LINK Easter Island “A Parable of Self-Destruction”
I learned of this 20 years ago and a lot of light bulbs went off. It was both unbelievably fascinating and frightening. This culture is not the first to experience this and won’t be the last and the whole issue will go global if we keep going down the road we are headed. Later a group tried to deny the original idea as too extreme but the facts were already there. Kevin Costner made a film “Rapa Nui” about this event but if you didn’t know the background it was confusing.
If you want to know what is behind much of what is/has happening in the world understand this problem.
BTW religion was behind both creating and destroying the figures. A myth of the factions creating the religions of “Long Ears” and Short Ears” was shown as promoting the violence. [roughguides.com]
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. You'll see we're all in for the biggest collapse ever, and probably within the next decade.
LilithGone
Level 4
May 5, 2018
0
I have read it and his "The World Until Yesterday" as well. There are tangible reasons for these things happening. Too many like to point fingers but we are all complicit. To me, it is about limited resources and the increasing demand on them (basically, overpopulation).
I wonder what “collapse” means for the 21st century. We are so globally intertwined. Economic bubble bursts, smaller wars, larger multi-nation wars, changing alliances... I’m seeing changes (some very bad/destructive) but not collapse in the next decades. We’ll see!!
Study the Maya....their constant warfare and ecological devastation ended what must've been an amazing society.
LucyLoohoo
Level 9
May 3, 2018
0
There are many cases of civilizations crashing. It is not unique and will happen again.
@JackPedigo Of course! I think about it every day.
A lot of that is "fill in the blanks" archeology. Yes we are sure they resourced themselves out, but the wars over figures and what not are dramas remade from fragments of tribal legends.
And your right
We are the fleas of the Dog of Planet earth, bound for that cosmic flea bath we call Global Warming.
We are living in the 6th extinction event. We have good evidence of how the other five were caused from geology and related sciences. We humans are recreating conditions from ALL FIVE previous extinction events, in faster timescales, right now.
Its boiled frog syndrome, and were in the heating pot
Davesnothere
Level 7
Apr 24, 2018
2
In the middens of the island groups archeologist found smaller bones (fish, pig and such) at the bottom or earlier times. Later they were replaced with larger bones like dolphins and at the top human bones that had clearly teeth marks. I read a report about a period where the Nile river did not flood and there was widespread famine. It was shown that people ate their newborns during this time. We are animals and do as animals do in order to survive. We must never forget that!!
hmmm,
can't comment re the film,
had to sort through so much misinformation over the years and still don't have a clear picture,
I tried to translate Rongorongo once, but didn't get past all the sex. From what I could see all of the writings were their creation myths. Gods mating with various animals, birds etc to create people, I thought I may have missed it all so gave up.
Rugglesby
Level 8
Apr 23, 2018
0
The original report was written up in several science publications. This shortened version recently appeared in the link I sent. It is straight forward and makes lots of sense. No superstition and supernaturalism involved for the basic facts.
@JackPedigo ooops. sorry, I jumped to the video, assumed link was same, am reading it now.For years i was told they were long gone and never seen, that noone had ever heard the language spoken, Years later I found out that was all wrong. Our education here left a lot to be desired, I think facts were optional.
Interesting article. When I read it I learned my first and so far only Easter Island insult: “The flesh of your mother sticks between my teeth.” Clearly those folks had a very tough time, and they didn’t have their own version of the Enlightenment. I also think that, unlike us, they weren’t aware that they might have been destroying their environment. I understand that when their civilization hit the skids they began to knock down their idols as a manifestation of their displeasure with their deities. The evolution of the homo species is full of dead ends, and the same is true for all species. It’s an open question whether our awareness of this brutal fact will help our species endure and, in effect, transcend natural selection.
ArturoS
Level 6
Apr 23, 2018
0
There is an idea called the boiling frog syndrome. A frog in tepid water will sit there until the heat is turned up and it is boiled to death. When put into boiling water the frog jumps. We are slowly becoming the frog in an ever heating body of water. Things are not getting better environmentally speaking ans some of the most important things we need to be doing we are doing just the opposite.
@JackPedigo Let’s do what we can to become hope collectively more aware and less passive than the gradually cooked frog.
It's a fascinating and tragic microcosm of earth... We can and do impact our environment, and we should do better to take care of it for future generations. It will take a huge systemic change.
CalebMarion
Level 5
Apr 23, 2018
1
very good film and a small scale version of what humans are doing to themselves.
LeighShelton
Level 8
Apr 22, 2018
1
What will it take to wake up the ones in charge in this country and the world to see we are on the road to ruin? Why are we electing officials that continue to ride the short bus to ignornace, stupid and now crazy town?
Environments change, it is time to stop blaming and change the way we do things on this plantet.
silverotter11
Level 9
Apr 22, 2018
2
For me it starts with the individual. Each one of us must become aware and take personal measures regardless of what our neighbors are doing. There is overwhelming scientific evidence of what is happening but, in too many countries scientists take a back seat to cornucopian economists.
I had thought those stone statues were an attempt to keep the ship that passed by at bay from visiting an island of giants. In hope of keeping the women on the island from committing acts of infidelity.
azzow2
Level 9
Apr 22, 2018
0
Anthropologists studying the island noted the stones we two different types. They then found out each type represented a religious cult much like our Catholic and Protestant churches. Opposing groups would topple the other's stones until all were down.
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