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Sep 21, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
Let’s look at the social evolution of man as we moved from a primitive state to developed complex societies. Man used to walk and walk looking for fruits etc. And we would walk following the animals as we depend on them. We roved and slept where the night found us. But we have moved on.
We now live in settlements. But how did this happen? Did man one day suddenly decide that he is tired of moving all over the place and so decide to settle down in one place and this coincidentally took place independently in different countries? Or there were natural objective processes that allowed us to do so, that created the basis for us to do so and that may have influenced us to do so.
Let’s take for instance there is a familiar statement that says that as man interacts with nature we gain knowledge. We then use this knowledge to change what we do and in this process of change our life style and thus are ourselves transformed.
I asked if at some time we decided to settle down in one place. How did this happen? Maybe as we walked through the forest we reach a tree that was struck by lightning and it sloped downwards. We sat on the trunk and found it to be comfortable so we commenced to go there to sit and we eat the fruits we gathered. We threw the seed there and over a period of time there were a number of trees and we learnt some thing about agriculture. The knowledge of growing our own food.
Also as we followed the animals a female sheep with lambs was killed by a tiger and the lamb was orphaned. The lamb having lost its mother sought other attachment and commenced to follow someone. Maybe here man learned another lesson, that the animals would follow us.
Now the knowledge gained from these interactions would have allowed us to settle instead of being rovers. What is demonstrated here also is that the means of us getting our food would greatly influence how we live. The role of technology deem very influential. There is an assumption here that as man hunted he would have improved his hunting tools. He would have improved other tools also like for eating and sitting. This technology would have triggered changes. Some would take to looking after animals some to planting seeds some to hunt and some to making tools. With settling down man would have commenced to make shelter.
The question is, would this technology have triggered a division of labour? I would think yes. Other question, would different labour and different product have created private property?. Some would own the crops, some the animals, some the tools and others the product of the hunt. Now we have to do some bartering.
If this scenario makes some sense then we can begin to possibly understand and appreciate that historical change and flow may not simply be a man made decision making exercise but an extremely more complex phenomenon. Decision making would now be understood to be guided by objective laws and some level of historical determination. Definitely we can begin to accept that the role of technological advancement, the way we obtain our food, clothes, have a decisive influence in how we organise ourselves and how we live and how we transform society.
It is this understanding of how transformation took place that can guide us to an understanding of how we got here but more importantly, how we can now actively change where we are to where we want to be and where we should be. Unfortunately the ruling elites have a vested interest in keeping us ignorant of another understanding of the movement of history, thus ensuring that we ourselves would resist change thus ensuring their continued dominance.
I am hoping that by now those reading these letters of mine would begin to question what we have been taught, what we have accepted and be willing to open our minds to a completely different way of thinking, of analysing the present and future prospects.
Rajendra Bisessar
BSc Sociology, LLB
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