Venezuela: Mandatory Fingerprinting At Grocery Stores

[Matt84]

For 99 percent-plus of human history, the concepts of wealth and poverty did not even exist, and human needs were easily satisfied: http://en.wikipedia....ffluent_society

There is a consensus that identifies history as different from prehistory. What you're talking about is about the prehistoric period of Man, before we gradually but not completely settled into sedentary society or Civilization, and created History.
Those who never settled and are isolated from the rest of Mankind are the uncontacted tribes.
Those who never fully settled into an agricultural society in defiance of the tyrannical power of the valleys are affectionately called hillbillies. There are many in Asia, and I'd recommend you explore the concept of Zomia and maybe read the book by James Scott.

In that kind of prehistoric society men were not slaves to the land, to the warlord and the priest, but that doesn't mean that every human need was easily satisfied. I consider intellectual curiosity and personal exp<b></b>ression both basic human needs which would have not been so easily satisfied in a hunter gatherer group - as much as I like dogs. Life under those conditions would not have exceeded 30 or perhaps 40 years if very lucky not to get that tooth infected. Most humans would have died before the age of four, naturally.

After history began and civilizations expanded and eventually integrated the whole Globe or at least most of it, the creation of value augmented exponentially. Examples of this are the creation of beer, the first kind of potable water, the smallpox vaccine, or the internet which you use to take down a notch the system that allows you to enjoy that same luxury.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

There is a consensus that identifies history as different from prehistory. What you're talking about is about the prehistoric period of Man, before we gradually but not completely settled into sedentary society or Civilization, and created History.
Those who never settled and are isolated from the rest of Mankind are the uncontacted tribes.
Those who never fully settled into an agricultural society in defiance of the tyrannical power of the valleys are affectionately called hillbillies. There are many in Asia, and I'd recommend you explore the concept of Zomia and maybe read the book by James Scott.

In that kind of prehistoric society men were not slaves to the land, to the warlord and the priest, but that doesn't mean that every human need was easily satisfied. I consider intellectual curiosity and personal exp<b></b>ression both basic human needs which would have not been so easily satisfied in a hunter gatherer group - as much as I like dogs. Life under those conditions would not have exceeded 30 or perhaps 40 years if very lucky not to get that tooth infected. Most humans would have died before the age of four, naturally.

After history began and civilizations expanded and eventually integrated the whole Globe or at least most of it, the creation of value augmented exponentially. Examples of this are the creation of beer, the first kind of potable water, the smallpox vaccine, or the internet which you use to take down a notch the system that allows you to enjoy that same luxury.

If you prefer a short-term perspective, or a small sample size, you are free to do so, but your analysis will still be misleading.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

I know not where thou wast educated, but apparently they lacked both logicians and spell-checkers.

It is all OK when the poster comes from non-English speaking country.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

It is all OK when the poster comes from non-English speaking country.

Minimal coherence remains obligatory, though.

 

[Matt84]

If you prefer a short-term perspective, or a small sample size, you are free to do so, but your analysis will still be misleading.

How am I misleading you?
Do you agree that as much free time as those societies you describe might have had, they also had a very short life expectancy and very high infant mortality?
This is a map that shows the state of affairs 3000 years ago

 

[ajoknoblauch]

How am I misleading you?
Do you agree that as much free time as those societies you describe might have had, they also had a very short life expectancy and very high infant mortality?
This is a map that shows the state of affairs 3000 years ago

It's difficult to choose where to start when you've provided so many oversimplifications. I'll start, though, with the fact that shorter life expectancy and higher infant mortality have little or nothing to do with the inherent health of those peoples. Communicable diseases were rarer but more often debilitating or fatal, and the consequences of accidents could be far more serious. Today, we are more capable of extending the lives of unhealthy people, at a very high cost.

 

[Matt84]

i might see your point, it reminds me (not that I am comparing you with) of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentti_Linkola
http://www.penttilinkola.com/pentti_linkola/ecofascism/

 

[ajoknoblauch]

i might see your point, it reminds me (not that I am comparing you with) of:
http://en.wikipedia..../Pentti_Linkola
http://www.penttilin...ola/ecofascism/

I see no similarities whatsoever.

 

[Matt84]

Well back to the "original" point

For 99 percent-plus of human history, the concepts of wealth and poverty did not even exist, and human needs were easily satisfied:

For all of history and for much of pre history different degrees of technology, power and wealth did exist and human needs were satisfied in a very unequal way. You can open the map I linked and scoll to earlier and later centuries to see where a technology or way of living is discovered and spreads unequally and gradually around the world.
Sure we see "shell gathering cultures" of beachcombers who might have lived the good life you mention, but then how did they become susceptible to eventually integrate and benefit from iron working?
This reminds me of the case of the isolated tribes I mentioned. In the Andaman Isands the native lived as they had for thousends of years until the Indian government decided to build a road through their territory. In a matter of years this anthropological relic was destroyed as the population became either alcoholics or "craved" to go to school and consume industrialized products.
Now the Brazilian government is not sure how to deal with the few isolated tribes remaining in the Amazon. When they give them machetes or cooking pots they become desperate to come to the towns, and invariably they end up living in the worst condititions in the cities. The alternative seems to be reserves called human zoos, where the people are intentionally "quarantined" from the modern world for their own good.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Well back to the "original" point

For all of history and for much of pre history different degrees of technology, power and wealth did exist and human needs were satisfied in a very unequal way. You can open the map I linked and scoll to earlier and later centuries to see where a technology or way of living is discovered and spreads unequally and gradually around the world.
Sure we see "shell gathering cultures" of beachcombers who might have lived the good life you mention, but then how did they become susceptible to eventually integrate and benefit from iron working?
This reminds me of the case of the isolated tribes I mentioned. In the Andaman Isands the native lived as they had for thousends of years until the Indian government decided to build a road through their territory. In a matter of years this anthropological relic was destroyed as the population became either alcoholics or "craved" to go to school and consume industrialized products.
Now the Brazilian government is not sure how to deal with the few isolated tribes remaining in the Amazon. When they give them machetes or cooking pots they become desperate to come to the towns, and invariably they end up living in the worst condititions in the cities. The alternative seems to be reserves called human zoos, where the people are intentionally "quarantined" from the modern world for their own good.

You're bringing up an entirely different issue.