Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the main difference between humans and animals… is our stuff. We make stuff, use stuff and keep stuff, while at best animals make a tool for one use only. Moreover, stuff is more than just things, it is ideas and knowledge as well. We are huge collectors of stuff, and in the end, it is that capacity, the desire to keep stuff, that truly separates us from the animals. They claim whales are smarter than folks, yet they don’t fly to the Moon. Why? Because they don’t have the stuff to. That’s why. Plus, if they were that smart, wouldn’t they keep stuff too? What about some birds. They are smart enough to use stuff, but not wise enough to keep it for later. What if that crow runs across another worm in a soda bottle? Having that piece of eye poking wire would come in pretty handy.
We started keeping stuff probably during the wood age, or at the latest, the bone age. By the stone age we were well versed in keeping stuff. A family in the wood age probably didn’t have much stuff. Stone age people must have looked at bone aged people with the same contempt we give iron aged people. Contempt is all well and good, from an ivory tower, but take three random people, one from the stone age, another from the iron age and the last from the space age, drop them alone and naked in a tropical jungle, and see who does best. My guess is, the stone age guy would excel, while the iron age guy would survive, and the space age guy wouldn’t last the night. Why? He has no stuff. The iron age guy doesn’t need much stuff. While the stone age dude can make the stuff he needs.
Stuff allows us to do stuff. The means of production if you will. For a neolithic man, stuff was a choice chunk of flint, while for a bronze age farmer, it might have been a bronze hoe. The wealthy bronze age farmer would have a bronze hoe, while the poor bronze age farmer would still have used a rock tied to a stick. Even in that instance, it is clear that the bronze age farmer with the bronze hoe, would be more efficient in his farming, leading to bigger crops in the aggregate, and thus to a higher standard of living. Not only for him and his family but for society as a whole. Due to his selling his extra stuff. So, from that we can deduce that stuff makes our lives better, by making our work more efficient. Because, lets face it, its hard to get stuff done, if you don’t have the stuff to do it.
Of course, keeping stuff does have its drawbacks. Like the legendary George Carlin said, houses are just a place to keep our stuff, with a lid on it. As we grow to need more stuff, to maintain our standard of living, it becomes ever more important to protect our stuff. If an iron age carpenter’s stuff was stolen, he and his family were in deep trouble. That stuff is how he makes money, and without it, he has no way to replace it. The more we grow technologically, the more efficient, and thus more valuable our stuff becomes. With value comes the risk of theft, destruction or loss. So, the more stuff we have, the more it costs us, to keep it safe. While the wood age man didn’t have much stuff and all of it could be gathered from the ground, so he didn’t worry much about theft, the bronze age man did.
From this we can say that it is our stuff that sets us apart. Since we constantly make it, improve it and hoard stuff, and no other animal does. An argument could be made, that it is the keeping of stuff that forced us to make many philosophic leaps. To keep stuff, you have to understand cause and effect, ownership, and strategic thinking. Stuff takes some investment, not only in acquiring it, but of holding it, protecting it and maintaining it. Nevertheless, it is our stuff that allows us to have the standard of living we do. Who would argue, “Drop me naked in a wilderness and in a hour I’ll live like an upper middle class twenty first century Parisian. Heck, It shouldn’t take me more than ten minutes to figure out how to make penicillin…” or would it? You see, it is our stuff that makes it all possible.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
