Paula W. (atlantateacher) - , reviewed The Medusa and the Snail, More Notes of a Biology Watcher on + 21 more book reviews
EXCERPT -
"But security is the last thing we feel entitled to feel. We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing gthe future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still. We deserve a better press, in my view. We have always had a strong hunch about our origin, which does us credit; from the oldest language we know, the Indo-European tongue, we took the word for earth- Dhghem- and turned it into 'humus' and 'human' ; 'humble' too which does us more credit ; We are by all odds the most persistently and obsessively social of all species, more dependent on each other than the famous social insects, and really when you look at us, infinitely more imaginative and deft at social living. We are good at this; it is the way we have built our cultures and the literature of our civilizations. We have high expectations and set high standards for our social behavior , and when we fail at it and endanger the species- as we have done several times in this century- the strongest words we can find to condemn ourselves are the telling words 'inhuman' and' inhumane'.
There is nothing at all absurd about the human condition. We matter. It seems to me a good guess, hazarded by a good many people who have thought about it, that we may be engaged in the formation of something like a mind for the life of this planet.If this is so we are still at the most primitive stage., still fumbling with language and thinking, but infinitely capacitated for the future. It is remarkable that we've come so far as we have in so short a period , really no time at all as geologists measure time. We are the newest, the youngest and the brightest thing around."
"But security is the last thing we feel entitled to feel. We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing gthe future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still. We deserve a better press, in my view. We have always had a strong hunch about our origin, which does us credit; from the oldest language we know, the Indo-European tongue, we took the word for earth- Dhghem- and turned it into 'humus' and 'human' ; 'humble' too which does us more credit ; We are by all odds the most persistently and obsessively social of all species, more dependent on each other than the famous social insects, and really when you look at us, infinitely more imaginative and deft at social living. We are good at this; it is the way we have built our cultures and the literature of our civilizations. We have high expectations and set high standards for our social behavior , and when we fail at it and endanger the species- as we have done several times in this century- the strongest words we can find to condemn ourselves are the telling words 'inhuman' and' inhumane'.
There is nothing at all absurd about the human condition. We matter. It seems to me a good guess, hazarded by a good many people who have thought about it, that we may be engaged in the formation of something like a mind for the life of this planet.If this is so we are still at the most primitive stage., still fumbling with language and thinking, but infinitely capacitated for the future. It is remarkable that we've come so far as we have in so short a period , really no time at all as geologists measure time. We are the newest, the youngest and the brightest thing around."
