Crazy Cavemen In Suits

It took me seven years as an environmental activist to realize the real problem with our movement — we are competing against 5 million years of human evolution. Human behavior is hard-wired and there's little we can do to change it, but there's some things we can do to manipulate it. In fact, the most successful people are the ones who understand human animal behavior, and can exploit a person's weaknesses for their benefit.

To understand a human you must first understand that we've only been "civilized" in our little farming communities for about 10,000 years. But for 4,990,000 years we were ape men, and once we got the hang of fire, about 100,000 years ago, we started becoming cavemen.

So, if you want to motivate people to move in a certain direction, don't just think about the folks living in cozy farm villages, but rather think about your ancestors who were living millions of years without fire. Imagine those dark, cold nights, living in constant fear of what might eat you.

Just like with an iceberg, don't focus on the small part sticking above the water, but think of the 90% of the ice that is under the dark water — that's the part that wrecks ships.

A fellow activist once told me I could learn a lot by first studying my pets, and that has become a regular pastime. In some ways my two dogs and cat are remarkably smart, but in other ways they are amazingly dumb. The same holds true for humans.

The 10K Loop
To cover the pros and cons of human animals would take a book. I'll just cover one right now — our brains have a real problem thinking long-term. For we environmentalists, this is a huge problem because our most important work is long-term. In fact, the majority of environmentalists prefer to work on short-term projects like cleaning streams and planting trees, and those who work on big picture issues like climate change and population are a special breed, indeed.

Let me give an example of where this short-term thinking will lead us. In the near future either the United States or China will collapse. It doesn't matter which one because when one falls the other will fall. There will be extreme violence, cannibalism, and other unpleasant things. In the end, we'll learn that the only way to survive is to create local economic units that do not rely on global commerce. These units will be like, yeah, like the small farming communities we started out with 10,000 years ago. So, it's as if our short-term thinking keeps us on a short-term cycle.

Hopefully, we won't radiate the world with a global nuke exchange, and hopefully we won't ruin our climate too badly before the cheap oil runs out. If we somehow survive those two challenges then we have a chance of creating a perpetually sustainable society — one that will provide a quieter and more simple life.

So ....
Our current world economy is the manifestation of all that is wrong with humanity. Soon, it will collapse, and I'm hoping the new economy will reflect all that is right with humanity.

Sincerely,

The Goose