I admire Mike Darwin, and enjoy his writings, even (and maybe especially) the ones where he’s gone all glass half full… but really his claim that “the native state of man and beast is one of unfathomable suffering” is ridiculous, and given that he is working hard to prolong the “state”, I wonder how much he believes that himself.
I don’t really recall anything inspiringly optimistic by Mike Darwin, but I bet that he could paint that picture just as well as he paints the bleak ones.
First, this really depends on your interpretation of “native state”. I am inclined to claim that civilisation is man’s native state. Second, from my experiences in third world countries, living in an undeveloped society does not correlate with suffering, let alone unfathomable.
and the longer life is the farther we are from it.
Okay, lets say this is true—what is the implication for the quoted statement? I am guessing you agree with Darwin’s claim that old age brings suffering, but if you then claim that old age is not “native state”, does that not make it irrelevant?
I admire Mike Darwin, and enjoy his writings, even (and maybe especially) the ones where he’s gone all glass half full… but really his claim that “the native state of man and beast is one of unfathomable suffering” is ridiculous, and given that he is working hard to prolong the “state”, I wonder how much he believes that himself. I don’t really recall anything inspiringly optimistic by Mike Darwin, but I bet that he could paint that picture just as well as he paints the bleak ones.
Man is not in his native state, and the longer life is the farther we are from it.
First, this really depends on your interpretation of “native state”. I am inclined to claim that civilisation is man’s native state. Second, from my experiences in third world countries, living in an undeveloped society does not correlate with suffering, let alone unfathomable.
Okay, lets say this is true—what is the implication for the quoted statement? I am guessing you agree with Darwin’s claim that old age brings suffering, but if you then claim that old age is not “native state”, does that not make it irrelevant?