Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Naturalized Uniformity

If customs and conventions were unnatural, it would have to follow that humans were able to construct something unnatural. How much arrogance and pride lie behind the assumptions first that we would be able to do such a thing, and second that we would be wise enough to naturalize ourselves by way of correction?

4 comments:

Gopher said...

They're not unnatural... this could easily go onto the discussion over what control humans really have over society compared to society over humans.

If they were unnatural then I suppose "man" is more powerful than I suspect. My whole belief system is in the fight against societal constructs.

Nature's Rebel said...

It does go easily into that discussion. In fact it's meant to. A huge debate exists among evolutionists as to whether or not human society is an extension of evolved human behavior. Logically, to me at least, it has to be. But many people vehemently argue against that, claiming that society develops in some sort of environment (I don't know a better word for it, because it makes no sense to me) of its own. I've not only never seen a convincing argument in favor of that, but I've never seen one that I could understand. Again, I would direct you into Evolutionary Psychology. That's where the great debates are taking place these days.

I don't expect that you've gone back into my archives, but I'm building themes here. If you get the chance, take a look at my post from Sept. 6 and see what you think.

Gopher said...

Read the 'Secret Agents' article. I think I get your general theme, but I will see where it goes. I really don't know that much about philosophy, I'm just not somebody that sits and watches society move without questioning what controls the strings.

Nature's Rebel said...

Your suspicions about who is controlling the strings give you the insight to follow me, even when I get unfortunately technical. It is important for me to remain intelligible, even if only at the level of gut feel, like a melody that for some reason raises the hair on your arms. I am not writing for the philosophically instructed, that is to say, the scholars. Quite the contrary. They are a target of a different sort.