Half 2
In Half 1, I talked concerning the poly-crises humanity is going through. I described Jeremy Rifkin’s new e book, Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Dwelling within the Universe and the way it expands the understanding of our world to acknowledge that our planet is primarily water reasonably than earth. I additionally mentioned the work of James DeMeo who traced the origins of a lot of our present issues to a selected time and place in human historical past–6,000 years in the past within the Center East–and what it could possibly train us about our current predicament and the way to resolve it.
For many of human historical past, regardless of the various challenges of life, people lived in relative peace and prosperity. Of their e book, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Form Our Brains, Lives, and Future, Riane Eisler and Douglas P. Fry, they are saying,
“For the overwhelming majority of the interval that the genus Homo has existed, nomadic foraging constituted the ever present human way of life.”
They go on quote anthropologist M.G. Bicchieri who stated,
“For greater than 99 p.c of the roughly two million years because the emergence of recognizable human animal, man has been a hunter and gatherer.”
Eisler and Fry say our ancestors have been “The Unique Partnership Societies” with the next options of partnership programs that embrace:
- Equality, respect, and partnership between men and women.
- A nonacceptance of violence, warfare, abuse, cruelty, and exploitation.
- Ethics that help human caring, prosocial cooperation, and flourishing.
As James DeMeo’s analysis demonstrated, this lifestyle modified 6,000 years in the past.
“With only a few exceptions, there is no such thing as a clear and unambiguous proof for warfare or social violence on our planet Earth previous to round 4,000 BCE and the earliest proof seems in particular areas, from which it firstly arose, and subtle outward over time to contaminate almost each nook of the globe.”
DeMeo goes on to say,
“An enormous local weather change shook the traditional world, when roughly 6,000 years in the past huge areas of lush grassland and forest within the Outdated World started to shortly dry out and convert into harsh desert. The huge Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, and the large deserts of the Center East and Central Asia merely didn’t exist previous to c.4000 BCE.”
There may be fashionable proof that the realm in query is what had been referred to within the bible as “the Backyard of Eden.” Of their e book, Exiles From Eden: Psychotherapy From an Evolutionary Perspective, Kalman Glantz and John Ok. Pearce cite the work of archaeologist Juris Zarins. He believes this idyllic space of the world now lies underneath the Persian Gulf, downstream from the traditional civilizations that flowed alongside the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. In line with Glantz and Pearce
“Eden was not paradise. It was only a place—a spot the place human beings lived the way in which all people lived earlier than the rise of civilization.”
“The ‘Backyard of Eden’ myths, which exist within the historic literature of many Outdated World cultures, seem like factually rooted on this early interval of socially-cooperative and peaceable social circumstances, when the Saharasia was inexperienced and fruitful,”
says DeMeo.
“Then got here the devastating local weather change in direction of aridity, which shaped the huge Saharasian desert belt, and people have been actually solid ‘out of the backyard’. The remaining is historical past.”
DeMeo’s analysis exhibits that the drought that occurred 6,000 years went on for generations and impacted the lives of all who lived at the moment. Latest analysis on the affect of “Hostile Childhood Experiences,” demonstrates that the results of childhood trauma are lengthy lasting and trigger bodily, emotional, and relational well being issues all through our lives.
“Famine and hunger is a extreme trauma from which survivors hardly ever escape unscathed,”
says DeMeo.
“Lots of people die, households are break up aside, and infants and youngsters are sometimes deserted, and endure enormously. Hunger impacts surviving kids in an emotionally extreme method. These attitudes and behaviors are deeply protoplasmic in nature, and are handed on to ensuing generations it doesn’t matter what the local weather, by social establishments which mirror the character construction of the common particular person at any given time frame.”
Though this type of trauma impacts each women and men, women and men typically take care of the trauma in numerous methods. The comic, Elayne Boosler, affords a humorous, but insightful reflection on this inherent distinction. She says,
“When ladies get depressed they both eat or buy groceries. Males invade one other nation. It’s a complete completely different mind-set.”
