A Paleolithic Mindset: The 21st century is leaving the U.S. in the dust

[Demeter]

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_donald_a_061019_a_paleolithic_mindse.htm


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October 20, 2006

A Paleolithic Mindset: The 21st century is leaving the U.S. in the dust

By Donald Archer

Trapped like dinosaurs, our national political representatives and the interests who support them are mired in a Paleolithic mindset that is condemning us all to oblivion. This mindset equates intransigence with integrity, corporate interest with national interest, military might with security, and negotiation with weakness; and the delusion is making the world increasingly dangerous.

These frozen individuals are so obsessed with, and blinded by, their twisted idea of how the world should be that they can't see how the world is---how it works, or what it needs. In their skewed vision of entitlement, only the very wealthy---those who have profited from the infrastructure that all of society has provided---are entitled to healthcare, education, opportunity, and economic security; everyone else is simply entitled to the misery they find themselves in. This Paleolithic mindset sees all the world's resources as means of private profit, to be selfishly plundered in the moment rather than as a collective common to be shared judiciously for generations to come.

This mindset does not believe in constitutional government---government that protects the interests of the people against the tyranny of concentrated power and wealth, and founded on the authority of law, not dictatorship. From a Paleolithic point of view, power and violence take the place of reason and compassion. This mindset has contempt for the democratic process itself. It sees authority as supreme---"I'm the decider!" It rigs elections and calls it democracy. It considers the citizenry as dependent and immature---as vassals who need continual guidance and control, and who must be manipulated by constant fear.

This mindset sees no ethical contradiction or moral lapse in putting others in harm's way while evading such vulnerability itself, nor does it have a problem with sending living-wage jobs offshore while denying American unemployed workers a social safety-net. This mindset believes that ends justify means. For example, such an archaic consciousness will finance and support terrorist groups and terrorist activities if it perceives that such actions will further its interests or weaken its enemy; and it will undermine legal and democratic processes that it believes hinder its efforts. It will then deny that its actions have led to the calamities it faces.

(ADDITIONAL POINTS--SEE ARTICLE)

Note: Paleolithic is being used for poetic effect to convey the sense of an outmoded and archaic mindset. My apologies to those real Paleolithic cultures that were more civilized and civil than the current mindset.



Authors Website: http://www.DonaldArcher.com

Authors Bio: Donald Archer is a painter, observer, and commentator living on California's Central Coast.