primitive vs advanced

May 15 2008
Every day I get an email from Encyclopaedi Britannica about what happened on this day in history. It is so interesting to find out the evolution of human society as recorded by western civilization, that kept good records of their culture. In contrast eastern societies did not keep any record and hence all are speculation, even though they had progressed far in science, philiosphpy, art, music and engineering as demonstrated in the construction of giant temple complexes.

The email also points to the wars, to the injustice and violence done to one culture by another supposedly better and civilized one. To me it seems as if the concept of superiority based on bringing peace, happiness and satisfaction to a society, then the primitive societies were much better than the dog eats dog societies of the technocrats. It is obvious that modern amenities have brought many gadgets to make life much easier to live with, from GPS systems to air conditioning. However are we more content and human than our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago or than those who still live that way untouched by so called modernity?

I see more and more people including scientists turning to the processes established thousands of years ago to eliminate human suffering by means of yoga, mediation, chanting and introspection, thus eliminating the business aspect of health care, which is mostly designed to keep the patient alive and the disease uneliminated, so that there is a long term dependence on medicine that can sustain the drug industry. Of course there are some exceptions such as eradication of smallpox.