Progression or Regression?

 May 11, 2010

          Well, we are pretty much done buying supplies now. Thank goodness! I've been OCD on this computer for days now researching products and ordering everything we need, as my roommate put it, all our "extensions of the human hands". It is so funny how ill-equipped us humans are for the wild. Without big brains and imposable thumbs to create all these contraptions, how would we survive in the wild? Or is it the other way around, if we didn't create all these contraptions would it be easier for us to survive in the wild? This week, as we spent more and more money on all these simple comforts and tools, I started asking myself "do we really need all this?" It is ironic how much money we are spending to escape the comforts of society. We are leaving with nothing more than a pack full of stuff and it still seems like SOOO much, and to think we are used to living with far more comforts than this seems like such excess. Our strong minds have made our bodies weak and even our minds are becoming weak as we become more reliant on the use of tools made by machines rather than our own two hands. This is not the case for everyone, but the majority of us city dwellers. Don't get me wrong, it frees up a lot of time for us to focus on other things, but sadly what many choose to focus on is mind rotting rather than mind expanding. Is the price we pay for convenience worth it? Our senses are numbed, and our minds are dumbed. We have physically devolved as our tools have evolved. Sure we get along just fine in a "civilized" society, but what would we do if we were stripped of our comforts and conveniences? When left alone with mother nature most humans now stand little to no chance without tools. The earth provides us with everything we REALLY need to survive: air, water, food, even medicine to cure many ailments with. However, through our own manipulations of these resources for survival and comfort we have detached ourselves from our true lifeline; we have started destroying mother earth and our innate survival instincts. Would you call this progression or regression?



"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."  
~Mohandas K. Gandhi

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