The history we teach our children (and which we were taught) is not our history at all. Our real history dates back over 2.3 million years ago, when Lucy (Australopithecus) and others like her walked on Earth on 2 feet (bipedal, with erect skeletons just like ours). It is that 2.3 million years of living and evolving that has led to modern humans (us) today.
Conversely, the last 5000-or-so years (back to what we call ‘ancient history’), is NOT a chronicle of our history at all. It is a snapshot of a brief moment in our recent evolution (actually de-evolution) where we surrendered our passion and freedom to other humans, and have progressively trapped ourselves in lives of self-imposed bondage. And the sad thing is that we actually believe that we have ALWAYS lived this way – and that is what we are teaching our kids!
If we lived freely and naturally for 3 million years, and we are not living that way now, the question to be asked is “When did we stop (living naturally)?” or “What happened?”
The answer is that we began slipping of the path of living in harmony with our design, when we became self-aware. The Bible tells the story of Adam and Eve eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which they justified by believing that if they knew what God knew, they wouldn’t need God. However we don’t need God to explain what happened – it is enough to say that our problems started when we entered the age of ‘self,’ (which was when we became self-aware).
There is nothing wrong with being self-aware – our developing brains expanded to allow for this ability. There is nothing wrong with it’s manifestations – technology, medicine, science. There is nothing wrong with knowledge, data, scientific inquiry. There is nothing wrong with any of this, unless it is used without reference to some higher purpose or belief or vision.
You might ask “Why do we need a vision? Science, technology, etc. is perfectly able to stand on its own.” Then it would follow that we can do anything, create anything, clone or modify anything, destroy anything – just because we can. We now have science and technology that could literally destroy Earth and all life on it. We have the brains to understand that we can’t let that happen. Hence the need for some higher set of guidelines or boundaries. Pandemics like Covid-19; disasters such as the 3-5 million Syrian people killed by their own countrymen; alterations to our very global climate are all the result of human behavior without any moral guidelines (which means that no one is asking if what we are doing is good for humanity – and if the answer is no, choosing not to do it).
In the Bible, one of the proverbs says “A people who lose their vision, cast off restraint.” Isn’t that exactly what has happened? Lacking any vision or moral compass, we justify doing … anything. And we excuse this excess by saying that the diplomats (politicians) can sort it out. My question to you – looking globally, how is that working?! Can we really expect a politician to make good choices up to and including preventing the destruction of Earth itself?
But there is more. A people who lose their vision, have no higher, common purpose. They are utterly alone with their “opinions” and their possessions and their 401k’s. They lack any unity, lack the power of the many (“Wherever 2 or more are gathered,” “We do together what we cannot do alone,” “No man or woman is an island,” etc.). They have lost the power and protection of the support of a strong community, and as such they are impotent, isolated, utterly divided, completely powerless, and easily controlled and manipulated by the least petty politician or the latest sleazy advertising campaign.
But WITH a vision, all that changes. Now we are united, together, prospering and surviving and thriving in strong communities, villages, tribes globally. We are acting and living according to a common vision of humans at our best. Is this true because I think it is a good idea? No. It is true because unity and strength of our group is consistent with our design (we are a group animal like all our nearest relatives, and not a solitary animal like the bear)
I don’t know about you, but I get excited thinking about restoring us (all of us) to lives of passion and purpose, lives where we are safe and secure, happy and prosperous in our groups (communities, villages, tribes). If you agree, JOIN US.