Life's Hard Topics: War
Having come down from the trees, and taking to caves, prehistoric humans eventually made their first major discovery, fire. We can imagine that there were fires from volcanoes and lightning strikes in good number, but what of it? One, or few, had to approach it and discover its warmth and utility, and perhaps the obstacle they overcame was fear. Fear, and the flight or fight response it created, was abundant within them. When in the trees though, was the response to fear, "freeze"? Were they frozen in fear? Perhaps they were. Did that mind numbing feeling mostly fade, when excursions down, around, or near the trees, evolve into the fear response, fight or flight? Flight is a legitimate defense action, where freeze leaves one just basically screwed, until way down the evolutionary road offensive or defensive freeze became a tact, even a strategy. I wonder if that's what happened? When fear today causes unintended freeze, is it primal?
Yes fire enabled warmth and protection in those caves, with less fear due to many reasons, including only one access to defend. The tree dwellers must have passed along the observation that when grazing lands were on fire, animals ran, yes, the animals were afraid of fire were they not, and now humans could largely control it. Is this the first major power these early humans felt? It must have been a glad feeling. Of the four basic feelings glad, sad, angry, afraid there was more than likely, not much glad, up to that point. Is it possible that the new defensive and protective posture of the cave, not only kept animals out, but also weaker and less fortunate humans? No doubt, the trees, and going back to them, wasn't foremost in the minds of the unfortunates. They would have to find their own caves, and with their climbing skills, more likely than not, higher ones, until they could get their own fire.
With bigger and stronger humans in the lower caves, and more fragile but agile humans in the higher caves, two things developed that would determine their fate. [I have said the latter and all above as mere speculation from my observations of life. This story needs wheels though, and that's just the way it goes in free-writing.] So there's Harry below and Jimmy above. Harry is not concerned about Jimmy but Jimmy wants fire. Carrying combustibles up there is going to be difficult, as well as the fire to start them. Harry has a problem, he's content in his warm and relatively safe environment, while Jimmy is becoming ever more evolved, because of one major advantage he has over Harry, which Harry caused, by chasing Jimmy upstairs. Jimmy is "thinking" and becoming James, and one day, he will be doing wall art in Harry's former home.
"Harry, how's it going down there? I saw your women come running from gathering fruit. They dropped it! Was that one of those big four legged, large toothed, scary things that ate your distant cousin out on the savannah?" James didn't say this, but he did observe it. His crew was up top, and so were the fruit vines and their luscious crop, that was within easy pickings, supplying not only vitamin C, and fiber, but sugars that would become carbs, those same carbs that help produce serotonin. The birds' nests at that level also supplied eggs with abundant protein, which supplied the serotonin essential amino acid Tryptophan. James was becoming more "chilled out", yes, his food was doing this, and he was getting a handle on FEAR . James's critical thinking skills were developing at record pace, compared to Harry's. Meanwhile down below, Harry and his clan buds were mostly dining on meat, once eaten raw, but now roasted. Harry discovered this culinary art when he threw a bone, with some bits of meat and fat on it, in to the fire. He was smitten with roasts after the first wiff, of not meat, but the burned fat. "Now Harry, I like a good ribeye steak that I get from my local butcher here in Amish Country, but dude, yes that crispy fat is good, but watch that cholesterol. It's clogging your arteries!" James was becoming lean, mean, and smart, while Harry was becoming fat and lazy. That's why the chicks had to go out and gather [yes Harry by comparison to James was a sexist]. That too would work against him. Harry's gluttony was keeping them lean and mean, and the fruit they ate during gathering, was helping their neurons fire faster than the "Hairster". Upstairs it was a whole family effort. Another advantage of that effort, besides closeness, was teamwork.
Over time, physical appearances were gradually changing. James's clan, due to critical thinking, were developing larger brains. The shape of their craniums was changing; less sloped and more pronounced. This was evident in some portion to the females below. Meanwhile Harry, although physically still "king of the hill", was on a downward slope, as indicated by his unchanging brow. Soon both these groups would be coming to a crossroad; that's "soon" in evolutionary time. With all the above as hypothesis, I can only wonder how James finally got his fire. Being less afraid, and developing those thinking skills, he may have employed stealth and snatched a large hot ember from the sleeping and satiated group below. Then again, there may have been a lightning strike up at his cave that gave the gift of fire. I can imagine more "glad" feelings as new things were being not only discovered, but just thinking how good discovery felt. Imagination's first steps must have been exhilarating. I would have liked to have been there, just to feel that.
Were they now a social, sexual, and physical group? What of psychological and spiritual? There is convincing evidence that early humans buried their dead with some ceremony. Items including the evidence of flowers picked and bundled so long ago have been found with these prehistoric humans. Yes humankind evolved, and with them, the 5 states of existence. What was it that caused war to begin though? My guess is it was the development of different groups. Those groups became early societies and like-minded ones mingled and thrived, and becoming larger with so much land to be settled, matriarchs and patriarchs were too many in a given area. Yes, there were too many "alphas" for peaceful existence within those societies. Perhaps that necessary move helped evolution and coexistence was peaceful for a time.
