Friday, January 18, 2013

What's in a Name?

I do not remember when it was that I was first exposed to the idea of a Paleolithic or primal diet, other than to say it was some years ago. What I do remember is why I fell in love with the idea. Even though I feel that there is still some unresolved science to be worked out about the actual diet, paleo for me, and it seems for at least a few others, is an all-encompassing ideal that can lead to an all around better, happier life.

My educational background, which includes degrees in both Biology and English, led to a familiarity with the idea of evolution, but I had never really thought about its implications for currently existing species. I only saw it as a mechanism through which those species came to be on the earth. Once I began to really focus on what being an evolved entity meant, all kinds of new ideas and notions began to pop into my head.

The fact that humans must learn that we, as well as every other creature, are subject to the biological and physical laws of the universe is something that I think I understood from a very young age even if I did not recognize that I understood it. I believe this is one of the reasons religion has always been suspect to me, and why I have now grown to despise it. Even though I, figuratively speaking, instinctually figured out that the continued existence and happiness of Homo sapiens required us to come to terms with the way life in the universe works, I never contemplated it at the individual level.

Then came the notion of a Paleolithic principle, which I define as the idea that, if we are to maintain our well being, we must consider greatly the environment in which we evolved before creating a new one. So like a good number of people who find themselves contemplating this notion, I delved into all the literature that I could find on the subject. The more I read the more excited I got. “These ideas could lead to a real change in the social paradigm,” I thought. It was a new lens through which we could view everything from religion to environmental issues, to food and agriculture, to sex and marriage, and even our political and monetary systems. While there are a few good books on the science most commentary on the attempts to apply this idea to modern day was and still is taking place on the Internet in the form of blogs.

One blogger whom I follow, and is fairly well known it seems in what has been referred to as the paleosphere, is Richard Nikoley. In his blog entitled Free the Animal, Richard talks about things along the same idea thread that I hope to discuss here. I came up with the title of this blog while I was reflecting on what I believe was meant to be an insult, when Richard referred to a group of people as being “zoo humans.” I do not want to give the impression that I agree with everything Richard says or that Richard agrees with everything I will say. I did seek his approval to use an idea of his as my title and he seemed happy to give it, but I am going to talk about paleo in very different ways than I feel has been done to date.
Blogging is something I have considered doing for awhile. I have tried the traditional writing business and found it horribly enslaved by advertising and editors with God complexes, but I wasn’t sure blogging had a future. I feared it was a fad and maybe it will prove to be in the long run, but it seems that it will stick around for a little while. Once I decided to blog, it was then that I needed to find a subject and motivation.

Sometime ago I settled on the Paleolithic Principle but I could not find the motivation to get started. That motivation came in the form of a tragedy. After the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary I found the public discourse on the issue of gun control abhorrent, incoherent and tremendously over simplified. Also, I discovered it lacking in a paleo perspective.

This type of issue and many others, some less controversial some more, are what I plan to discuss here. I have clicked on the adult content button so that I can assume everyone reading this is an adult and I will write and post pictures accordingly. I hope not all my posts will be overly controversial but if you choose to follow along we are definitely going to find ourselves in what some would consider socially unacceptable or even XXX territory from time to time. So please remember that I’m in the business of extracting a new set of morals from a Paleolithic Principle. To do this all the old morals are subject to scrutiny, so try to keep an open mind.

I once read a book on the wildlife management of wolves in Montana. At the opening of this book the author expressed that it was important not to anthropomorphize when dealing with wildlife. I feel we need to figure out what it means to do so. It seems we have no problem assigning human traits to other creatures but are often freaked out when someone suggests we apply human traits to actual humans. Through this blog I hope to form a community, or a tribe, however dispersed it might be, where we can talk about what it means to be human by looking at scientific and experimental evidence.

We will be forevermore in the zoo. There is no going back to the ways of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and I am good with that, most days. As unhealthy as this world seems to me, at times I am still amazed at the things science has enabled us to do and I would not want to give them up. I believe we need to think very differently about the ways in which we use our technologies and capabilities. So while I surrender myself to the zoo, I will not be a passive inhabitant. I hope you will join me in this.

2 comments:

  1. Looking forward to this adventure!

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  2. Nick, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate the well thought out writings of others.

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