The stone age argument

by Theo van Rossum

It is always disappointing to have to notice that there are people who believe that our western "civilization" is somehow higher deve-loped than of those who have a more simplistic way of life. That the Chinese Wall, the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal, our sky scra-pers, our bridges, our viaducts, our five lane motorways, our cars, our computers, our mobile phones, our outerspace quests, and our complicated civilizations that we are so proud of, would have more value than the cultures of people who live naked or half naked in the tropical rainforest as hunters and gatherers. But if our civilization really is that wonderful, why then is there this eternal call for rest, for retraite, for meditation, for organic food, even an complete back to nature idea? The eventual realization that we despite our outra-geous arrogance over our technology and science that are supposed to find the answers to every imaginable problem, that we are still

  Kamayura Dancers, Brazil

yearning for the things that are more simple, natural and the things that are also more healthy for our bodies, minds and spirits. The realization that watching too much television makes us sleepy, that it doesn't really feel too good to eat too much, and that we don't really need the car for a distance of only five yards. That not everyone has to say anything useful in that mee-ting and the work was meanwhile waiting, that companies are becoming more and more pushy towards their customers in order to make us consume more, that politicians are only interested

in us in the event of coming elections. It's becoming more and more crow-ded and hectic around us with too many ra-dio's playing with too much volume, people, disrespect, more people who drive a car like their on a racetrack. If we follow the ratrace our lifes will be forever

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