By Rose C.

Humanity has reached a point where its ultimate goal is to produce the most technological advancements in as little time as possible. 

But before humans were scientists, politicians, or even insurance salesmen, we were farmers. And before we were farmers, humans were hunter-gatherers. 

Sapiens developed the ability to stand upright about 1.8 million years ago. At this time people lived in small groups and circulated around certain areas of wilderness, gathering the fruits of the land and hunting the animals they could find. Hence the name ‘hunter-gatherers’. 

Then, through the process of natural selection, farming was born. Agrarian societies, where a basis in farming enabled the division of labor, popped up all over the world.  And just like that, humans all over the world could divert their energy to more “useful” practices: creating the automobile, discovering the atom bomb, and inventing ways for people to do as little work as possible. We moved indoors and everything from our muscles to our cortexes (a part of the brain associated with comprehension and motor skills) grew thinner. We grew accustomed to the fact that we owned the globe and could do what we wanted with it, without thought to anything else that might matter more than our advancement. 

True, there are benefits of agrarian society. Modern science has brought us a better understanding of the world we live in, not to mention countless life saving vaccines and medical procedures. There are now more ways than ever to access information and spread ideas. 

But the costs of civilization greatly outweigh the benefits. Most, if not all of the problems we face today are symptoms-not of problems within our society-but of the problem of society itself. 

Take any modern issue: Racism, Global Warming, government corruption, or even depression. They can all be traced back to civilization.

If one acknowledges that America’s racist foundation is rooted in slavery, as does Howard Zinn in A People’s History of the United States, then the agrarian need for low-cost laborers to work in cotton fields is a direct example of the way agrarianism is the basis of racism.

If one acknowledges that the rapid warming of the planet is due to human pollution, overpopulation, and damage of natural habitats, then it can be said that Agrarianism is not at all healthy for the earth, much less those inhabiting it.

If one acknowledges the fact that government corruption is rooted in the construct of currency, which is rooted in the idea of work and trade in agrarianism, then it can be said that the rise of Agrarian societies has led not to the prosperity of the American people but rather to their starvation and inequality.

It is not a coincidence that during the time of the greatest innovation humankind has ever experienced, we are also the most depressed. “Clinical depression has surged to epidemic proportions in recent decades,” says The Guardian. “From 2005-15, cases of depressive illness increased by nearly a fifth.” Could this be because the human brain is not equipped to deal with the increasing number of stimulants set in front of it by modern society?

Hunter gatherers lived in small groups of around 50 individuals, and their one and only goal was to stay alive. They weren’t asking themselves, “Am I happy?” or “What is the meaning of life?” They were living only in the moments provided for them by the land. 

In fact, there are a few hunter-gatherer societies still on this earth. Examples include the Bushman tribes of Southern Africa, the Inuit peoples of the Arctic, and the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon. Studies of these groups and others like them have shown that their lifestyles are very similar to those of early humans. 

But history, as has been proven to the people of the earth time and time again, is written by the victors. The world has written off the tribes of the earth by brainwashing its people into valuing false convenience over all else. 

And now governments, companies, and organizations are trying to fix the mess we’ve made to our bodies, our culture, and our planet. But, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said,  “you can’t fight fire with fire.” 

Humans will never catch up because we are trying too hard to fix our problems using the very thing that caused them in the first place. We are living in an inherently flawed world, veiled from this fact by a thin line of false beauty and ease of access.