Reality Unedited

Book excerpt: Our species has coexisted in the world in a healthy and balanced way for 97% of its existence. It was only after our ancestors emerged from life in nature as hunter-gatherers that this all began to change. By the beginning of civilization some 6,000 years ago, these changes rigidified and became destructive on a large scale. They have accumulated to such an extent that our species now faces extinction or a dismal future of ever-worsening ecocide. Meaninglessness and confusion have become rampant in our postmodern era. The human psyche has become utterly fragmented and rendered a stranger to reality, other people, and itself. As dispiriting as this all seems, the path forward has always been available to us if we can overcome the ignorance that prevents us from taking it. We must reject the values of civilization and return to the naturalistic perspective of our ancestors where our values, thinking, feeling, and actions are once again based on how nature and reality truly function. While this approach should be evident, we have until now been too terrified, bewildered, or arrogant to adopt it. To help us succeed, Reality Unedited provides a simple model of reality that serves as a foundation for establishing truth claims in the public sphere. Then we can finally take the actions necessary so our species, and all life on the planet, cannot only survive, but thrive.