We are a Work in Progress
More exposure to violence doesn’t imply the violence is new.
The violence is old, we just haven’t been aware of it hitherto.
The horrific treatment of low-caste people (especially women) in India is a case-in-point. Outrage is leading (at glacial speeds, unfortunately) to a positive change in this area.
Again, this is evidence of humans getting better.
Better, not worse.
Both our better access to, and our lowering tolerance for violence have been largely responsible for the drop in violence throughout our history.
It’s a bit paradoxical, when you think about it. The more violence we witness, the more we despair, the more outraged we become, the less outrages we commit, and the more we strive to reduce the offenses to our fellows everywhere.
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Are we rapacious species destroyers, the likes of which Earth hasn’t seen since the Jurassic extinction event?
Perhaps. Probably.
The Sad Truth of our Past
15,000 years ago, North America was home to several species of megafauna including:
- giant sloths;
- short-faced bears;
- several species of tapirs;
- the American lion;
- giant tortoises;
- Miracinonyx A.K.A. the American cheetah, who was not a true cheetah;
- saber-toothed cats like Smilodon and the scimitar cat;
- dire wolves;
- camelids such as two species of now extinct llamas and Camelops;
- the stag-moose;
- the shrub-ox and Harlan’s muskox;
- fourteen species of pronghorn, thirteen of which are now extinct;
- horses;
- mammoths and mastodons;
- the Beautiful Armadillo (the actual name of this animal);
- the giant armadillo-like Glyptotherium;
- giant beavers;
- birds like giant condors and other teratorns;
- The nine-foot sabertooth salmon.
Where’d they go?
The earliest immigrants to the Americas—the ancestors of the Amerind—drove them to extinction by about 10,000 B.C.E.
(Vide: Wikipedia)
Is this malice? Are we just evil?
No.
Greedy in many cases. Short-sighted much of the time.
Ignorant of the long-term consequences of much of our behavior?
Yes. Definitely yes.
Remember Hanlon’s Razor. Malice is only the answer when there’s no way it can be anything else.
Remember also that determining the long-term consequences of our actions is the life’s work of many, many people.
Again, it’s a matter of numbers.
