Great posts.
I long for community too. I wonder if it possible for humans to build a community that gives you a sense of kinship and belonging without all the group-think and us-versus-them mentality that comes with it.
What are the minimal accomplishments needed to satisfy you?
- Thread starter Gameface
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Great posts.
I long for community too. I wonder if it possible for humans to build a community that gives you a sense of kinship and belonging without all the group-think and us-versus-them mentality that comes with it.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
It's a great question. I found that a good way to partially answer it is to have more relationships with animals. Y'all can tease me for that sounding hippy if you want to. I don't think it's that. They provide strong difference without any enmity. That's awesome. People will always be harder in that respect.
Reminds me the old adage, "God please let me be half the guy my dog thinks I am."
I think children are better than non-human animals in that regard. But then they grow up.
I don't think it's hippy. I think it's human nature. We have domesticated to one level or another lots of animals. Dogs, cats, pigs, birds, horses...
I have two dogs and they are part of the family. They sleep in my room, play with the kids, eat Saturday morning breakfast with us, go on walks...house would feel less without them.
Domestication of animals served a practical purpose. The connection people have with animals stems from the same emotional need we require from one another. It is not animal specific.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure these animals have domesticated me.
That's partly a joke, but also true. It's also a chance to say that both species are dramatically altered anytime there's a "domestication."
We must remember that we've been on this planet for somewhere around 200,000 years.
For more than 99% of that time we have lived in small villages and interacting with very few outside our clan.
I think our DNA (if you will) has gone completely haywire with our world becoming so "small" just in the past 25 years or so (internet, social media, etc). We haven't 'evolved' our social, intellectual, and emotional selves in stride.
Socially and emotionally retarded, if you will.
I think animals (and kids) are magnetic for us because those beings are simpler, purer, and more reminiscent of what our 'dna' had gotten used to over a period of about 198,000 years.
For more than 99% of that time we have lived in small villages and interacting with very few outside our clan.
I think our DNA (if you will) has gone completely haywire with our world becoming so "small" just in the past 25 years or so (internet, social media, etc). We haven't 'evolved' our social, intellectual, and emotional selves in stride.
Socially and emotionally retarded, if you will.
I think animals (and kids) are magnetic for us because those beings are simpler, purer, and more reminiscent of what our 'dna' had gotten used to over a period of about 198,000 years.
I agree. Nothing in here alters my statement. Good post.
