Monday, May 23, 2016

Microstory 326: Civilization

Click here for a list of every step.
Love

I’ve spoken on this subject before with my Safety from Chaos story, but that was more in terms of being free from libertarians who want to murder you because it’s more convenient, or because there’s a market for it. In retrospect, I might have been better off putting this before that one, but I guess I’m going to have to resign myself to the fact that even I am not going to be happy with the order I’ve chosen. I’ve defined civilization as “any group of people that combine their resources in a deliberate and mutually beneficial way in order to support the common good and propagate healthy living” though that may be too broad, because that would include tribes. Tribes have hunters and gatherers, and when food becomes scarce in one location, they must move on to the next. The first civil society sprung from the ability of these tribes to grow agriculture. Suddenly tribes could delegate certain responsibilities to certain people, leaving the rest to develop further both technologically and culturally. We started to create art, study the sciences, and plan for the future. It was through this that nations were born. Tribes built villages, villages came together as cities, and these cities became a collective inside of a country. But civilization did not stop there. Humans have a drive to make things ever better. Countries trade with each other, form alliances, and share ideas. The world is not without its enemies, and patriotism can get in the way of peace, but people tend to like each other. The majority of us have empathy, and do not enjoy the pain of others. We want to be protected from threats, and independent nations give us that security, but they also allow us to see the value in protecting others, regardless of what it has to do with us. Libertarians would have us lose our civility and become savages. I charge you to not let them.

Sewage

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