Written by Pietro Aretino  

I thought of qualifying that statement but decided against it.

We live in a rather wonderful techno-fantasy land.  We fly in metal birds, swim in metal fish and traverse the earth in horseless carts.  We speak to each other through the air, from one end of the world to another.  We have but to ask for our food, and it appears in no short amount of time, ready to eat.  Companionship and pleasure may be artificially had, and one may go wherever one wishes, and do whatever one wishes, while remaining in comparative comfort.

Our technology gives us the impression that we are more advanced than our primitive forebears, that we are somehow fundamentally different from them.  They are superstitious and credulous whereas we are scientific and reasonable.  What we forget is that they were people in the same way we are and that we are people in the same way that they were.

Most of us have as much understanding of our science as the primitives had of their magic.  We know our toys do what we want them to, most of the time, and that’s all that matters.  An adage I’ve heard is that all significantly advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.  It’s often a theme of sci-fi/historical stories that there will be some sort of scientist who’s seen as a magician, and that this somehow ridicules those poor fools who believe him wondrous.

We haven’t left the caves, but we think we have.  The person who tells the most convincing story is the one we listen to.  The one who seems to be in charge is the one we treat as being in charge.  We fall in with the opinion of the group because if we are exiled then we may die.  Despite our sophistication, and please remember that “sophistication” and “sophistry” are cousins, we are still made of flesh and blood, and live in a very material world.

The “materialism” of today is an attempt to escape the world of matter, not to embrace it.  By pampering and comfort we insulate ourselves against the material world, which we can’t control, in favour of an artificial cocoon which we can control.  Of course we can’t control ourselves, we can’t discipline our own minds and are therefore even more dependent upon our environment than our ancestors were.

As a result of our sophisticated self-delusion we do not recognise the truth of the way we live.  We do not see our lives as fantasy. We can no longer see black or white or red or green, all we see is a murky haze that we call a colour – because someone with authority, or expertise, calls it a colour.  Feeling is not an excuse for self-reflection; it’s an excuse for self-indulgence – after all, how many artificial tears are shed over heartbreak?

I am a Stone-Age Man – and this is just the beginning.

NB “Ranting about Ranting” can be seen as belonging to this series.

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Does the Stone-Age bit mean you want to drag back women and ravish them?

Pietro Aretino , July 14, 2009

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Beyond stone age "philosophy" and "religion"

Hi, Its me again.

Yes you are a stone-age man. The ideas that you entertain are not much different than that believed in by our stone-age forebears. And the "religion" that you subscribe to is little more than the remnants of archaic tribalistic cultism created in the long-ago childhood of man.

By contrast why not check out the super-sophisticated Understanding of Reality altogether via the essay Reality Itself Is Not In The Middle which can be accessed via this url.

http://www.dabase.org/s-atruth.htm

Plus further elaborations on the same themes via.

http://global.adidam.org/books/radical-transcendentalism.html

John , July 29, 2009

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I am a stone age man.

And you a no age man.

Pietro Aretino , July 29, 2009

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Our technology gives us the impression that we are more advanced than our primitive forebears, that we are somehow fundamentally different from them. They are superstitious and credulous whereas we are scientific and reasonable. What we forget is that they were people in the same way that they were.---Aretino

Hasn't our way of thinking about ourselves, and the world around us, evolved, thus making us different? eg we now see people of other races as humans where as in the past they may have only been a 'humanoid creature' lower than ourselves because their skin was a different colour.
As we come to be more knowledgeable on a subject, we become more understanding about it, our ways of perceiving it deepen or change, and our modern day technology has allowed us to understand things way beyond what our ancestors could have.

PS, I'm sorry if I have missed the point of your article, I am in yr 11 and have little experience with philosophy and whatnot. Also I enjoyed your article and agree with it mostly, I have only provided what I believe to be an exception of afore mentioned paragraph.

Kieran , November 24, 2009

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