Human History in 10 Bullets

Asking the question, “who am I?”, eventually dissolves into, “who are we?”. Then, what choice is there, other than to investigate BACKWARDS?

As philosopher David Byrne once asked: “How Did I Get Here?

For what it’s worth- 100s of research hours are behind these bullets (authoritative material linked). This is intentionally succinct, accentuating bits that’ve maximally influenced modern life, and frankly, how chaotic it all is.

Enjoy.

Distilled Human History

In sum: we humans work and grow like mad, mindlessly, even in the face of scarce resources and apparent environmental consequences. Meanwhile, culture (our shared idea space) expands and becomes more complex, aimlessly, which has profound implications on our ability to understand and navigate life. This is not inherently good or bad – it just is – the raw force of humanity, the raw force of life, the raw force of the universe which contains and somehow catalyzed all of it. Wow. While each of us might sit and wonder about various “ideal trajectories” for humanity, we in fact, have minimal control over any of it. (Though, I insist, all the more reason to find peace. In some sense, whatever happens, it’s all us.)

Inevitable Weirdness

[Serendipitously, found this the next day. This is not a claim to overlap fully with Terrence, but, we are certainly alluding to a similar insight – culture complexity and weirdness seems inevitable.]

Yikes. Also, cool.

Is it rational to conclude this is pure chaos? Yes.
Is it rational to worry? Nah.

Suggestions:

Note-to-self: Don’t get swept up in culture’s gnarliest undertoes. It, after all, has no idea where it’s going. While this very short story of humanity unfurls, it is possible to step aside from it and be easy, and not flare its seemingly repugnant bits. Be the change, as they say. Life remains a fascinating mystery – regardless of what humanity-at-large is up to.

As I just mentioned to a friend:

“What I am most grateful for in my life, is the ability to fully recognize how unbelievably beautiful it all us, while not fully in the grips of the interpretations and narratives.”


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