Posted by Gracie2 on October 23, 2001, at 22:20:18
In reply to Maybe God(s), or whoever, overdid it?, posted by jay on October 22, 2001, at 0:13:20
There is no doubt that we have by-passed evolution, a process that sometimes takes millions of years. Just one example is the raging hormones of young teenagers; at one time, 30 was an old age, so it was necessary for very young teens to reproduce and raise their young before they died. Nowadays it is not only unneccessary
but shameful for a 14-year-old to be pregnant. However, nature still designs us in this fashion;
females begin to menustrate and are able to bear children around the age of 12 or 13, the same time that males become exceedingly interested in sex.I have no doubt that feelings of panic and anxiety
are an evolutionary development that were, at one point, necessary for survival. In fact, even beyond the stone age, it was common for a village to be attacked and overrun; often wartime was more common than peace, and the atrocities committed by invading armies are almost beyond our comprehension (i.e. Vlad the Impaler, the model for Bram Stoker's "Dracula", preferred to impale people through the anus on spikes that were
"not too sharp", so the victims died slowly). With those kind of maniacs running around, and this being the normal state of things for hundreds of thousands of years, it is no wonder that mankind developed a kind of permanent angst.In most societies, it is no longer necessary to constantly be on guard, walling oneself up in castles and that sort of thing. Still, due to evolution, many of us still suffer from anxiety and panic and feelings of persecution. Prehaps the people that don't have these feelings are superior to us on an evolutionary scale, as society has become more peaceful and civilized;
again, we have to consider the very, very slow process of evolution. (I, myself, was born without two wisdom teeth; at one time wisdom teeth must have been necessary or we wouldn't have them; now we must have them pulled to avoid decay and deformity. Thousands of years from now, if we haven't done away with ourselves completely,
probably nobody will be born with wisdom teeth as we don't need them.) On the other hand, even though it's a small consolation, people who are basically mild-mannered and lack these feelings of panic and anxiety would have been, thousands of years ago, sliding down poles inserted through their anus while WE would have been packed up and moved far away before the invading army arrived.Still, I agree with you - if we can overcome these feelings of panic and persecution, let's do it...not only is it the best thing for us, it's best for society in general; while women generally internalize their anger, which causes enough harm to themselves and their family, men sometimes "go postal" and reek untold havoc, blaming others for their anger. If you need help, get help; like you said, kick it's ass.
-Gracie
poster:Gracie2
thread:12842
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011015/msgs/12904.html