The Extinction of Experience
This article is a bit different from my usual ramblings—it's blessedly short.
During my daily inspection of interwebs propaganda, I came across an article entitled “The No. 1 Weapon Against the Autism Epidemic Is Common Sense.” It discusses the rising rates of autism in children. A few aspects stood out, but what struck me most was the idea that the “extinction of experience” robs us of the perspective needed to recognize when something has gone wrong.
I believe the same principle applies to adult healthcare, where dietary malnutrition is often misdiagnosed as so-called chronic disease.
Consider this:
“ECOLOGISTS use the concept of ‘shifting baselines’ to capture the way that human beings rapidly lose any collective memory of how things were in the past. We no longer experience the wonder of wildflower meadows, ancient woodlands and fertile seas – especially if we live and work in concrete jungles – so we do not know what is lost.”
The consequences are serious:
“We accept the unacceptable because it is normal.”
Rather than acknowledging that our unnatural diets are damaging our metabolism and leading to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and more, my generation has come to believe that the solution is a pill. For the vast majority of us, the real answer is simple: eat real food.
Back to common sense:
“Someone sensible needs to stand up and say we need a change of direction. Something has gone very wrong. Too many of our precious children are in poor health and are unable to learn.
This is a national emergency, and the only lasting solution is to stop causing the problem in the first place.
This common sense might come too late to shift the baselines back to where they should be, but there is still time for our children’s children to be protected from the immuno-neurological problems afflicting so many today.
Sharing the route to good health is the most powerful and important thing we can do. The future of our species depends on it.”
Personally, I still believe there’s time.