Documentary #1
The Nature Of Things with David Suzuki
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/
Apparently we Homo Sapeons haphazardly invented Civilization twelve thousand years ago when the Earth started to dramatically warm up. Back then global warming was a good thing. There were only 3 or 4 million Humans on the planet and they began to spread out across the globe.
Apparently we Homo Sapeons haphazardly invented Civilization twelve thousand years ago when the Earth started to dramatically warm up. Back then global warming was a good thing. There were only 3 or 4 million Humans on the planet and they began to spread out across the globe.
The collective 'We' were roaming bands of hunter/gatherers about to discover that Sedentism, staying in one place, was going to get us into all sorts of trouble.
French Anthropologist Yves_Coppens , the other Anthro-apologist named Coppens, is called upon for his informed opinion on why humans took advantage of the best spots to settle down. I was away at Hecla Island (with the cell phone turned off) so Suzuki probably couldn’t get in touch with me before the show went to air.
Ongoing discoveries at Catal Huyuk, the famous first city in Turkey revealed some interesting details. Did you know that these first city slickers buried their dearly departed directly underneath the floor of their house. People accessed their homes through a rooftop ladder...they did not have ground floor doors. Believe it or not, there wasn't any public space. Imagine building a city without a plan. As if people would just build on top of each other? Pfft! Never Happen.
We learned to gather and store wild plants, build stone houses, and discovered the joy of staying put. Soon we were tearing down forests to plant crops. We had domesticated wolves and now we bred cattle, sheep, horses, goats, and camels. Cats decided to hang out with us because we attracted a lot of mice.
Here begins our fight over Developed Real Estate.
Documentary #2
French Anthropologist Yves_Coppens , the other Anthro-apologist named Coppens, is called upon for his informed opinion on why humans took advantage of the best spots to settle down. I was away at Hecla Island (with the cell phone turned off) so Suzuki probably couldn’t get in touch with me before the show went to air.Ongoing discoveries at Catal Huyuk, the famous first city in Turkey revealed some interesting details. Did you know that these first city slickers buried their dearly departed directly underneath the floor of their house. People accessed their homes through a rooftop ladder...they did not have ground floor doors. Believe it or not, there wasn't any public space. Imagine building a city without a plan. As if people would just build on top of each other? Pfft! Never Happen.
We learned to gather and store wild plants, build stone houses, and discovered the joy of staying put. Soon we were tearing down forests to plant crops. We had domesticated wolves and now we bred cattle, sheep, horses, goats, and camels. Cats decided to hang out with us because we attracted a lot of mice.
Here begins our fight over Developed Real Estate.
Documentary #2
God’s Warriors with Christiane Amanpour
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/
This three part documentary on CNN, was an examination of the extremist Muslim, Jewish, and Christian militants in the modern world. All three factions are equally scary. These elements want to establish a theocratic government, destroy their enemies, and have no reservations about killing the rest of us to prove their beliefs because their god is god.
Here Amanpour reaffirmed my suspicion that the most valuable Real Estate on Earth is the 35 Acres known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the Golden Mosque sits atop the Western Wall. This site is “holy ground” to all three Religions and all hell will break loose when the Mosque is finally destroyed to make way for a new version of Solomon’s Temple.
I made Within Without watch the segment on the Extremist Christian factions in the Southern United States. Many of these ‘zealnuts’ are ready to take down the Federal Government because amongst other things, their kids were being taught in their Sex-Ed Class in Public Secular Schools, that Oral Sex is OK.
This three part documentary on CNN, was an examination of the extremist Muslim, Jewish, and Christian militants in the modern world. All three factions are equally scary. These elements want to establish a theocratic government, destroy their enemies, and have no reservations about killing the rest of us to prove their beliefs because their god is god.
Here Amanpour reaffirmed my suspicion that the most valuable Real Estate on Earth is the 35 Acres known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the Golden Mosque sits atop the Western Wall. This site is “holy ground” to all three Religions and all hell will break loose when the Mosque is finally destroyed to make way for a new version of Solomon’s Temple.
