While giving my students a lesson on the elements of culture I had an epiphany.
We all need to go back to our tribes and forsake all forms of government.
As I write this, computers are alerting the CIA of my whereabouts and a van has mysteriously appeared outside of my home.
What defines a culture? Religion, language, music, customs, geography, professions, and governments are all pieces of the picture according to my teacher’s edition. I thought to myself, “Governments are part of our culture?” I suppose at one time they were. We’ve gone from alpha males to chiefs to kings to emperors to priests to dictators in a relatively short amount of time. Government as we know it has been forming ever since the first person said to the rest of his tribe, “What’re you lookin’ at, punk ass?”
At least in tribal days one could answer that question by clubbing that person in the face with a cactus. In archaeological terms, we call this a coup d’etat.
I think that if most of us had a choice between having to make our own fire every day or sit in gridlocked traffic every morning and evening we'd take the fire. If we had to forage for our own food or pay insurance deductibles we'd forage. If we had to be disfigured by a grizzly bear because we thought a cave was unoccupied or pay taxes for the rest of our lives we'd take the grizzly bear.
If anyone needs me I'll be building a tree house and instigating a nuclear winter.
No comments:
Post a Comment