It’s a bizarre heading, but let me explain. The line ‘Shall the religious inherit the earth’? came to me today as I was doing nothing in particular, and is a book title of a book written by a former professor of mine (Eric Kaufmann) that talks about demographics and the future population. Then, after this line impressed on my consciousness, I started thinking about the Hunter-gatherer as an archetype that I have written about before, a type of person that is different from the Farmer (also an archetype). Basically I have argued that those who are Farmers are much more able to cope in our current, capitalistic society and its focus on labour and obedience, whereas Hunter-gatherer types, who are nomadic, are much more inclined to defy and/or dislike and suffer from the rules of our current system because it is so much at odds with their instincts as nomads. What’s the point in gathering resources that one may capitalize on if I am programmed to believe I can only carry my possessions in my own backpack? Why would one want to strive for dominance if I am simply surviving day to day, at the mercy of the forces of Nature?
Coming back to the title, ‘Will the hunter-gatherers inherit the Earth?’, of course not. We are all here and the whole point is – nobody will inherit the Earth – because it is not ours to own to begin with. However, that knowing is much more likely to be known by the nomadic person who it has never occurred to that we can commodify the resources of Mother Nature and make a living out if it, compared to the Farmer whose instinct it to do precisely that. None of these instincts are necessarily in an of themselves wrong or bad, however my argument is that the thinking of the latter – which is the one that has shaped our current system – has now come to a time in history when it is no longer healthy for any of us to keep going in this direction . Instead, it is the other type of knowing that needs to be instilled in us all and be our guiding star, i.e. the knowing that the resources of our Living Earth are finite and that we must cooperate and share rather than compete and capitalize.
I therefore see people who embody the Hunter-Gatherer archetype as our new thought leaders who must step up and share their voices while people who embody more of the Farmer archetype – who have been our leaders up until now – must understand that they have a new role to play and can share their gifts to the world in new ways, but other than behind the steering wheel. Because the old thinking will sink the boat that we are all on, and nobody will benefit from that. While nobody will inherit the Earth, I think most of us would like to stay around and enjoy life while we are here.
VERED 