humans have moved away from our 'biological destiny'

[Debbie]

I found this article very interesting.

Of course I know it's not going to make everyone see the possible benefits of giving a shit about others or at least make the world a better place with all the violence.

But it is food for thought. Was there less crime 100 years ago because we were more community minded and knew our neighbours and would help a stranger and were less disconnected from our what was happening around us?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/...s-have-moved-away-from-our-biological-destiny


"As a species we're born to cooperate – like most other species – we're born to live together in functioning communities, so you've just got to say the reason why so many people are so miserable and the reason so many people in particular are so anxious is that they don't have this sense of being connected, to their communities and neighbourhoods."

 

[Aglaopheme]

I think the issue started before this article states and was born of a concerted effort to divide people. I stated it in another thread if yours, I've lived more than half of my life as the new girl. That has had zero affect on my compassion for people. In fact, I think it has made me more understanding and compassionate. I people need to experience more than just their communities.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Finding happiness in a community, in 1917, in America ? It was the eve of great change. Many were rooted in communities. But the USA was big enough, to permit new communities to grow.

I suppose that would depend on who you were, and what your immediate community was like.


Native Americans were not happy with losing their ancestral lands, their ancestors, and their relatives. Minority communities were not happy with inequality, but it was better than it had been. (Slavery)

Pregnant women in America were better informed, better care was made available. The government took an interest in improving the health of babies and children. Women began their fight for equality, making legal rights for women accessible. Food and drugs had some oversight. Much of America was still rural, but attention and improvements were developed.

World War I changed and shifted the Olde World, but it also interrupted the flow towards the improvement, of the circumstances of living.

The Roaring Twenties were on their way. Affordable cars, booze, new music, inter-racial communities in the cities. Jobs, money, and leisure activities, for (nearly) everyone. A truly "mobile" society. The beginning that touched off the loss of Olde Communities.

 

[Hypoxia]

Humans have no 'destiny'. We'll do what we do so long as we survive.

There were no "good old days." Life is much better than a century ago.

Follow a golden rule: treat others like you would have them treat you.

 

[Colonel Hogan]

I found this article very interesting.

Of course I know it's not going to make everyone see the possible benefits of giving a shit about others or at least make the world a better place with all the violence.

But it is food for thought. Was there less crime 100 years ago because we were more community minded and knew our neighbours and would help a stranger and were less disconnected from our what was happening around us?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/...s-have-moved-away-from-our-biological-destiny


"As a species we're born to cooperate – like most other species – we're born to live together in functioning communities, so you've just got to say the reason why so many people are so miserable and the reason so many people in particular are so anxious is that they don't have this sense of being connected, to their communities and neighbourhoods."

I don't believe for one minutes that "as a species we're born to cooperate." As Hypoxia says, as a species we are simply born to survive. We learned to cooperate as a function of joining the herd.

However, in direct response to your question, I do think there was a social structure 100 years ago that created better bonding within "the herd." Urban neighborhoods were more cohesive. Smaller lot sizes. People often worked in close proximity to where they lived. Hour-long, cross-town commutes were rare if not unheard of. There were far less distractions and demands on our time. There was no television and even after TV was commonplace, there were only three major networks for many years. People didn't run around taking kids to soccer practice and piano lessons. People came home from work and socialized WITH their neighbors. The front porch was a major community social forum.

All of that produced an intimacy that had a deterrent effect on crime.

Just my two pennies.

 

[Hypoxia]

However, in direct response to your question, I do think there was a social structure 100 years ago that created better bonding within "the herd." Urban neighborhoods were more cohesive. Smaller lot sizes. People often worked in close proximity to where they lived. Hour-long, cross-town commutes were rare if not unheard of. There were far less distractions and demands on our time. There was no television and even after TV was commonplace, there were only three major networks for many years. People didn't run around taking kids to soccer practice and piano lessons. People came home from work and socialized WITH their neighbors. The front porch was a major community social forum.

For any who look back to a golden age, I'll refer you to archivist Otto Bettmann's classic The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! Crime, corruption, horrible work conditions, filth, degradation, discrimination were rampant. "Gangs of New York" whitewashed into "Little Rascals" and the latter remains in golden memory.

Bettmann here chronicled pre-WWI USA. Jump the clock to post-WWII, with USA as the world's economic powerhouse after most other industrial states were destroyed, and yeah, it was good times here -- for WASP men. Not so good for everyone else. Old white guys tend to gloss-over that memory.

All of that produced an intimacy that had a deterrent effect on crime.

Such intimacy also led to under-reporting crime, "not airing our dirty linen in public" as with familial abuse, and neglecting crimes with underclass victims. And many who would have been institutionalized in mental institutions then, now end up in prison. IMHO such skews crime statistics.

 

[Richard_P_Feynman]

As a species we're born to cooperate – like most other species – we're born to live together in functioning communities, so you've just got to say the reason why so many people are so miserable and the reason so many people in particular are so anxious is that they don't have this sense of being connected, to their communities and neighbourhoods.

I enjoy scouring the futurist literature, and I try to stay abreast of the latest, bleeding-edge research and technology. So the notion of humanity outpacing its biological destiny is one with which I'm familiar. But there are a couple sticking points for me, with the above except. That most species live together in communities - they don't; most species on Earth are bacterial. That technology is already in a position to predicate against biological nature - this is doubtful. And that humanity is born to cooperate - I think this can be more properly phrased as "most humans, most of the time, in most circumstances have a capacity for social cooperation, by nature."

 

[Richard_P_Feynman]

I'm rethinking my first objection. We need to distinguish senses of community. The sense of human social community is distinct from the biological sense of bacterial community.

 

[LIVINRFANTASIES]

Denny

The front porch swing!

When was the last time you saw or used one?

We've always had a front porch swing where family and neighbors could sit and relax.

In Florida we lived in the woods 400' from the dirt road. We didn't have a front porch swing. I chained a board across two trees and placed a front porch swing on it. I added a sign OLD TRUCKER'S LIARS SWING.
I was a trucker and so were a lot of our retired friends. We sat out on the swing under the Grand Daddy Oaks and lied about truckin, fishin, wimmin, and life.

We moved back to Illinois. Our front porch swing is a glider on the covered patio between the house and garage. The neighbors on the short lane see us, stop, sit, and we talk about the past and the future.

Everyone needs a front porch swing and a smile on their faces. I have no idea what our destiny is. But it won't be long.