re: Our ancestors were douchebags,so why do we admire them?

more was accomplished for the good of societies in that era that you speak of than probably will be ever again. I take it you've never built anything or worked as a superior. Sometimes somebody's gotta be the a-hole or nothing will get accomplished.

You do realize that someone somewhere along even your paltry gene pool killed someone to survive right?

There have been huge leaps in the fundamental nature of survival the last few centuries. We have the ability to look back with perspective on periods and events in time in which we can't place ourselves. Our ancestors made decisions which at the time were necessary for their well being and survival.

I'm not sure what you want me to do about the bad things my ancestors may or may not have done

Not all of our ancestors were douchebags. Most were ordinary people. You can't hold all the good ones in a bad light due to what was "acceptable" at the time. Humanity has been in a constant transformation to higher levels of civility since day 1. It doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate the great accomplishments of those before us. We also should examine and learn from their mistakes..because doing exactly that is how we realize what is wrong and what is right.

Flip one switch on the electrical grid, or a major food /water contamination or supply issue, or gas crisis, and we would admire them more. Bottom line, they were survivors that created us, so I won't show them any disrespect, esp. since we have it 10 times easier, as our life expectancy shows...

I don't really admire humans, past or present. I think people, in general, are morons. I've been cursed with vastly superior intelligence, and living in this world is a burden. We are animals, we have no souls, and people are inherently evil.

What about the raping?

quote:

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Our ancestors that raped, pillaged and subjected were only "bad" by our modern western standards.

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And the strong men of those times
when rape was smiled upon by all, propelled by no internal moral nature, started down the path to our "modern Western standards" for what reason exactly?

They were. And like all of us, who were douchebags until we learned from the experience of our errs, humanity itself learned over successive generations from that as well.

100 years from now we'll look like douchebags, and 200 years from now the people who thought we were douchebags 100 years ago will look like douchebags. So on and so forth. Humanity is an ever-perpetuating mass of self-improvement, just appreciate your spot on the ride and do your best to keep it going.