Primitive vs. Modern

Favoring the modern over the primitive is one of the basic aspects of society. And there are certainly areas of human activity where a choice of the modern over the primitive is advisable. But when it comes to us (or our bodies if you will), primitive is as good as it gets.

We are what we are because of eons of adaptation (through natural selection) to a primitive environment. The optimal conditions for human life are far more primitive than those in which most people choose to live. And yet, the same error is repeated over and over again. Man thinks he can outsmart Nature. He thinks he can create for himself a better environment, better than that very environment that created him! Nature gave Man the power to adapt, to grow, to harden. Instead, Man chooses to adapt everything else to himself. For Nature also gave him the want for comfort, the instinct to avoid suffering whenever possible. A "control mechanism", a feeling of disgust for a life of excessive comfort wasn't all that important in the primitive world. The world itself was tough, forcing Man to be strong, so he never really needed to develop such an instinct.

There is no such thing as excessive comfort for today's Man. Weak, tired, sickly, burnt out from all those empty pleasures, he just keeps spiraling down. He doesn't feel well. What does he do? He tries to fix the problem by taking in more of that which caused it. Larger and larger doses are needed to achieve the same effect. Must be the commonest vicious cycle there is.

But a wise man knows nature can't be outsmarted and strives for the life that shaped his ancestors. Comfort is no substitute for freedom, just as pleasure is no substitute for power.