I made Within Without watch the segment on the Extremist Christian factions in the Southern United States. Many of these ‘zealnuts’ are ready to take down the Federal Government because amongst other things, their kids were being taught in their Sex-Ed Class in Public Secular Schools, that Oral Sex is OK.
Why is that so hard to swallow?
Documentary #3
Documentary #3
Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief
bbcfour/documentaries/features/atheism.shtml
bbcfour/documentaries/features/atheism.shtml
This exploration of Atheism reaffirms how Religion dictated the course of events in human history. Remember a few paragraphs back in Catal Huyuk 12,000 BC? Humans were just getting Sedentary enough to start inventing governmental and religious hierarchies in order to control People and Real Estate.
Fast forward to the Greek Philosophers around 800 BC and we are sedentary enough to finally start getting around to question WHY we invented governmental and religious hierarchies in order to control People and Real Estate, and anything else beyond the material world.
In the 18th Century Baron D’Holbach of France is recognized as the first person in modern times to be brave and foolish enough to declare himself an Atheist.D'Ho!
In the 18th Century Baron D’Holbach of France is recognized as the first person in modern times to be brave and foolish enough to declare himself an Atheist.D'Ho!
"A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
CAUSE I AIN'T NO D’HOLBACH GIRL
CAUSE I AIN'T NO D'HOLBACK GIRL"
Back in England Parliament had passed the Blasphemy Act of 1697 that made Atheism punishable by execution…unless you were a looney.
SO,
Twelve thousand years ago there were only 4 Million people and we just started making up rules so that a few could rule the many. Now we number 6 Billion and have developed all sorts of inventive ways to control others through various combinations of Gods and Government.
Would anyone care to try and pin this whole schmozola on Animal Husbandry (which always sounds creepy), how about Agriculture, or is it just plain old Sedentism?
Who knew that inventing Civilization would make us act so uncivilised.
oh, I love caveman to hunter gatherer stories
ReplyDelete:-)
the bit that would interest me tho, is why some peoples ended up in places like deserts with little or no water, snowbound places with little sunshine and few plants, and other such habitats - if we became sedentary to take advantage of the best spots, why did some peoples end up in what most of us would consider far from ideal spots?
I thought that we invented religion to explain things tho, in which case when and how did the ruling parties decide to govern us with it (you've probably written about this already, so just refer me to the correct link and I'll dutifully follow)
and I always wondered what the cellar in this house was for
(and I'd love to make a pun about one swallow not making a summer, but I'm going to resist temptation)(just as I'll resist temptation to spit)
some people would say it was better than just OK
ReplyDeletehemmm...probably will miss all three...not adverts here regarding any of it...and certainly they wont show the Amanpour (Fake woman!) story. Hemm well I wont know that either coz i dumped the news package for sports and documentary and variety. Have to get my dose of eureka and heroes...sigh.
ReplyDeleteWats on discovery here: Some sharkie and crocodile story. NatGeo is much better. Do watch the Becoming a King story...launching today here. Its about the Malaysian Royal coronation and history. The only surviving Sultanate Institution in the world.
Civilization...who cares...we are dead ducks...the floods are coming, the ice is melting and I'm hungry.
Aside from your other well-reasoned malarkey, the key question is your last one:
ReplyDelete"Who knew that inventing civilization would make us so uncivilized?"
I'm not quite sure why you went from the North American spelling in uncivilized, to the British spelling of uncivilised, but that's your grammar/editing issue.
And did you invent those lyrics about "Cause I ain't no D'Holbach girl" or what?
Moron.
Priceless, in your own way.
ILTV told me you were back.Good.
ReplyDeleteSome worth to be considered in this.
Here's my contribution...did developers start the current forest fires in Greece in order to get their developing hands on the real estate? It's been done before.
ever read 'Boychiks in the Hood'? super interesting look at 'fundamentalist' Jewry and an excellent read. they very nearly had me at 'glatt kosher' until i rememberd that i'm a gurl and my role would be 'kinder, kuchen, kirke'. phew- may as well go back to being cat'lick.
