Life on our planet has existed about 3.8 billion years. Civilization, with agriculture and trade leading to surplus food and economic stability goes back between 4000 and 3000 BCE. Language developed about 150,000 years ago. Tools and weapons date back over 64,000 years. Tools tend to be useful for survival. Weapons? Well, they became useful for protecting from others whose tools were less effective in surviving in the Stone Age. So, conflict became part of survival. As time went on and on, more weapons were created. The conflicts became more prominent. The idea of combat became part of survival. So, wars had to be fought. The earliest documented wars in human history include the Trojan War, Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War. Wars are still (one may have noticed) occurring right now. Clearly constant wars are permanent proof of human beings’ inability to get along with one another over millenniums. There may be enough of everything for everyone but to the victor goes the spoils, right? So the fight is on. They have it. Others want it. Ironically, Mars a planetary neighbor of ours, is labelled the War Planet. Go figure.

Aside from finding cause to kill one another, “entertainment” has a long history as well: the first forms of entertainment include cave paintings, storytelling and ritual dances. These forms of human activity date back to 100,000 years ago. Musical instruments like flutes dates back to at least 40,000 years. Today, we have countless other instruments, with solo acts, symphony orchestras and marching bands with hundreds of players. Recorded music started with the first intelligible recording of a human voice with a snippet of the French folk song Au Clair de la Lune, in 1860, CE. Soon after that came the Beatles, the Stones and Metallica. The explosive, easily accessible, modern era of music dates back to MTV, first aired on August 1, 1981, CE. Right, Music Television, a derivative of early television (a.k.a., the boob tube) Circa 1927, CE. The bastardization of live entertainment as a relatively intimate experience in night clubs or theaters with several hundred or more seats can be found currently in large outdoor arena events featuring mass idolization of personas drawing fawning fans who will show up for a performance even in horrific weather. For example, a touring spectacle branded Cowboy Carter, Soldier Field, Chicago, May 2025, CE. And the “cowboy” in question is a completely synthetic, manufactured character. The performer isn’t even a boy. It’s a she. So much for authentic, meaningful emotional performance. That’s not the point I guess. But it sells out. And its fan-addicts want to see the show. Even if a tornado warning is in effect and delays the start for 3 or more hours. But that’s pop culture, writ very large, super wide and extremely shallow, circa 2025, CE.

Education in its earliest forms are believed to have emerged in ancient Egypt circa 2061-2010 BCE. Mostly for the “elites”. Formal education began to take shape in the 18th century. Public education became more available during the 19th century. Reformers such as Horace Mann advocated for free, tax-supported schools accessible to all children. Currently, education in certain parts of the world is being defunded. Horace Mann would likely be “disappeared” as an enemy of the elite. But it’s barely even for elites anymore….

...which leads to the first form of organized governance, with the development of city-states, circa 5,000 years ago and the first “democracy” in Athens, Greece. Democracies include freedom of assembly, association, personal property, freedom of (and from) religion, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted deprivation of the right to life, liberty and minority rights. Today, however, such a system of governance has become downright quaint. As in “departing from what is ordinary, usual, or to be expected”. In many parts of the world right now, democracy’s ideals have succumbed to authoritarianism, fascism, racism, sexism, and to say the least, elitism. But elite has become so elite that it accounts for less than 1% of the world’s population. How could this have happened? Well, locally (here in the wealthiest country on the planet) I would say it’s the CE version of education not teaching critical thinking. Lacking such a focus of developing critical thinking/listening skills relates to the aforementioned Boob Tube (also referred to as a vast wasteland) that has become so portable it is now pocket-sized, and “smart” enough to algorithmically program the brain to over-value even the most flaccid, vapid, pathos over logos, style over substance acceptance and obedience to the nothingness that is there and the nothingness that is not there. See above, Cowboy Carter. She is not a he, and so much for respect of pronouns, circa 2025 CE. Pronouns. Inclusion. Equity. Diversity. Think before you speak. Know your audience, that being office holders who appear to have become quite sensitive to language. Mr. George Orwell’s ethos is floating around out there. Right along with Alfred E. Neuman.

How about sports? Sports, with rules goes back to the ancient Olympic Games, around 776 BCE. The oldest organized sport is wrestling, about 7000 BCE. Wrestling included combat competitions. Gladiator competitions. Thumbs up or down. Ballgames? The Mesoamerican ballgame could include the losing side to be sacrificed to the gods. Is this sports or are will still discussing war? Whatever. This was circa 1650 BCE. Today, football is violent but only leads to death by way of CTE (chronic traumatic Encephalopathy). Thus, we have CTE documented first by Dr. Harrison Martland in the Journal of the American medical Association, CE 1928. Popular games such as soccer, hockey and even baseball can also lead to CTE. Even if CTE doesn’t become fatal, it can tragically cause some victims to become addle-brained enough to support some individuals and causes that can lead to the above noted fascist, authoritarian, racist, sexist forms of governance. It may also explain how Cowboy Carter is a thing.

Our planet, Earth is 4. 543 billion years old. Our sun. 4.603 billion years old, the same age as our solar system. Our Milky Way Galaxy is 13.61 billion years old. The universe is 13.8 billion years old. There are an estimated two trillion galaxies in our universe. Hmm. Are we the only planet with life as we know it, past and present, amongst those trillions of galaxies? Not just some single cell levels of life forms, but close to how our planet and its progression from 4.543 billion years ago to today’s most advanced species known as Homo Sapien? Must be some other life forms out there, ya think? Perhaps we have already been visited, observed, studied by far superior life forms. The word “progressive” may not appear on their final report. If we have been visited, my guess is they sped back to their home base, somewhere out there, billions or even trillions of light years away, safely distanced from our clear propensity to be at one another’s throats, for no good reason at all.

I, for one, would not blame them.