Angelo Druda | The Age of Mass Consumption

Several hundred years ago, the dominant tribes of Europe underwent a sudden and profound leap in the evolutionary development of their left-brain, transforming medieval primitives into engineers. . . The age of mass consumption had begun.

Several hundred years ago, the dominant tribes of Europe underwent a sudden and profound leap in the evolutionary development of their left-brain, transforming medieval primitives into engineers. Armed with their new technology (especially weaponry of unprecedented lethality) and a sense of righteous superiority, they poured out across the world. The earth and its people were theirs for their taking. The age of mass consumption had begun.
Nowadays, the indigenous subsistence cultures that tried to live in harmony with the earth are all but gone, having been overwhelmed and consumed by the western industrial machine. The more the conquerors came to dominate and exploit the natural world, the more their hyperactivity unbalanced them. And, of course, in their search for more and more they used up the earth. Sooner or later, this unlawful streak of exploitation had to end. So let the age of rejuvenation begin.
Recently a couple of dimwitted CNN newsreaders were yuking it up over the fact that beef cattle produce more air pollution than cars. “So what are we going to do, stop eating beef”, said one to the other.  More yuks. Perhaps so.  Perhaps that time has come. After all, the research has already been done—the quickest path to health and longevity is through caloric restriction. Imagine—the easiest and cheapest way to rejuvenate the body is through systematic under-eating. One way or another, western man needs to get skinny again.
Now I am not picking on the cattle ranchers here. Hey, even I believe that a steak can be good medicine from time to time. But the horrors of industrial protein production are well documented, and the evidence of its degenerative effects upon our bodies is abundantly displayed in the epidemic of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. The earth will not sustain our self-indulgence, anymore than financial system will not sustain our greed. The time for real change has come.
If a field is left fallow for a couple of years, the soil improves. If we unburden our digestive system, our health improves. Nothing heals a bloated and toxic organism better than a fast. This may be the prescription for the times. Millions of human beings have perished from this earth when they could not adapt to change. It is really nothing to yuk about.  The breakdown of the old pattern has arrived.  It is time for man to calm down, trim down, and get back to the basics.

(Angelo Druda can be contacted via his website, www.traditionalbotanicalmedicine.com)