Much of what we do "now" (since civilization began), is probably at odds with some of our biological urges. The urge to kill those who disagree with you, for example, doesn't work well in even primitive societies. And even if you do kill someone, humans evolve the concept of blood money- to isolate the event, and then we further isolate retribution, by allowing the state to extract it rather than individual families. All this has happened rather "quickly" in terms of our genetics- which is why our physical response is often out of step with what is happening in our civilized existence. The flight or flight response, for example, constantly excites people in our society, even though in our civilized world it is no longer appropriate to either fight or flee- so some people get high blood pressure instead.
This happens in all areas of our lives; the changing role of women is just one small change in the sea change that is civilization- and as we see the changes occur faster and faster, there will be people who react by trying to reach in to the past, but I'm not sure that works, unless one can undo the present, and stop the future from coming, and coming as a very different beast than any of us expect. I don't know what will "work"- but I don't see the "breakdown" of Western Society. What I see is medicine that will save, and has saved, my life; entertainment and food that rivals what the kings of Europe enjoyed a century ago, available to me, a member of the upper middle class; a lifestyle of comfort and free time that I don't think anyone has ever experienced at any time before now. Now there is a question of how sustainable all this is, but that has nothing to do with archetypes, and everything to do with conservation, and limiting human growth rates- both of which take an educated population with a very different view of the Earth from the exploitive populations of the past. So it may be that a substantial mental evolution is required in order for human beings to survive- but not, I think, because we are leaving traditional values, more likely because we haven't embraced more adaptive effective strategies for sustainable living. |
