INTRODUCTION, Timemark 0 to :55.

We are living in a time of great destruction and despair.

People are disconnected from one another and Earth.

Humanity has forgotten who we can be.

It’s time to reimagine humanity.

It’s time to reimagine us.

Let’s reimagine what it means to be human.

Let’s base it on hundreds of thousands of years of our species’ existence. 

Let’s base it on our best ancestors, those who lived responsibly with all of life.

EXPLANATION OF INTRODUCTION

We live in times of oppression, of everyone, to one degree or another. The dominant system is one of violence and coercion towards babies, children and adults. As a result, our understanding of normality has shifted—we think it normal to feel despair, anxiety, anger and to be generally unwell. Our imaginations are shriveled by the trauma and stress we experience. It’s time to remember who we can be, what capacities our species has. 

 Humanity has not always been like this—disconnected from others and lonely, disconnected from and destructive of Earth. We would not be here if that were the case. We would have destroyed ourselves long ago. Our best ancestors, specifically the San Peoples of central Africa (who carry all of humanity’s genes), still exist. They continue to live responsibly, maintaining the wellbeing of the ecosystems in which they live.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Are you aware of the great destruction occurring?
• Are you aware of the increasing mental distress around the world?
• Have you ever wondered about human nature? About human behavior, whether humans could be different than they are today?
• Have you thought about optimal human potential?
• What alternatives to the dominant culture have you seen or experienced?
• Did you know that human genus has been around for about 6 million years, our line for 2 million, and our species (homo sapiens sapiens) for about 300,000 years?
• What does it mean to live responsibly on the planet?

Bibliography

• Brondizio, E.S., Settele, J., Díaz, S., & Ngo, H.T. (Eds.) (2019). Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Bonn, Germany: IPBES. 
• Hrdy, S. (2009). Mothers and others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
• Ingold, T. (2005). On the social relations of the hunter-gatherer band. In R.B. Lee, R.B. & R. Daly (Eds.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers (pp. 399-410). New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.
• Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T.M., Folke, C., Liverman, D.,… Schellnhuber, H.J. (2018). Trajectories of the earth system in the Anthropocene,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (33) 8252-8259; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810141115. 
• Surgeon General’s Advisory on Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation – PDF
• Suzman, J. (2017). Affluence without abundance: The disappearing world of the Bushmen. New York: Bloomsbury.