Something I thought of years ago. And posted today.
I think the deciding difference between the city and the country is the amount of personal attention paid to everything. I walk through town and realise that every brick, every tree, every inch of bitumen was placed there by the hand of man. In the country you can see things no other human has ever seen.
I think this is what we call ‘civilization’, the ability to cocoon ourselves in an environment of our own making. Like caddis-fly larva, we collect things as we go and use them as a home, a shell, a mini-world for ourselves. It distracts us from whatever is going on outside and occludes our view with assumptions.
For example, the Australian Government’s attempts to incorporate the Aboriginals into capitalist culture. We assume that what every family wants is a roof over their heads, electricity and running water. There is a photograph that still makes me laugh: A commission house in the outback, with the required fridge, television and lights. The family has moved all the furniture outside, and are cheerfully watching telly in the backyard. Even funnier, a few months after this ambitious program began, the electricity cut out. Western Civilization seems to rely on power supply, or else it cuts out along with the fridge.
I think this is what we call ‘civilization’, the ability to cocoon ourselves in an environment of our own making. Like caddis-fly larva, we collect things as we go and use them as a home, a shell, a mini-world for ourselves. It distracts us from whatever is going on outside and occludes our view with assumptions.
For example, the Australian Government’s attempts to incorporate the Aboriginals into capitalist culture. We assume that what every family wants is a roof over their heads, electricity and running water. There is a photograph that still makes me laugh: A commission house in the outback, with the required fridge, television and lights. The family has moved all the furniture outside, and are cheerfully watching telly in the backyard. Even funnier, a few months after this ambitious program began, the electricity cut out. Western Civilization seems to rely on power supply, or else it cuts out along with the fridge.