The Case Against Progress

We are currently living through a time of Evolutionary Mismatch.

That means, our biological, psychological and spiritual bodies are still expecting a world that we lived in about 100 years ago.

Evolution is very, very slow to ‘catch up’ to progress and we’re simply not there yet. This is being played out in unprecedented cases of autoimmune disease, cancer, heart disease, including childhood disease, anxiety and psychological distress.

It seems that our progressive and novel world is at a crossroads with what our bodies and minds still expect.

And this is where a very frank discussion around the notion of ‘progress’ itself is warranted.

A number of great thinkers in the world today are discussing this novel world that we find ourselves in and parsing apart its very obvious mismatch with both our biology and our humanity.

Bret Weinstein, an Evolutionary Biologist, has been speaking on this subject for a number of years. You can take a look at one of his recent interviews on the subject here.

For a more philosophical version of our current mismatch, I would highly recommend listening to Paul Kingsnorth, a British author who, in his writings muses about what he refers to as ‘The Machine.’ You can catch his most recent interview with Louise Perry here.

I feel like these are conversations that are extremely important to have and worth pondering on our own.

So what are some of the more obvious mismatches that we’re seeing in this modern society of ours AND what can we reasonably do about it?

FOOD

The very substance that fuels our bodies and keeps us alive is something that I’m so passionate about. We have a million different ideas, experts and perspectives on how we should eat but it’s actually very, very simple.

Eat the way your grandparents ate.

Eat as if there is no such thing as processed foods.

Eat out in restaurants only on occasion.

One very concerning food-like substance that has infiltrated our food system are industrial seed oils. These oils are made from the seeds of vegetables. They were originally used as engine lubricant. They are created through a process of rapid heat to extract the oil from the seed.

The problem is that our bodies are not able to properly utilize or process these oils. Our cells are made of lipid particles. Lipid, meaning, fat.

Fat absorbs oil and holds it in its cellular structure.

Seed oils, like grapeseed oil, canola oil, corn oil, sunflower and safflower oils are examples of common oils that are found in almost all processed foods and what almost all restaurants use in the preparation of their food.

These oils are highly prone to rancidity - spoiling - at high heat, and yet they are almost exclusively used for high heat cooking.

This is a perfect example of an evolutionary mismatch in our modern culture. Instead, use olive oil (not at high heat), avocado oil, lard, butter, bacon fat. These oils have not been chemically altered to make them into oil. Our bodies recognize them and they are good for us.

All of our ancestors ate meat. Some less than others and some more than others, but meat was simply a staple in the diet.

And other than meat, we ate seasonally.

The rule of thumb is, if it grazes, swims, grows on a vine, a tree or a bush, and comes up from the soil, then it is real food and wonderful to eat.

If it is highly processed, made in a factory or has ingredients in it that you can’t pronounce, stay away from it.

HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

This is a large umbrella. And one that has taken a huge hit in our progressive landscape.

Technology itself has driven a wedge in what is arguably the most important aspect of our existence.

We now don’t often ‘see’ each other, we look at each other’s timelines on social media. We text. We FaceTime.

Even our sexuality has been subverted by modernity.

Porn is a huge problem. The research is pretty cut and dry.

The more you watch porn, the less you want to have actual sex. Sex becomes a voyeuristic activity. Your limbic system has become attuned to arousal through watching other people have sex, rather than actually having sex.

We know that men who routinely watch porn are more prone to have erectile dysfunction - and these are high numbers - and find more and more difficult to perform ‘in person.’

Porn also perverts our sense of intimacy. Regular users of porn need their content to get more and more radical in order to instigate arousal.

So sex becomes dark.

Louise Perry, a British author who wrote a fascinating book called The Case Against The Sexual Revolution, writes that modern society second wave feminism, and porn teach women that they can have sex like men.

They can have casual sex, also known as ‘hook-up culture’, they can have rough sex and essentially flip the switch on their emotions.

But it turns out that we can’t.

Casual sex for women, comes with considerable costs. Costs that men don’t have to endure.

Namely, those costs include the risk of sexual assault, rape and pregnancy.

These are potentially very high costs to a woman.

These ‘costs’ are built into a woman’s biology.

Our instincts, from a fairly young age, tell us to be careful around strange or unknown men. That is simply a survival instinct. And a bloody important one.

Our instincts also tell us that as we are the ones who get pregnant, we better be careful of the quality of the man we are sleeping with. Because if my having sex with someone results in a pregnancy, I need to know that I am not alone in this outcome. That we can be provided for; protected.

Contrary to the sentiments of ‘progressive feminism’ these are not willy nilly.

These are survival.

This new, weird paradigm is also not good for men.

Louise Perry writes that at one time, men had to have their shit together in order to be able to sleep with a woman. He had to have a good job, be an upstanding citizen within his community and generally speaking, be a ‘good guy.’

If that is no longer the case because we have told women that ‘we can have sex like men’ and therefore, men can sleep with whomever they want, whenever they want, then the drive for men to get their lives in order is not so pressing.

This, of course, has societal wide implications. If men are not stepping into their highest potential and going out into their communities as productive members, this begins to break down the fabric of cohesive society.

It is a trickle down effect.

So we get good and honest with ourselves around our instincts, our intuition, our self-preservation and our dignity.

And lastly…

FAITH IN A HIGHER POWER

Many of the experts who are having this very pertinent discussion around where our civilization is going and how to possibly subvert a decline, are saying the same thing.

We are desperate for a return of The Sacred.

We have somehow lost that to modernity.

Instead, our secular society has come to worship technology, money, politics, the Self, our fickle and ever-changing feelings, fame, reputation, beauty, youth…the list is fairly endless.

But oh so shallow.

And we know it.

When we worship the shallow and the temporal, we will feels all shades of insecurity, anxiety, nihilism.

Life has devolved into a superficial cauldron that never quite appeases our restless hearts.

Everything in this world is temporary. Everything that appears here will one day pass away. Our youth, our beauty, our money…politics is ever-changing and technology evolves at the speed of lightening.

But there is one constant. One thing from which ALL things have emerged.

It has been said that no one person or thing in this world will ever love you as much as God.

That is because God wants nothing from us…because God only offers Unconditional Love…it is here and only here that we can finally come to REST, once and for all.

That longing that you have inside of you…you know what I’m speaking of…that longing that never seems to have a good enough salve, could only possibly be met by God.

This relationship with God requires practice. It requires a relational cultivation that needs your attention and devotion.

Like any other relationship that we aim to strengthen and cultivate, this one is no different, but perhaps of even greater importance.

I believe that we will see a massive resurgence in a return to The Divine.

I’m not sure that we could get our footing in this new world without it.

This, of course, is a very personal thing. But something worth investigating.

This is a heart investigation. It initiates a different kind of curiosity.

Of course, we have so much to be thankful for in our progressive landscape. I would likely not be alive if it weren’t for modern medicine and technology.

And yet, there is progression for humanity sake and then there is progression for progression’s sake.

The later may not be as good for us as we once thought.

We can’t afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

There is so much of the past that we got right. So much that is still imperative to our survival as a species.

It might be time to revisit what worked and look to its historical wisdom and relevance.

It may be what turns this ship of humanity around.