In my latest e book, Lengthy Stay Males! The Moonshot Mission to Heal Males, Shut the Lifespan Hole, and Supply Hope to Humanity, my second chapter is titled, “Male Violence is Rising—From Faculty Shootings, to Home Violence and Riot on the US Capitol. From Irritability and Anger to Melancholy and Suicide.”
I am going on to say,
“Males are the ‘canaries within the coal mine,’ alerting us to the necessity for change. Canaries have been utilized in purpose mines as an early warning system for miners. Poisonous gases reminiscent of carbon monoxide and methane within the mine would kill the chook earlier than affecting the miners. Male psychological sickness and breakdown are the world’s early warning indicators of impending disaster. Issues like Irritable Male Syndrome, male melancholy and aggression, and excessive suicide charges are alerting us to the poisonous nature of our present atmosphere and existence.”
Our Moonshot For Mankind and Humanity
We imagine man’s psychological, emotional, and relational well being is the important thing to empowering males to reside lengthy and nicely. Our mission is to assist males reside more healthy, happier, extra cooperative lives—fulfilling lives of function and productiveness, the place males are supported and valued as they make optimistic contributions to their households, mates, and communities. When that occurs, households develop stronger, communities prosper, and humanity takes its subsequent leap ahead.
In 2004 I learn a strong research, “Sexual Choice and the Male:Feminine Mortality Ratio,” by Daniel J. Kruger, PhD and Randolph M. Nesse, M.D. They examined untimely deaths amongst males in 20 international locations. They discovered that in each nation, males died sooner and lived sicker than ladies and their shortened health-span and lifespan harmed the boys and their households. They concluded with quite a few highly effective statements:
- “Being male is now the one largest demographic issue for early demise.”
- “Over 375,000 lives could be saved in a single 12 months within the U.S. alone if males’s threat of dying was as little as ladies’s.”
- “If male mortality charges could possibly be diminished to these for females, this is able to eradicate over one-third of all male deaths under age 50 and assist males of all ages.”
- “When you might make male mortality charges the identical as feminine charges, you’d do extra good than curing most cancers.”
For me, this was a name to motion. I invited quite a few colleagues who have been main organizations that had confirmed profitable in serving to enhance males’s well being. We launched the non-profit, MoonshotForMankind.Org. We invite you to affix us.
We even have an extra solution to share info that may be useful. Come take a look at our Substack, https://substack.com/@moonshotformankind and listen to what our founding members must say.
There are clearly quite a few biologically primarily based the reason why ladies reside longer than males. However we all know that even our genes could be modified by adjustments in our way of life and beliefs about ourselves and the world.
The teachings I’ve realized over time are these:
- We is probably not accountable for the traumatic local weather change that occurred 6,000 years in the past, however we should take duty for our current state of affairs. As they are saying, “Nature bats final.” If people usually are not prepared to alter, nature will pressure the change upon us.
- We’d do nicely to take heed to our animal elders. Most species have been right here longer than us and are higher tailored to life on planet Earth. As historian Thomas Berry reminds us.
“We by no means knew sufficient. Nor have been we sufficiently intimate with all our cousins within the nice household of the earth. Nor might we take heed to the varied creatures of the earth, every telling its personal story. The time has now come, nevertheless, after we will pay attention or we are going to die.”
- After we’re taking place the improper street, it’s by no means too late to show round.
- We could not be capable of flip again to the previous, however we are able to transfer forward to the long run. As Jeremy Rifkin says,
“We have to reset our notion of waters as ‘useful resource’ to 1 the place waters are seen as a ‘life supply.’ We have to adapt to the hydrosphere reasonably than making an attempt to adapt the hydrosphere to us. The subsequent stage within the human saga is to rebrand our residence ‘Planet Aqua’ and study to reside and thrive in new methods on a novel water planet within the universe.”
You’ll be able to study extra about Jeremy Rifkin’s work and his e book, Planet Aqua: Rethinking Our Dwelling within the Universe right here. When you favored this collection of articles and want to learn extra about how we are able to create a wholesome future for ourselves, our youngsters, and future generations, I invite you to join my free weekly e-newsletter. You are able to do so right here: https://menalive.com/email-newsletter/
