February 19, 2018 Monday
Bedtime Story
There is a belief amongst us, at least
within the community of well-read apes who understand how evolution works, that
the switch from foraging to farming was as if we had abandoned some dangerous,
grueling and Spartan life and transported ourselves into a life of utmost bliss
and satiety.
According to Yuval Harari we have been sold
a complete lie, or if not a lie a total fantasy.
In his very own words,
“Foragers knew the secrets of nature long
before the Agricultural Revolution, since their survival depended upon on an
intimidate knowledge of the animals and the plants they gathered.
Rather than heralding a new era of easy
living, the Agricultural Revolution left farmers with life generally more
difficult and less satisfying than those of foragers.
Hunter-gatherers spent their time in more
stimulating and varied ways, and were less in danger of starvation and disease.
The Agricultural Revolution certainly
enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food
did not translate into better diet or more leisure.
Rather, it translated into population
explosions and pampered elites.”
(Once again someone else touches upon the
problem of population explosion.
Time and again in history, whenever any
non-violent revolution has come, we apes saw it as boom and our reproduction dramatically
increased without having the mathematical ability to figure out the cost of baby
boom).
“The average farmer worked harder than the
average forager, and got a worse diet in return.
The Agricultural Revolution was history’s
biggest fraud.”
Many would argue and even challenge this
idea and completely disagree with it.
All I can say to convince the skeptics is
to consider the modern India and the state of its agriculture and the plight of
a typical small land-holding farmer.
India is a good example to consider, even
though similar problem are faced by other developing nations as well, as it is
even today primarily an agrarian country
Farmer suicides are rampant in this country
and accounts for 11.2% of all suicides in India.
The most common reason for farmers to
commit suicide is crop failure due to drought, insects and loans leading to
indebtedness again due to crop failures.
This is the state of affair when the
farmers are not left all to themselves but have some kinds of state support, no
matter how nominal or primitive it may be (though at times it can also be
exploitative).
The point that is being made here is that
there are inherent uncertainties in the seasonal yield of crops in farming as
the crops and their harvest are dependent on factors beyond the control of
either the reaper or the harvester.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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