Hi Rog, Sam:
Getting caught up on some old posts.
>From ZMM:
> "It's sometimes argued that there's no real progress; that a civilisation
> that kills multitudes in mass warfare, that polluted the land and oceans
> with every larger quantities of debris, that destroys the dignity of
> individuals by subjecting them to a forced mechanized existence can hardly
> be called an advance over the simpler hunting and gathering and
> agricultural existence of prehistoric times. But this argument, though
> romantically appealing, doesn't hold up. The primitive tribes permitted far
> less individual freedom than does modern society. Ancient wars were
> committed with far less moral justification than modern ones. A technology
> that produces debris can find, and is finding, ways of disposing of it
> without ecological upset. And the schoolbook pictures of primitive man
> sometimes omit some of the detractions of his primitive life - the pain,
> the disease, famine, the bare hard labour needed just to stay alive. From
> that agony of bare existence to modern life can be soberly described only
> as upward progress...."
Sam:
> (p 121 in my copy of ZMM)
>
> I agreed with that when I first read it, and I still agree with it now.
Me too.
Platt
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:50 BST