Tuesday, July 15, 2003

I wonder if anyone has ever studied the micro-micro economics of modern life, as they relate to macro-systems. Specifically, whether or not having indoor plumbing makes life easier or more difficult, given the systems required to manage indoor plumbing, given the work required to earn money to pay the taxes, to pay the rent, to pay the mortgage for indoor plumbing, ignoring the fact that we live in an overpopulated world that requires good sanitation and sewage. It just seems as if we're almost living in an ultra-feudalistic society, where the most extremely wealthy enjoy lives of leisure while the rest of us toil, wage serfs, buying into the idea that we somehow enjoy better health and more leisure than "primitive" living allows. I'm especially thinking more and more about this in relation to my increasing understanding and appreciation for the role diet plays in health. I remember Professor Montgomery talking about how the archaelogical record has found evidence of humans fairly routinely living to be 120 to 140 years old in pre-Columbian times on this continent, with dental problems one of the leading killers. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. And everything about our life style perpetuates dependencies on Western medicine and working and pills and systems we depend on that are complex beyond our comprehension. 10:18:11 PM