Aug
14
Fish Out Of Water
Filed Under Uncategorized
We measure our world by the limits
of our knowledge and experience. If the only tool you have is a hammer,
you tend to treat everything like nails. Bigotry, bias, and prejudice are
all words that describe this limited view (hammer) each of us tends to embrace
and apply.
A dog does not comprehend poetry, nor does an infant
calculus. The worlds of the dog and of
the child are extremely limited in scope.
For the dog it is predominantly genetically determined. Even if a dog would like to understand
poetry, it couldn’t and will never grow into it either. On the other hand, a child’s view of the
world can expand continually throughout life.
Unfortunately, as we get into our teenage years and become certain that
our knowledge encompasses just about all that could be known – certainly more
than both parents combined – we become increasingly arrogant, and with this
arrogance, closed minded. Intellectual
growth can actually stop by about the age of 13, with vocabulary serving as an
index of this growth and not increasing significantly for most people after
this age.
With that as a preface, let me say that it is easy for us to
believe that the world we were born into is the only real world.
Fluorescent lights, conditioned air, automobiles, pop, French fries, television,
and polyester may seem like the only real and natural world for humans.
Without the perspective of history, there would be no way of knowing any
differently.
But we do have history. Prior to the Industrial
Revolution, which occurred about 200 years ago, we were by and large in an
entirely different setting. We spent the majority of our time
outside and without any of the modern conveniences and technologies we have
come to believe to be as natural and automatic as a tree or the wind.
Our genes, however, are not equally convinced. They
remain encoded for the natural world. They are, in fact, an inward
definition of the external natural, pre-Industrial, more pristine world.
In this new modern synthetic world we are increasingly
alienating our basic biological make up. We are like fish taken out of
water.
The accompanying charts demonstrate the dramatic change
occurring just in the last 100 years.
This is only a small representation of the dramatic changes
our modern world has produced related just to food. On a broader
environmental scale, human activity rivals the natural processes that have
built the biosphere. About 40% of the earth’s photosynthetic capacity
(plant growth) is now appropriated for human use. The biologically
available nitrogen and phosphorus used by humans for fertilizer and chemicals
about equals the amount produced by nature. We apparently can alter our
atmosphere on a global scale (ozone,
greenhouse gases). Huge numbers of species stand on the curling tip of a
wave of extinction – and the list goes on.
Though it seems presumptuous to suggest that we, here, now
in this generation are unique in all of history, the evidence supports that we
are. We are a pivotal generation that can either turn things around or
continue to fuel a degrading environmental/health spiral that soon, if
unaltered by us, will continue in spite of any efforts we make later to change
things.
Scary? Yes, indeed. But we need to get scared if
that’s what it takes to wake up. We are, without a doubt, a very special
generation with the weight of the world’s future literally on our shoulders.
Don’t despair. You, yes little ole puny you, can do
much. Everything ever done always began with one. Act on the
things you know to be right, healthy, socially responsible, and environmentally
sensitive.
Yes, you. Yes, now. Yes, there is no downside in
doing so.
*Further
[The Wysong Optimal Health Program™]
http://www.wysong.net/optimal_health_page1.shtml
[What Does Our Genetic Program Say
We Should Eat?]
http://www.wysong.net/PDFs/mar_apr2000.pdf
[Genetic Context The Fundamental Key to Health]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_aug99.shtml
[Look at the Big Picture]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_may98.shtml
[Be a Thinking Person]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/chl_apr96.shtml
[Do Not Let Technology Think for
You]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jul96.shtml
[Stay Open to Learning Every Day]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_apr96.shtml
[Man The Apex Predator]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jan96.shtml
[Humans Are Not Too Puny to
Remodel the Whole Planet]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_oct95.shtml
[Ozone Marks Environmental
Threats]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_sep95.shtml
[Using Intelligence in Food
Choices]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jan94.shtml
[Are We Healthier?]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jun92.shtml
[Scale of Change]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_feb91.shtml
[We Can Make a Difference]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_nov90.shtml
[Saving the Environment]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jun90.shtml
[Time Compression]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_jun90.shtml
[Lamenting the Foods of Old]
http://www.wysong.net/healthletter/hl_feb90.shtml
[The Wysong
Directory of
Alternative Resources]
http://www.wysong.net/page/WOTTPWS/PROD/EDUAIDS/MM028
[Prevention/Therapy Guide]
http://www.wysong.net/therapy_prevention.shtml
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