LifeCycle – As seen in History
— March 25, 2014Humans as a species evolved into existence a million years ago. From the initial existence as hunter-gatherers, we as a species developed civilizations. Man’s discovery of agriculture 25,000 years ago proved to be a turning point in our history as historian and author Jared Diamond describes in his classic work “The Third Chimpanzee”
- Action and Sleep
- Fight and Flight
- Mating and Refusal
- Acquisition and Avoidance
- Association and Privacy
- Parental care and Freedom from responsibility
As we might observe there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these qualities, but one is good for the society and the other is good for the individual. As the popular indian mythological character “Krishna” proclaims in the indian epic “Mahabharata” written by Veda Vyasa. “There is nothing Good or Bad in this world.. rather world is a continuous cycle of cause and effect”
- Order and Liberty
- Paganism and Puritanism
- Equality and Concentration of wealth and power
- Growth and Decay
- Peace and War
History is filled with periods where one of these forces was dominant only to be replaced by the counteracting force, in that sense we have not changed much. We have only changed the means in which these forces manifest themselves.
This brings us to the painful question. Is our existence meaningless, is it a continuous yet mindless cycle of creation and distraction of one order by other. From Monarchy to Democracy and back to Monarchy, from strict order of morals and religion to a laxity of morals and scientific progress only to be replaced by yet another religion and strict moral code. Has human kind made progress ?
If we define progress in terms of standard of living, child mortality, availability of food , breeding opportunity and better governance for the society – we have made tremendous progress. But these are elemental aspects of life and mankind has moved beyond animals in the basic aspects of life a long time back.
As Will Durant has eloquently started the progress of humanity is in the fact that we are able to provide a better pedestal built on the foundation of rich heritage and technology to each generation so that they can carry forward “The Quest” of humanity.
In the end whether man wins over universe or the universe wins over him, it’s the man who emerges as the victor because he is the one who knows “who he is”
Picture credits –
- http://www.telegraphcrossfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/evolution-man-computer.gif
- http://0.tqn.com/d/ancienthistory/1/0/F/b/2/Belisarius_by_Francois-Andre_Vincent.jpg
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The Economic Cycle | Bits:)Business
With the competition for jobs being more fierce
in this economy, the more diverse skill sets that you have, the better off you will
be!