Sometimes I look around at human behavior gone awry--mass shootings, etc.--and while I know there's a range of factors at work, I wonder if a lot of it can be explained by the possibility that we don't have a lot of good habitat left in which the human animal can thrive.
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I don't mean to harken to human habitat of old. We don't have to live in small bands of savanna-dwelling communities to be happy (though that's my personal ideal :D). But it's just so damn tough for most people to find nourishing food and safe places to exist.
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Have you read The Human Zoo by Desmond Morris? A but dated but essentially that argument.
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And ‘s upcoming book, 🏙 Civilized to Death 💀🙈will make a 21st century argument that rhymes a bit with Morris’
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Thanks for the tip. I haven't read it, and always feel kinda self conscious about these kinds of tweets for fear they sound overly quixotic, but isn't it clear that a lot of this just... isn't working?
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I’m fairly sure there’s nothing new in such books for you, given your direct experience, but they may inspire interesting questions the rest of us are too domesticated to ask
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And where do people go for better habitat that's not, y'know, the rich guy's weekend ranch with the treehouse and seven ATVs?
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Urban rewilding? Parkour? Hunt raccoons in the dumpsters among the fallen homeless drug addicts, carefully picking your way through needles and poop?
It may be one of those things that if we look at it close enough we soon just throw up our hands and walk away muttering stuff about statecraft and scale
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Which is totally unacceptable. Like, it’s so dumb that the main reason I feel safe and secure and well provided for at night is because I graze ranches owned by land-rich families. I just don’t know the broader path forward for people who don’t have this particular vocation.
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