ReplyDeleteThe one I got to watch was the brief history of disbelief, which was ok if you have a vested interest in disbelieving, but it didn't defend the concept strong enough. I wanted to see "God's Warriors" but don't have cable.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, I'm not a religious person, or I'd have to kill everybody who disagrees with my personal hallucination. I'm bassically to lazy to work that hard.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Romulus and Remus who decided to settle down and build a city for the roaming people. And just to make feel at home they called it Roam.
ReplyDeleteOn Sundays the new Romanies got their caravans out and roamed the countryside.
Without maps! They were never worried about getting lost because...
"All the roads lead to Roam..."
HomoEscapeons,
ReplyDeleteFirst I miss you being here.
Your first documentary... to be honest if I had to bury my dead under my house, I thik I would want to scatter to a new place. The thought, though I understand the time and place, I do not think I could handle that.
Documentary 2, Oral sex okay? I am not touching that one... howeverrrrrrrrrrrr! ::smirk::
As for the temple, I can not imagine that it will ever be rebuilt unless there was a bloody battle that caused damage to the Mosque.
Documentary 3,
You hit the nail on the head. The main reason is control... make more rules, cause more fear, and control everything.
Civilization my ass...this world has something called 'Civil' war..so r we civilised at all..I think not! It's just an imaginary concept. we r all animals..and we will remain to be so.
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
I missed the documentary on CNN, and am disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI think a society void of any religion at all would be the most peaceful in the world. Unfortunately, religion is so ingrained in each part of the world, that ever finding such a place would be impossible now.
Oh well, when everyone blows everyone up, and we all die, us athiests can say "I knew religion was a bad idea".
I know I didn't spell atheist correctly above. My bad.
ReplyDelete*Who knew that inventing civilisation would make us act so uncivilised?*
ReplyDeleteI like this, great reading, (your blog) I have no answers btw..but it's a fun ride all the same.
Pam
i like the view,
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard of a book/series called Guns, Germs and Steel by Professor Jared Diamond?
He tried to figure out why some people 'got ahead' when all humans are equally intelligent and decided that it was the result of Geographic Luck.
The humans in the fertile crescent lucked out because wild grasses such as wheat and barley were easily stored and more nutritional and the 'right' animals lived in that part of the world:pigs, cattle, goat and sheep.
Then there was the matter of elements available that led to technological advances.
When all of these developments moved on to Europe and Asia because of climatic and environmental causes, they moved in the same latitudinal range so all of these discoveries were transportable and Civilization advanced. Oh oh I'm getting carried away. Geographic Luck!
ziggi,
What ch'oo talkin' bout Willis?
ghosty,
Why do you call Amanpour fake woman? I loved how she stood up to the Islamic Scholar about women's rights and she is a REAL journalist.
The climate is changing as it does every so often but this time Humans seem to be helping it along. We have far exceeded our allowable population and Mother Earth is going to rectify the situation one way or another.
without whistlin' Dixie,
Look I can spell things however I like out here because the medium is the message. Did you see the special on how the rest of the world views America last night?
This Brit said that if we abandoned the American spelling on Windows Spellcheck that the world would be a better place.
dinahmow,
Apparently arson is suspected but the whole country? Aha! Choosing the birthplace of Democracy is a very clever angle. I would not be surprised if greed motivated this disaster.
first nations,
If you google fercoct you will see that I am the only goyem on the planet who misspells this awesome word.
You had better watch the Meaning Of Life again to see what happens to those poor Catlick children in the third world.
The Michael,
Well Mr Miller is of course a polite naysayer and an intellectual. I realise that taking the high road seems a tad tedious and un-american but it is a philosophical exploration. He'll get there.
cream,
Bloody Romans what have they ever done for us anyway? I cannot even say Rome without remembering lines from the Life Of Brian.
