Do We Deserve To Have An Option To Live As Hunter Gatherers?
Our society is constantly evolving. We changed from the monarchical times, to the communist uprisings, which were there erased by the boom of capitalism and free market.
But one thing has remained constant throughout the times. One needs to do some sort of work to live, or inherit a lot of wealth from someone who worked a lot. That’s what has progressed through the past. And all those advances in the “past” have led us to this rut called the present. Which will further rot into the future?
You might ask me, why am I calling the present a rut? Every day a new technological advancement erases out the magnificence of the previous. We’ve come from automated guillotines in the 14th century to sex robots in the 21st century. So much progress, so much progress…
It’s very easy, I personally believe that the present society has no point for its existence except pay taxes.
Look at our daily lives. From birth, we have no option but to go to school, or find some other profession, or take up crime, or beg on the streets. Without choosing any of these options, one can’t survive.
Growing up in the traditional “civilian life”, we go to school. Study for years before college, hustle through the education loans and get settled into some job. Or if you aren’t a settler at job, then you probably will get settled into the “passive wealth generation” demographic.
What happens to the ones taking up a job?
You wake up everyday, you have to brush your teeth. You paid for the toothbrush, the toothpaste, and , the water that you use to rinse off the carcinogenic fluorides(ignore if you use herbal toothpaste). Then what? you get ready to get to work, just another day in the rat race. Go to office where you go to make money. Slave for the day, come back, sleep, wake up. The cycle repeats. We’re all aware of the rat race, and that money has put our actions into a thought prison. Quoting Orwell, the thought police in his acclaimed novel 1984 didn’t tolerate any thoughts against the welfare of the state, while the thought police of post globalization world is you. You are your thought police. You need to make sure that your actions don’t waste a lot of money, as you need money to survive.
We are born just to generate taxes for the government, to keep their economic “progress wheel” rolling. And what will our children do? they go to school so that they can become law abiding tax payers when they get employed.
We live in this filthy modern society, where competition to succeed can never termed as healthy competition. From childhood we’re condition to be better than other kids, be a better employee at work, let’s make sure that our country gets the best growth, let’s make sure that our country is better than theirs?
What are we accomplishing with all this competition? Self gratification? You probably heard that term, a lot of people these days, stuck inside their homes, have had to resort to self gratification because they can’t go out and meet other people.
When our ancestors lived as hunter gatherers(if you believe that your god was your ancestor and not some monkey, then please ask your god to help us from this rut that I’m referring to) all they did was pick berries and hunt animals. The rest of the time was spent whiling away. If we do the same thing now, what are we? Unproductive?
Just like the animals that are unproductive, they don’t contribute anything to the economy.(sure, the animals raised for slaughter contribute to the meat market, but I’m referring to the animals that roam freely and die a natural death)
Sometimes I’ve been told that I’m overdramatizing the negative effects of the culture of competition. The same culture of competition which gave birth to capitalism and all the brilliant progress that we have today.
So much competition in the world means that there can only be one winner, and so many other losers. Some of those losers find their paths to become winners. While the other losers take some time before becoming winners. But a large portion of them remain losers for a long time, and they tend to become depressed as their self worth has been determined by their success against other people.
Even before the Covid lockdown started, the NCHS documented a steady growth in the cases of depression every year. And of course, during the Covid lockdown, we don’t even have to discuss how bad it was. Being locked up at home, sitting in front of the screen for a long time, of course, it was a bumpy mental health ride the last year and a half, and the rut is only going to rot.
Now, coming to the point of hunter gathers. Do you think they would have been depressed? It’s very difficult to know that. I can’t definitely say our primitive ancestors were not as depressed as we were. That’s why it’s better to check with the still existing hunter gatherer communities.
The Hadza tribe who live in the Northern part of Tanzania are still following a hunter gatherer nomadic lifestyle. Few Hadza members left their tribe to come and get integrated into the civilization. All their possessions are tools that aid in foraging food. And they show no signs of depression.
They’re always engaged in some kind of labor throughout the day. Either walking to a better place to find shelter under, or do something about finding food and water for the day.
How are the Hadza different from employees who work throughout the day in their corporate offices, or those that have to hustle three day jobs to feed their family on a minimum wage?
The Hadza work for themselves. While employees have to work for their bosses. Even if you are a boss, or a personal business, you don’t get to keep your entire income, you have to pay taxes.
Now the question arises, to those who are sick of the capitalist culture of capitalism, to those who want to find a spiritual reprieve away from the noise, to transcend beyond their mind? Will they government allow a large portion of such people to leave their immaculately constructed cities and countries, to lead a hunter gatherer life, away from taxes, and civilization, and meaningless competition?
Of course, the government won’t allow it. It is absolutely illegal to secede from the state. Or to even make an attempt to secede from the state.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it — Frédéric Bastiat
Do we deserve to to have the option to break away from civilization, and live a hunter gatherer life? No, we don’t deserve it. Because we are responsible for what we have become today.
