"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said."
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.
“People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
– Greta Thunberg
Welcome to the Holocene Extinction, the latest of the last 6 events where 75% of all life on Earth has become extinct.
Obviously, humans are making things worse, but the sad truth is we're just along for the ride for this one with a front row seat. Planet Earth will recover just like it always has, and natural selection will determine who and what survives, just like it always has.
@pinskal Priorities of those making the priorities is what this is. Mass extinction doesn't look like a problem to capitalists, billionaires and their cronies.
Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping - positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and straw man. Thus segregation wasn't necessary to keep the niggers in line; it was necessary to protect the honor of white women.
@pinskal Image description:
A bunch of white men in business suits around a conference table.
Senate GOP meeting this morning.
"Before we discuss raising taxes on the poor & middle class, adding $1 trillion to the
deficit, taking health insurance away from 13 million, raising premiums by 10%.
defending treason and swearing in a pedophile, let's begin with a prayer."
A moment of sympathy for conservatives in the House and Senate. Their pastors are very very busy people and have little time to guide their flock. Never fear, their faith is working it’s magic as it pushes through the guts US political system
Random fun film fact: The crow in It’s a Wonderful Life seen in the Building & Loan that Uncle Billy kept as a pet is the same crow that flew on Scarecrow’s arm in The Wizard of Oz whom he was unable to scare. His name was Jimmy and he was a raven who first appeared in You Can’t Take It With You directed by Frank Capra who went on to cast the bird in every subsequent movie he made.
The water in your body is just visiting. It was a thunderstorm a week ago. It will be the ocean soon enough. Most of your cells come and go like morning dew. We are more weather pattern than stone monument. Sunlight on mist. Summer lightning. Your choices outweigh your substance.
~ Jarod K. Anderson Field Guide to the Haunted Forest; The Cryptonaturalist