Thread by @SteB777

I often see climate activists, environmentalists and conservationists, express disappointment, that our species, humans are so destructive and uncaring.

This is a fundamental thinking error, a myth. It's not our species, which is like this, but our modern culture.
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In my massive, and deep review, over many decades, of why we carry on this globally suicidal path, driving the climate and ecological crisis, despite this course being well known, for over 50 years, I asked deep and searching questions as to why this was so.
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Without going into depth, I concluded that our modern culture was riddled with myths. Demonstrably false ideas about our place in the world, that natural systems that sustain us. These myths, facilitate and regulate the behaviour of people.
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This is first of all, a massive problem, because our modern culture, thinks itself completely free of myths, and that only ancient and primitive peoples had myths about the world we live in. That, somehow, our culture has risen above the myths that controlled us in the past.
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This is almost a total inversion of the truth. Our modern culture is riddled with demonstrably false myths, and all our thinking is shot through, with these myths. Our thinking and behaviour is totally controlled by a whole range of demonstrably false ideas, myths.
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It's my contention, that the reason, several European cultures went on to colonize the world, and impose our extractivist culture on the whole world, leading to the industrial revolution, was not our technology, but our outlook.
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If you look at the first colonial voyages of discovery, and the early beginnings of the industrial revolution, the first factories, you will see, that they were actually achieved, with old technology. That the technologies we associate with these things, actually came later.
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In other words, the navigation devices, the better ships, came after the first voyages, and were developed to facilitate them, to make them easier. Same with the first factories, which were powered by water, and used technology, known since the Ancient world.
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Yet to illustrate, the power of myths over our modern culture, it is generally believed, that it was the superiority, the superior technology of these European cultures, that allowed them to colonize the world, and to start industrial production.
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This is a demonstrably false belief. Look at the ships of the first European voyages of discovery, and the first factories, and you won't find any of the technological inventions, which it claimed facilitated this. They came later.

10/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory

Our myths about our modern society, and its origins, are quite contrary to the evidence. It's a complete fairy story, that it was the technology of the European nations, which allowed them to dominate the world. It's a specious idea, superficially plausible, but false.
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It's superficially plausible, because yes these European cultures, did create all these navigational devices, and superior ship technology. They did create the technology to power the industrial revolution, but only after both had already began.
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It wasn't the technology, that allowed European cultures to discover the "New World", and colonize it. I wasn't the technology, that facilitated the first factories. Yes, they refined and developed this technology to facilitate this, but only after they'd already started it.
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What facilitated the colonization of the "New World" and industrial production, was a rapacious mindset, which saw the natural systems of the world, as just commodities to be plundered and exploited for profit, the motivation behind both projects.
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This is what really set these European cultures apart from all other cultures of the world at the time. Just seeing everything, the marvellous natural world, even other people, as just commodities to be plundered for profit, in a systematic way.
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A good illustration of this, is slavery. Yes, it's true that slavery had been around since the first civilizations. But it was only the European cultures in the last 500 years, that developed it, in an industrial way, as a cog in this colonial machinery.
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The same with colonization. Again, conquest, had existed since powerful individuals took over early civilizations. But it was only those European cultures within the last 500 years, that decided to systematically conquer and colonize the whole world.
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It's the same with industrial production. Sure, things had been manufactured systematically for thousands of years. Pottery, metal tools and weapons. What changed it, was creating factories, where it was systematically done for great profit.
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It was this mindset, that saw the whole purpose of life, as merely the exploitation of natural resources and even other people for profit, which led to these cultures and world views, dominating the world, and systematically destroying the natural world.
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One of the big myths of our culture, to justify this rapacious, and self-destructive behaviour, is that other cultures would have done the exactly same, if only they had the technology. I've already demonstrated why this is a falsehood.
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Neither the colonization of the "New World" or the first factories, were facilitated by the technology associated with the ventures, as that came later, to further facilitate it. No, first came the impetus to colonize the world, to systematically exploit the natural world.
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The colonialist and extractivist mindset, are what facilitate European colonization of the world, and the industrial revolution, not technology. Other cultures didn't do it, as they never saw the world through the lens of such a nihilistic outlook.
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Of course, already hear the apologists for this rape of the world, that ancient humans were also like this, because they wiped out the megafauna. No they didn't, but it is not the place in this conversation to deal with this myth. So please don't try and fly this one here.
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For the time of being I will say only one thing about this. When Europeans first appeared in the Americas, Africa, Australia etc, there was a massive flourishing biodiversity, which had existed with the indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Mainly gone now.
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I must make it very clear, that I'm not going to debate any of this, and anyone who tries to dispute this with clever arguments, will get closed down. I can marshal massive evidence against these arguments, but not in this format. There's a reason these myths have persisted.
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The reason these myths have persisted, is because of various deceitful intellectual tricks, like whataboutism.

So people will say, but what about the disappearance of the megafauna, which proves these indigenous cultures we wiped out with genocide, were just as bad as us.
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Whataboutism, is an oppressive intellectual trick, and is much deployed by climate change deniers. It enables sophists to deploy an almost endless array of false hypothetical arguments, which take a massive time and use of words to overcome.

27/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatabout…

What's more, when you finally knock down, the false "what about" argument, blow me, they just come up with another one, and another one. Never once conceding they were wrong, even though you demolished their false arguments.
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It's pernicious and dishonest, because even if early indigenous peoples, wiped out the then megafauna, and they did not, it in no way justifies the genocide and biodiversity destruction of the colonizers.
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This is what is so oppressive and dishonest about whataboutism. It does not ever address the situation you are pointing to. Hypothetical arguments about early humans, do not address our current systematic destruction of biodiversity, and the our Holocene climate.
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But it does allow these myths to persist, when these self-appointed defenders of our modern culture, use whataboutism, to shout down, anyone pointing to the causes of the climate and ecological crisis, and the myths that facilitate it.
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My only point, and this is very simple. Modern humans have existed for 2-300,000 years and our close ancestors much longer. For most of that time, biodiversity thrived, and humans existed sustainably, with that biodiversity.
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It's only very recently, in historic terms, that there has been massive biodiversity decline, and anthropogenic climate change. This is not driven by the innate behaviour of our species, but because of our leadership of powerful and wealthy people, and this culture.
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These powerful wealthy individuals, are both the product of this colonial extractivist culture of the last 500 years, their wealth and power was derived from it, and they maintain it now, as it benefits them personally.
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Yet again, this is not much to do with innate human behaviour, but because of a culture imposed on us, by an elite, that massively benefited in terms of wealth and power, because of this colonialist and extractivist culture.
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It wasn't even ordinary Europeans, that decided to colonize the world and set up industrial production. Yes, they might have manned the ships, worked in the factories, but they got very little out of it, for themselves.
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It's really quite incredible, that all this destruction of both indigenous cultures, the Earth's biodiversity and ecology, was bought about, by a literal handful of people, who personally benefited massively from this destructive behaviour.
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To conclude. Although indigenous peoples, form less than 5% of the global population. The land they control, contains 80% of the Earths remaining biodiversity. This is why, it's not the human species, but a particular culture.

38/nhm.ac.uk/discover/indig…

What's more, this was not the culture of the European people themselves, but a small clique of powerful people who ruled their societies and exploited ordinary European people for power and profit.
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This is what is wrong with humanity now. It is not our species. It is the powerful and wealthy, both driving this destruction, and profiting from it, that want ordinary people to blame themselves, and to blame humans in general. It is the intellectual trickery of conmen.
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