2010/1/18 Srini RamaKrishnan <che...@gmail.com> > > Oh, but you can. It's getting a lot harder with every passing year, > but there are still places on this planet where one can be a hermit on > the mountain, leading an existence disconnected from society. It's > sub-optimal to living with society, but it really is a question of > priorities. > > It's been argued that agriculture was the single largest blunder > humans committed; thereby upsetting the natural balance of all life. > There's a certain wisdom to that. I have been rather taken of late > with the idea of leading a nomadic existence at some point in my life. > It almost feels like that's what humans were meant to do. > > It's a great pity that modern civilization has encroached so heinously > on the lives of people who don't fit its mold. In my opinion, it is no > different from ethnic cleansing. When you take a nomad or a forest > dweller and make them lead the life of a settled agriculturalist, or a > factory worker you take away a very central part of their being, and > it's a pity we don't even recognize it. > > In the situation we currently find ourselves in as a species, it might be nomadic values - the limiting of wants to match available resources and the complete absence of asset accumulation, for instance - that are worth emulating rather than the physical characteristics of that lifestyle.
A 'tribal' leader in Jharkhand once pointed out to me that in 'my India' we worshipped gods of wealth and prosperity whereas in his the only gods were gods of pleasure. It's an insight that has benefitted me immensely.
