Just a bunch of idiots patting ourselves on the back for being ‘civilised’

We, dear reader, are not as civilised as we think we are.

Yes, we are the most technologically advanced versions of homo sapiens to walk our planet but under our paper-thin layer of development, we are just an indecent, coarse and superstitious bunch of fools.

We have solved the riddle of flight, but use it for dirty weekends with secretaries. We build complex computer systems and use it to send crude, unfunny memes to each other. We develop cellphones with more processing power than the moon landing required and use it to drunk dial our exes at three in the morning.

The true litmus test for civilisation, however, lies in our level of morality and humanity tends to fail dismally, no matter how you shape the results.

We killed off all our closest relatives thousands of years ago, driven hundreds of species such as the mammoth to extinction and crippled our planet.

And since, we have developed very little.

But we’re more civilised than previous generations, you may argue. Nonsense. As a matter of fact, I believe we are more uncivilised than ever before.

Modern life is all about rushing after depression, disease and ignorance.

We have actually developed medication to treat people who are depressed. The Surma tribe of Ethiopia is one of the few groups on earth who do not need antidepressants. They have avoided all Western contact for centuries.

Though they are well-known for their giant lip plugs, they want nothing to do with any sort of government, which makes them considerably more intelligent.

Over the past 200 years, the Surma lived their traditional and un-Western lives in groups of a few hundred while colonisation, world wars and struggles for independence were going on all around them. They don’t have television sets to dumb them down, they don’t have cars that break and they don’t rush to work to earn money to enable them to buy stuff they don’t need.

Every now and then we ponder the lifestyle of the Surma, the Amish or some undiscovered Amazon tribes and snigger before returning to our lives of fraud, theft and back-stabbing.

And while living our despicable little lives, we pat ourselves on the back and call ourselves civilised. What a bunch of idiots.