Throughout human history, we have slowly but surely distanced ourselves from our “primal” nature. We flat out feared it. This “distancing” was generally considered a form of social “enlightenment”, especially by the most “civilized” people of any given culture throughout the ages. And even today, our most technologically advanced societies, are generally perceived by most people living inside those societies, to more “civilized”.
To be sure, suppressing the “dark side” of our primal nature has given us a certain social “civility” relative to where we started our journey as a species – despite what the current 24/7 sensationalized news cycle tells us. Afterall, any world historian will attest that if one thinks there is alot of human violence, suffering, and injustice in the world today, they would be utterly stunned to witness the level of human violence, suffering, and injustice that existed on the Earth a mere 300 years ago.
We just didn’t have CNN back then to “enlighten” us on all this.
In fact, practically no one living a mainstream existence in a technologically advanced society today, including me, would willingly prefer to be live a daily existence exactly like the ones endured by the average person who lived anywhere on the planet, even 300 years ago. Personally, I like knowing that I CAN cut on the air conditioner on a stifling hot and humid day, or that I have a chance to survive IF my neck is broken in an accident.
So our near constant efforts as a species to physically “get out of the woods” the last 200,000 years or so, especially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, have obviously led to amazing physical comforts and dramatic improvements in health and living standards, per capita incomes, and social/civil rights for much of humanity,
The GOING PRIMAL movement is grateful for much of this “progress” to this point, and encourages the continued seeking of knowledge and technology by our species.
However, can a society, at some point, become too “civilized”? Its people..too domesticated?
Or could the definition of “civilized”…..be rethought?
The movement believes that due to this aforementioned general fear of our “dark side” throughout human history, and our disconnection from our “bright side”, we have now reached a critical point in our evolution.We are now beginning to actually suffer negative consequences due to this fear.
In the end, GOING PRIMAL suggests it is time for us to consciously “return to the woods” on a certain level, in order to further our well-being as a species….as well as increase our odds of survival as a species. Sometimes you have to go “backward” to go “forward”.
