The Environment
Human beings are subject to two distinct types of living environment. One is natural environment. The climate and elements surrounding you will dictate the physicality of your survival. Living in a desert provides different challenges from living in a tropical area or place that experiences extreme cold. That’s common sense.
Animals in these different areas have evolved physically to survive. They spend thousands of years in harsh climates that force changes to their bodies. These physical transformations are necessary to help them survive. Their individual struggle, the only force they exert, allows them the proliferation of their species. Human beings, on the other hand, have both increased mobility and the ability to use tools to overcome and/or move away from conditions that are fundamentally poor for human survival. We developed societal structures because having a tribe provided more security from the perils that surrounded us. As these groups grew, so did the chances of survival. Disparate cultures formed in various regions, each reflecting the group’s individual struggles and victories.
Time marched on and the human race thrived with alacrity. As these structures grew, the need for distribution of work was necessary. Diverse systems evolved to allow each person to find a way to contribute to the needs of survival. Whether it was growing food, hunting, building living structures, transporting goods, supplying water, energy or military prowess, these systems allowed each individual to exert the effort needed to keep the wolves at bay. These systems became increasingly complex as towns, cities, realms, and countries, were born.
Our country runs on a capitalistic system. It is one “big machine” providing infrastructure, food supply, housing, entertainment, and essential goods. A myriad of businesses interconnected on many levels. Every business dependent on the next to fill in the gaps of human necessity. Opportunities resound, under hard work and discipline, for anyone willing to put forth the effort that is needed to gain traction. Hundreds of years of farmers, engineers, tradesmen and entrepreneurs layering a complex system based on one simple axiom; someone gets up and goes to work. Living within this system, we are allowed to immerse ourselves in a societal culture of our choosing. The choices are astoundingly varied with the diversity of our population and the right to free thought protected by the constitution. The culture you choose to live in is your protective cocoon of humanity, the realm that guides your beliefs and moral structure. This is what I will label your societal environment. Acting within that environment, you get to behave according to the norms of that societal structure without repercussion.
The “big machine” has a culture independent of all the societal cultures that provide our havens of emotional safety, but to get all the cool stuff like toilets, running water, corner stores, cars, and Wi-Fi, we must give to the machine. Your living struggle is to provide what it needs, not what you want to give. If you want to change the machinations, you must work within the existing culture of the machine. The needs of the machine change only to support the proliferation of humanity, not according to your arbitrary whim. That does not mean you must abandon your own culture; you just have to work within someone else’s. Your responsibility to everyone else is to do your part to keep that lovely motor running as efficiently as possible. If you want to change the culture of the machine you must immerse yourself within the existing structure. Do not expect it to bow to your emotional temper tantrums because it does not suit your fancy.
Remember, everyone is counting on everyone else to do their share to make the machine run smoothly. Go to work. Do your job. The struggle is real. Leave work and indulge in the societal environment of your choice. Thank your lucky stars that you live in a country that allows you the freedom to withdraw into your own culture on your own time. Do not demand the world bend to suit your capricious desires. That’s just common sense.
Your faithful servant
jeff
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