Did war start because one society gained an advantage over another that made life easier? Were the new gains not sought after by others, out of jealousy mainly, but rather survival? In other words...did war start because of different evolutionary levels of Glad, Sad, Angry and Afraid?
Yes, it's just this layman's unproven theory. Having been in war, mainly a thinking one, with days of boredom punctuated by hours of excitement, containing fear that had to be controlled to complete tasks necessary to survival, I wonder where and when it all began.
Yes fire enabled warmth and protection in those caves, with less fear due to many reasons, including only one access to defend. The tree dwellers must have passed along the observation that when grazing lands were on fire, animals ran, yes, the animals were afraid of fire were they not, and now humans could largely control it. Is this the first major power these early humans felt? It must have been a glad feeling. Of the four basic feelings glad, sad, angry, afraid there was more than likely, not much glad, up to that point. Is it possible that the new defensive and protective posture of the cave, not only kept animals out, but also weaker and less fortunate humans? No doubt, the trees, and going back to them, wasn't foremost in the minds of the unfortunates. They would have to find their own caves, and with their climbing skills, more likely than not, higher ones, until they could get their own fire.
With bigger and stronger humans in the lower caves, and more fragile but agile humans in the higher caves, two things developed that would determine their fate. [I have said the latter and all above as mere speculation from my observations of life. This story needs wheels though, and that's just the way it goes in free-writing.] So there's Harry below and Jimmy above. Harry is not concerned about Jimmy but Jimmy wants fire. Carrying combustibles up there is going to be difficult, as well as the fire to start them. Harry has a problem, he's content in his warm and relatively safe environment, while Jimmy is becoming ever more evolved, because of one major advantage he has over Harry, which Harry caused, by chasing Jimmy upstairs. Jimmy is "thinking" and becoming James, and one day, he will be doing wall art in Harry's former home.
"Harry, how's it going down there? I saw your women come running from gathering fruit. They dropped it! Was that one of those big four legged, large toothed, scary things that ate your distant cousin out on the savannah?" James didn't say this, but he did observe it. His crew was up top, and so were the fruit vines and their luscious crop, that was within easy pickings, supplying not only vitamin C, and fiber, but sugars that would become carbs, those same carbs that help produce serotonin. The birds' nests at that level also supplied eggs with abundant protein, which supplied the serotonin essential amino acid Tryptophan. James was becoming more "chilled out", yes, his food was doing this, and he was getting a handle on FEAR . James's critical thinking skills were developing at record pace, compared to Harry's. Meanwhile down below, Harry and his clan buds were mostly dining on meat, once eaten raw, but now roasted. Harry discovered this culinary art when he threw a bone, with some bits of meat and fat on it, in to the fire. He was smitten with roasts after the first wiff, of not meat, but the burned fat. "Now Harry, I like a good ribeye steak that I get from my local butcher here in Amish Country, but dude, yes that crispy fat is good, but watch that cholesterol. It's clogging your arteries!" James was becoming lean, mean, and smart, while Harry was becoming fat and lazy. That's why the chicks had to go out and gather [yes Harry by comparison to James was a sexist]. That too would work against him. Harry's gluttony was keeping them lean and mean, and the fruit they ate during gathering, was helping their neurons fire faster than the "Hairster". Upstairs it was a whole family effort. Another advantage of that effort, besides closeness, was teamwork.
Over time, physical appearances were gradually changing. James's clan, due to critical thinking, were developing larger brains. The shape of their craniums was changing; less sloped and more pronounced. This was evident in some portion to the females below. Meanwhile Harry, although physically still "king of the hill", was on a downward slope, as indicated by his unchanging brow. Soon both these groups would be coming to a crossroad; that's "soon" in evolutionary time. With all the above as hypothesis, I can only wonder how James finally got his fire. Being less afraid, and developing those thinking skills, he may have employed stealth and snatched a large hot ember from the sleeping and satiated group below. Then again, there may have been a lightning strike up at his cave that gave the gift of fire. I can imagine more "glad" feelings as new things were being not only discovered, but just thinking how good discovery felt. Imagination's first steps must have been exhilarating. I would have liked to have been there, just to feel that.
Were they now a social, sexual, and physical group? What of psychological and spiritual? There is convincing evidence that early humans buried their dead with some ceremony. Items including the evidence of flowers picked and bundled so long ago have been found with these prehistoric humans. Yes humankind evolved, and with them, the 5 states of existence. What was it that caused war to begin though? My guess is it was the development of different groups. Those groups became early societies and like-minded ones mingled and thrived, and becoming larger with so much land to be settled, matriarchs and patriarchs were too many in a given area. Yes, there were too many "alphas" for peaceful existence within those societies. Perhaps that necessary move helped evolution and coexistence was peaceful for a time.
Did war start because one society gained an advantage over another that made life easier? Were the new gains not sought after by others, out of jealousy mainly, but rather survival? In other words...did war start because of different evolutionary levels of Glad, Sad, Angry and Afraid?
Yes, it's just this layman's unproven theory. Having been in war, mainly a thinking one, with days of boredom punctuated by hours of excitement, containing fear that had to be controlled to complete tasks necessary to survival, I wonder where and when it all began.