Humans are deathworlders, but anyone who says that we are and have always been apex predators is, well, wrong. -- Anon Guest
History is written by the victors. Ancient history is written by those who wish to justify their own cruelties. -- Adapted Terran saying.
Culture and education is an interesting synergy. The way things are seem to be the way they are always meant to be according to Nature, as evidenced by what is found in ancient history. The cruelties of serfdom or slavery, when not verified by the workings of the preferred deity, are justified in the anthill. The harshness of the dawning of the Industrial Age is verified by the pacing animals in the zoos, the fossil evidence of hunting tools, and Nature Red in Tooth and Claw.
The harshness created by capitalism uses the same ideals. Regardless of the truth, which has remained the same despite how the evidence is interpreted. Nature has always been cruel, they say. Therefore there is no reason why we should ever stop. They ignore evidence to the contrary because it is inconvenient. As in, inconvenient for what they wish to happen in their favour.
Roughly 2.8 million years before the information age, a child died. That wasn't an extraordinary thing. What was extraordinary was that that small infant changed the shape of history. Found in an era at the dawn of industrialised education, where children were trained to fit into the jobs available from a young age, the discoverer took the skull's presence with other skulls as evidence of savagery - head hunting.
It was, in retrospect, a mixture of previous Industrial Age justifications of cruelty, racism, and a healthy dollop of Things Could Be Worse for any child who found out about this evidence. For years, other remains like those of this child were taken as evidence of bloody sacrifices. See, darling children, they seemed to say, aren't you glad you only have homework to deal with instead of being cave people and sacrificed to drive away winter? Now eat your vegetables.
The truth - that the child was preyed upon by a large bird - remained unaccepted for almost half a century. Even when it was accepted, it was used to justify racism. See those different people, they seemed to say, they are perpetual victims. It's up to Us to fix things without permission or even knowledge of what needed fixing in the first place. And when they protest, we'll just have to force them to accept the better way! For their own good! Yay!
It has not, ever, been a story of what happened. It has always been a story of what it means. You were meant to die. You were made to be used. You were always the inferior sort. You were always the victim. As it always was, so shall it ever be. Nature intended it this way. Stop protesting against the status quo, there's a good Lesser One.
Of course, there are people who just have to keep examining things, looking at the evidence that is there, asking the awkward questions. Coming up with alternate theories that can't as easily fit the status quo. And worse... more evidence just keeps turning up.
It's a fossil record, not a fossil playlist.
More and more evidence and the narrative crumbles around the Committee For the Status Quo. This evidence does not actually mean that. We've found more evidence that says this.
The Status Quo says, medical treatment is an unnecessary cost for useless people. A Neanderthal was injured to the point where he was blind in one eye, deaf, and lost the use of one limb. He could barely walk. His people continued to look after him until his old age. That was an outlier, they argue. A child was born with a brain deformity, a visible one that could have endangered their life. That child was cared for until their untimely demise. Co-incidence, they roared. A girl contracted polio, and could not walk. Nevertheless, her people looked after her and fed her too many dates in order to keep her happy.
Humanity has always cared for those around it. The evidence is clear. It is the callous disregard for people below a certain status that is the modern fabrication. It is the dictating of 'use' and 'worth' that has become the fad.
Care has always been within Humanity. Compassion has always been in their DNA.
The trouble comes when cultures attempt to institute the opposite. Those with the most soon attach moral values to having more than anyone else. They earned it. They deserve it. If those Lesser Others weren't so lazy/drunk/stupid/sick/otherwise-devalued, then they could have luxury too. Then they conveniently ignore all the institutionalised roadblocks in the way of anyone else getting any percentage of that which the upper crust had.
These are also societies in which the basic amenities to support cogniscent life are sold on the User Pays system.
As you might guess from the Charter of Rights and Responsibilities as issued by the Cogniscent Rights Committee, these are considered societies toxic to intelligent life. Be wary of the signs.
Do not, under any circumstances, endorse such practices. Do not attempt to liberate the downtrodden on your own. If you find a toxic society, immediately notify the CRC and offer your assistance. Toxic societies are difficult to sanitise, especially since they might have sovereignty over how their citizens are treated. We cannot, in all good conscience, march in and force them to reform for their own good.
We must, therefore, dismantle them by other means. All suggestions will be heard and considered.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / jgaunion]
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