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See what Mother Culture has to say about prehistory, evolution, animism, the environment, population, crime, school, homeschooling, civilization, and homelessness.
Mother Culture on Prehistory:
"For most of the time that humans have existed, which was uneventful and irrelevent to modern society, they didn't do any agriculture, but rather hunted and fished for food, and sometimes gathered wild plant foods, although this was much less important. They were constantly hungry because food was so hard to find. These primitive hunters wandered over large areas in search of food, never staying in one place for very long. They slept out in the open most of the time, unless they could find enough food to stay in one place for a few weeks or more, in which case they would build poorly made shelters out of whatever they could find. Because food was so hard to find, they had to search for it constantly. This meant that there was no time left over to work on developing their arts, which is why their arts, music and other such things are so underdeveloped and why they had no writing. Their 'religion' consisted of superstitions and taboos and they were constantly in fear. They used crude stone tools because they had not discovered metal, and they lived in caves, which were dark and damp. They had very little medicine, and that which they had was primitive, and most of their 'cures' involved dances done to placate the spirits. For this reason, their health was poor and most only lived to age 30. Because they moved so often, they could never develop civilization, because to do that you must first settle down.
"Then, everyone in the world began to farm, and all these problems went away. Farming was discovered when people realized that plants grow from seeds. Before, this was not realized because they were ignorant. Now we could settle down and set about the task of building civilization, which is what we were meant to do before but weren't able. Now that we had farming, we could control our food supply, which allowed many more people were able to live in the area. As we developed more efficient farming methods, less people were needed to farm, and some people could do other things, such as becoming potters, textile workers, or other useful trades. Complicated religions developed, with priests, who could instruct the masses what to believe. (These early religions eventually developed into the most highly developed monotheistic religions of today.) Soon a government developed, which was necessary to manage this more sophisticated, complicated society. Soon people got the things they needed by trading the products they made. This eventually led to a real economy.
"Not long after this everyone in the world began to write, and the period of prehistory ended, and the events that REALLY matter began to happen. This period of early civilization only matters because it gave birth to modern civilization."
"For a long time, all people believed that God had created the world in six days and that all life forms looked the same then as they do now. But then Charles Darwin discovered that what actually happened was that humans evolved from primitive life forms.
"The first life forms were primitive single-celled microrganisms, which developed into more complicated, multi-celled creatures. These creatures then developed into primitive animals, such as jellyfish and octopi, which later developed backbones and became fish. Eventually fish began to crawl up on land and became amphibians. Amphibians developed into reptiles, which developed into mammals. Mammals developed into primates, which developed into apes, then hominids, and eventually, humans.
"At each step along the way, a few creatures were left behind, which is why we have less-evolved creatures such as plants, jellyfish, frogs, cows, and monkeys. Because humans are more highly evolved than these creatures, they are ours to do with as we please. The whole purpose of evolution was to create humans. Evolution is the progression from more primitive life forms into highly evolved ones, and eventually to humans, the most highly evolved creatures of all. When human beings appeared, evolution ended, because its purpose had been achieved."
"Animism is a primitive religion, almost too primitive to be called a religion. Animism was practiced by primitive savages in remote areas. Most people who were animists at one point have been successfully converted to real religions. Animism involves the worship of many spirits, who are believed to live in the things around them, even inanimate objects. These ignorant animists think that they need to appease these spirits by honoring their taboos, in order to escape the spirits' wrath. They perform strange dances and songs in heathen costumes to pay homage to their spirits. Their lives are full of fear and paranoia because anything they do might cause the spirits to become angry at them."
Mother Culture on the Environment:
"It's very important to protect the environment from ourselves because all humans are flawed and we destroy everything we touch. We don't know how to live without destroying the earth, so we have to set up programs to protect it. There are many cute animals and beautiful forests that are in danger. We need to protect them because they are pretty. There is also a lot of pollution going into the air and water, which hurts the pretty birds and fish. We need to protect this earth because it is our responsibility as the rulers of it. However, if any of this protecting the earth gets in the way of the growth of our economy or our lifestyle, we'll have to stop, because these things are more important. We're not really in any danger anyway, we just feel sorry for the cute animals."
"The population of the earth is growing too fast, and someday there may not be enough food for many people. To prevent starvation, we must increase food production and then everyone will be fed. The first way to make the population go down is to modernize all the third-world countries and make them more like the U.S., because the U.S. population is not growing as fast and it is the best country in the world, and everything would be wonderful if everyone was like us. The second way to stop this population growth is to get everyone to use more birth control. Birth control will end the population growth as soon as everyone uses it. This hasn't happened yet, but it will happen soon."
"Crime is a serious problem all over the world. Many crimes are commited each day. There are many laws in place to prevent these crimes, and the reason the crime is still happening is because we need more and tougher laws on crime. This would cause crime to dissapear overnight and everyone would suddenly be perfect."
"School is a program set up to teach children everything important there is to know and to prepare them for life. Children need school because they are too dumb to learn on their own, and the school board members, who decide what should be taught, know what's best for children. All children need to be taught the same things, at the same time, in the same way.
"However, there are a lot of problems in the schools right now, such as low test scores and violence. These can be righted if we spend more money on the schools. The schools would be perfect if the the teachers worked harder and cared more, if the wallpaper was nice and new, if there were more textbooks, and if the school boards were paid better. This could all be fixed by spending more money on schools."
Mother Culture on Homeschooling:
"Homeschooling is something that is being practiced by some parents. It involves teaching their children at home in a school-like setting, with textbooks, assignments and tests, all done at home. Homeschoolers are usually Fundamentalist Christians who are afraid of having their children exposed to evolution and other ideas that are presented in schools. These kids will grow up without access to the socialization that is provided at schools. They will also know nothing of the varying ideas presented by our society and will be closed-minded. What children really need is to be taught at the same time in the same way as all other children."
Mother Culture on Civilization:
"Civilization is a wonderful discovery of humankind. It is a social organization that includes highly developed governments, sets of laws, religion, art, and writing. Civilization began in the Middle East when everyone in the world began farming, which allowed them to settle down and develop civilization. Before they were impoverished hunters who wandered constantly in search of food. Civilization allows us to achieve great things, such as advanced medicine and space travel. These things are what makes a civilization better than primitive society. It's very important to make sure that civilization goes on forever because without it we are just animals, and we are meant to be more than that. Before civilzation, everyone was miserable, and once it began, everyone was relieved of their difficult and stressful lives."
Mother Culture on Homelessness:
"Homelessness is a large problem today, especially in cities. Homeless people, who are all old drunks, are homeless because they aren't trying hard enough to get jobs and spend all their money on alchohol. They live in filthy cardboard boxes in alleys and beg for change. This is too low of an existence for humans, so we have to bring them back to society. This can be done with homeless shelters and job programs. We have these already, but we need more. Once we have more, homelessness will dissappear."