consciousness has brought about disagreements among tribes and even its members,also wholesale "wars" which may even have been overwhelming enough to have led to extinctions in our lineage. But self-awareness, above all, seems to have led to communication and the legacy of things like trade and co-operation we still rely on in the modern world.

Crucial to humanity surely, is not merely the fact of self-awareness but also the ability to perceive the same in others. And the realisation that, as a species, were are alike but also forever different as individuals.

Maybe it is no surprise that the Ape Emperor promotes creationism. The scientific truths of evolution can hardly be music to the ears to one whose idea of self-awareness does not extend to the recognition of those whose views, opinions and consciousness to not co-incide with the absolute and narrow-minded vision he calls his own. He is symptomatic of the tribal bully whose regressive traits suggest that he has become something less than "human".

It is nothing new. Such anomalies have occured throughout history. Fortunately, the instances where such beings have gained or been able to hold onto positions of power are rare.

Humanity has refined its methods of communication to an unprecedented degree, but in doing so we have increasingly shifted the focus of interaction from our ability to the methodology itself. We have become dependent on routines of our own creation and have possibly damaged our ability to interpret the messages and signals that are the anomalies.

In the Lebanon,through our modern methodolgy of communication, we have witnessed events that in earlier times would have been lost in the local criminal history.An example of regression by people with power that indicates something distinctly "less" than human let loose amongst us. It had been stirring for some time, but ironically its realisation followed a precendent set some years ago by equally backward minds in Amerika. That inhumanity toward fellow humans now pervades the methodology of our communication across the planet is a greater threat to "civilisation" than the individual instances of inhumanity themselves.

If the future is to be anything more than a reversal toward our darker past, people need to start "thinking" again. The opiate of media and systems of belief are not enough.

Later.