Leontius
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Mon Aug-08-11 09:07 PM
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Your thoughts on this from "African Genesis" by Robert Ardrey |
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"Had man been born of a fallen angel, then the contemporary predicament would lie as far beyond solution as it would lie beyond explanation. Our wars and our atrocities, our crimes and our quarrels, our tyrannies and our injustices could be ascribed to nothing other than singular human achievement. And we should be left with a clear-cut portrait of man as a degenerate being endowed at birth with virtue's treasury whose only notable talent had been to squander it. But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished? The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses."
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Jim__
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Tue Aug-09-11 09:02 AM
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1. We are known among the stars by both our poems and our corpses. |
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Whether we have both the control and the desire to have a more peaceful future remains to be seen. But, we do have the capacity to work towards that future.
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okasha
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Tue Aug-09-11 09:44 AM
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2. I think Robert Ardrey was right on many counts. |
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There was a time, dominated by the Leakeys and their insistence on the peaceful rise of humans, when he was unappreciated, but I think he's again getting credit for his work.
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DU
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Mon May 06th 2024, 07:46 AM
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