Romulus and Remus suckled on a she wolf so they were mean motherf*ckers from the getgo!
inside our hands,
I would totally FREAK OUT if my dead parents were having a dirtnap 6 cm's below my bed! I am a product of a culture that fears death and does everything possible to avoid dealing with it...aside from witnessing hundreds of random, faceless, victims in movies get slaughtered. Creepy.
Oral sex seemed to be a huge deal to this preacher...prolly because he ain't gettin' any! He'll prolly show up in some scandal in the near future.
Another preacher made an excellent observation when he pointed out that greed and gossip were regarded as worse crimes than hummasackshewalitee and oral sex.
Those warmongering desert monotheists really had a thing about sex but hey their tribal leaders had Harems. Hello!
Control is the key phrase and what better way than to have an invisible eternity in hell as a weapon of mass distraction.
keshtar,
We are animals. Literally. The problem is that we have stepped outside of our niche which was wandering around in clans. Since we settled down to form civilization we have destroyed environments, decimated local flora and fauna, and systematically eradicated each other with an ever increasing array of weapons.
((tick tock tick tock))
Itoldyasoblogger,
In one scene from the CNN special there was one silent protester in a sea of screaming idiots holding up a placard that read
Imagine No Religion John Lennon..
I thought that was rather cool and understated.
sienna,
Welcome. Nobody has the answer but we all have some good suggestions. Feel free to say whatever comes to mind. We're just brainstorming.
aaaalrighty then... so we should go back to living on top of each other and executing lunatics- i mean atheists... nuh hang on, i've lost my train of thought!
ReplyDeleteoh
got it...
so why do my cats live with me if i don't have any mice?
Good to see you back, brother!!
ReplyDeleteCivilised? Thats a good question.
Particularly after watching the news in a place in Bihar (a place renowned for atrocities) about a small time thief being beaten up by a mob and when the police arrive, they are even more inhuman. They tie his hands behind, and tie his legs to a bike and drag him until he is half dead. Those policeman were suspended but no case was filed against them.
Court of law is non-existent. Who is bothered about violations of human rights?
The poor get punished) in the name of justice (do you call it that? and the rich get scot free. That IS civilised indeed.
Sometimes I ashamed of being a human being.
I am kind of so angry that I am ranting on your blog.
angel,
ReplyDeleteIf it was left up to our brains we would still be living in extended families and clans. That idea either sounds wonderful or brutal depending on how dysfunctional your family happens to be.
Your cats tolerate you and see you as being almost equal.
gautami,
Last night I watched a depressing documentary, The Dying Fields, about India's 3.2 million cotton farmers in Vidarbha. One farmer commits suicide every 8 hours because of loan sharking, competing with sudsidized American farmers and mulinational chemical corporation Monsanto is bamboozling these illiterate people into using frankenseed that works in irrigated fields which very few of these farmers have. Most of them are cultivating hardscrabble patches of rocky terrain that looks like the surface of the moon.
It detailed that many farmers who live on $2 a day kill themselves because they owe so much money for buying seed, fertilizer and interest, and lose their land, then from time to time they also have to pay $2500 for a Daughter's dowry!
It made my blood boil.
I didn't see the CNN thingie on how America is viewed by the world, but one of the Time magazines you loaned me was super interesting on it.
ReplyDeleteIt said the U.S. was among the bottom five countries in approval ratings by other countries.
I guess just like in real life, people judge you not by what you say, but by what you do.
And, strangely but maybe not, Canada was No. 1 in the world among the top five in approval ratings.
The fact we can remain there even as we've got a neanderthal doe-head like Harper at the controls is a scary thing...
As usual, your brilliant and knowing mind has produced a post that people love talking about.
Senor HE!
ReplyDelete//Why do you call Amanpour fake woman? I loved how she stood up to the Islamic Scholar about women's rights and she is a REAL journalist.// --sorry...this is not for her reporting but just I hate CNN female newscasters...Everyone here knows she is the highest paid female journo in the world...but am not sure if she's the best. Liked some of her past works, brave woman. Hemm...I wish I could see this interview...if there is one religion that has utter disrespect for women, it must Eye-Slam.
so true!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.