The Agricultural revolution: man's greatest travesty
Modern man has only been around for 20,000 years. We've spent 12,000 years of that time fumbling about, not evolving much, not getting much done. Then,
BOOM!
Farming. Progression for our species from this point onward took on exponential growth. The class did some research regarding specific things within the food industry, to be formed for an infographic for presentation at our class exhibition. (Same day as the Spanish Market day.) My research follows:
Making an infographic
Before beginning work on designing the layout for an infographic, I gathered information on something that I found interesting, and relevant to the issues of the modern food system. I identified the key informational points of this paper and presented them in a visually appealing manner in the following infographic.
While it wasn't much explored in the research paper presented above, I have found that the reason for adopting a super industrialized food system is really characterized through the American War Effort. There was far more to the national rationing system then simply "producing field rations". Civilian rationing of specific foods, and food groups like meats and dairy products forced American farmers to adopt specialization. Gone were the days of good ol' farmer Joe growing a variety of crops and raising different animals. "Farmers" became beef farmers, dairy farmers, corn farmers. People change their context, their environment. This brings me to an unexpected, large philosophical realization that I had over the course of this year.
HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM:The idea that man is somehow different from all the other life on the planet, and that makes us deserving of rights that all other life is not allowed. The same can be said about the attitude of the individual versus the rest of mankind. People optimize their surroundings to fit their needs, shaping and manipulating all around them to acquiesce an entirely new purpose. People would rather alter the context they live in, to live in the comfort of technology and specialization rather than adapt to a dynamic and changing world. As mentioned last post, this on a global scale has devolved into the mass systemic manipulation of the lifecycles of the domestic crop, and livestock. This isn't relegated specifically to the food industry, but all production systems generally. (Switch out plants and livestock for whatever goes into that product, and you've got an endless cycle of litany and excess.) Nearly two centuries of industrial evolution has led to the modern consumerist identity that has such a tight grip on American culture. Purchases from the growing middle class shift further away from raw necessity, and more commodity products. As is the issue with monoculture, our society has become so deeply ingrained in industrialization, and that's unlikely to change within our lifetimes. So the question becomes:
WHY BOTHER? |
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Why bother pointlessly struggling to adopt change, when what we've been doing seems to work for us? We know that there are inherent flaws with the way things work. Inequities, long term viability. And that latter thing is the key term really. Long term viability. Every generation passes it's unresolved issues onto the next, and it's ball is in the park for millennials to take a swing at the inherently connected issues of global warming, monoculture, and industrialization.
As for the individual, the question becomes,
"Why bother changing for a world that won't change for me?"
I want to answer this question in terms of my own life. The uncertainty of the future terrifies me. No one can predict the outcome of one’s life regardless of any planning. Despite any sort of intervention, things within the grand scale of things will simply carry along as if you had never existed. So, what is the point?
What I’ve just done is wasted your time, while you read the above passages trying to derive an ultimate meaning from the chaotic mess of words. There was nothing to be had in the end of it all. There was no common correlation between any of these paragraphs other than this: There was no answer. Life is a cruel litany and excess of ironic futility. Men are born fumbling about, searching for meaning which cannot be attained. The question of “Are we significant?” can only be pacified by those who relish in the universe’s total indifference to our existence. Having taken God-like power, we must look to ourselves for meaning. In the end is the word, and the word is man, and the word is with man.
Although, really, I don't care. I don't want to waste my hours away trying to solve something I don't really care about. I'll just yell about it a bit, and leave someone else to actually solve the problem later. In the meantime, I'll be playing Counter-Strike or something.
As for the individual, the question becomes,
"Why bother changing for a world that won't change for me?"
I want to answer this question in terms of my own life. The uncertainty of the future terrifies me. No one can predict the outcome of one’s life regardless of any planning. Despite any sort of intervention, things within the grand scale of things will simply carry along as if you had never existed. So, what is the point?
What I’ve just done is wasted your time, while you read the above passages trying to derive an ultimate meaning from the chaotic mess of words. There was nothing to be had in the end of it all. There was no common correlation between any of these paragraphs other than this: There was no answer. Life is a cruel litany and excess of ironic futility. Men are born fumbling about, searching for meaning which cannot be attained. The question of “Are we significant?” can only be pacified by those who relish in the universe’s total indifference to our existence. Having taken God-like power, we must look to ourselves for meaning. In the end is the word, and the word is man, and the word is with man.
Although, really, I don't care. I don't want to waste my hours away trying to solve something I don't really care about. I'll just yell about it a bit, and leave someone else to actually solve the problem later. In the meantime, I'll be playing Counter-Strike or something.