2025-08
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2025/10/01/2025-08/
2025-08-25 Monday
I was reading recently that “pest control” is not an idea that is universal to humanity, but is tied to a cultural “dominion” mindset and that indigenous tribes often view the different plants and animals as neighbors. Sometimes, certain neighbors are a hassle and need to be dealt with, one way or the other, of course.
I was thinking this “dominion” could be as simple as “agriculture” … when you put a whole bunch of food in one place that you occupy throughout the year, all the neighbors want a piece. But this is your food that you are growing to feed your family. Hell, yeah, it is time for a dominion mindset.
But I don’t practice agriculture. I appreciate diversity in my neighborhood. This morning, my Son pointed out a snail working its way through the the shrubbery at school. Lizards, squirrels, birds … the possums are really weird and so cool. Spiders patrol the house and as long as they aren’t too scary we let them be. If they are too scary we escort them out the front door. We don’t really have pests. We have neighbors.
There is a tremendous cultural shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture, but our agriculture has been so successful that a lot of us are effectively hunter-gatherers. We follow the Jobs from place to place. We strike camp when we need to. We rely on a web of relationships. We have no dominion.
Since not everyone checks Facebook, a mutual shared in a chat that a college friend’s father had died. I pulled up Facebook, searched for the friend, and his wall featured a link from the brother, of a song that he liked to share to help people grieve. I clicked the YouTube link and YouTube proceeded to fart at me to announce the Good News that there was a new way to poop.
Too much human interaction is being mediated through ad sales.
I have this old friend’s email from before Facebook, so I composed him a note with 20th century technology. I miss the days when you could pull an address up from the White Pages and know where you could mail a card. Some people want to own our communication and too often they get away with it.
