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Re: electromagnetism in the body
1999.02.16 12:14
Mark wrote:
We all carry our cultural bias and experiences around like baggage. It's tough to put it down long enough to be truly objective about something.
Steve wrote (formerly):
Furthermore, since most of the world either lives or works in "steel cages," does that mean that the greater part of humanity is thus "adversely affected?" I feel the answer is "probably not," for the simple reason that mud huts and similar "natural" buildings practically mean a life of poverty, which in our day and age is an unreasonable trade off for "inner calm."
Mark responded:
But Steve, your cultural baggage is well hoisted on your shoulders here! :-) You're assuming that all cultures ("most of the world") WANTS to live like we do in the industrial west! There are quite a few groupings and individuals who are quite happy and content living in mud huts in the middle of some wilderness with little or no "creature comforts." I might argue that that is evidence for certain benefits derived from living in such settings and dwellings. Maybe they feel good enough that they don't WANT anything better, even when they know it's there. I recall hearing of some tribes in Western Africa who were struggling hard to maintain their cultural identity while at the same time dealing with more westernized groups in the towns.
Steve responds:
Like all of us, I cannot claim to be without "cultural baggage," however, in what I wrote above, I was trying to be as objective as possible. My point is based on the fact that it is unnecessary to advocate the (potential electromagnetic) benefits of mud huts and other such "natural" buildings to those people that already live in them. Rather the argument is aimed at those that work and live in the "steel cages." Therefore, I was stating as plainly as possible that most of humanity today (i.e., the majority of the world population, which by and large do not live in mud huts) would consider a move into mud huts as a definite lowering of their standard of living. If I assume anything here, it is that the "inner calm" benefits of living in mud huts are greatly outweighed by the general "poverty" that comes with the mud hut living situation. Moreover, I never said anything about "all cultures" -- when Mark says I was "assuming that all cultures WANT to live like we do in the industrial west!" he was perhaps being the more assuming with regard to what I meant.
Relatedly, it is indeed time for all to accept the fact that it is no longer just the West that is industrial. For better or worse, industrialization is very much a global phenomenon. Of course, there are still cultural differences between East and West, etc., but industry is no longer one of them.
Mark asks:
Have you ever visited the mounds of the Hopewell and Adena cultures?
Steve replies:
I have never visited (nor even been aware of) the mounds of the Hopewell and Adena cultures, but I am glad to know about them now. Within the last year, I have become interested in the Native American (Lenni Lenape) "presence" in my own Philadelphia neighborhood. I live near Tacony Creek (tekene is the Lenni Lenape word for wooded place) and because of the many, many (now all tunneled) streams that fed into the creek, the local terrain is most varied. I find myself now often imagining what my present environment is like without all the buildings, and the resultant vision of multitudinous hills and valleys seems an almost magical setting. Like the "steel cages" that may be "adversely affecting" us, all the buildings (in my neighborhood at least) may be ultimately nothing more than blinders preventing sight of the more enduring "natural" reality.
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