¬†I briefly mentioned the Beautiful People mytha little while ago,¬†and I wanted to take a moment and share my two cents on this. Ever since I became aware of this myth, I became fascinated by it, and I see it rear it’s mythy head in so many different places now. So indulge me, oh reader.

The Beautiful People myth is associated with just about every culture. It’s the belief that at some point in the past there was a time when humanity and nature were BFFs. Things were better. Everything was in balance. There was no fighting. There was no junior high school earth science classes. There was only us and the world and the world and us living in harmony and peace. In my own upbringing, this was the Garden of Eden. As I grew, I heard about how this was the time before the capitalists came to impose their nightmare on the good agrarian people of the world. It was the time before sinister white men stole the land from the natives.

The trouble, of course, is that it’s a fairy tale. Nature is, was, and ever will be a struggle for survival and reproduction. The fossil record and written history both strongly disagree with the idea that we were ever blissfully walking hand in hand with the animals. They would far rather eat us, and most of us would rather eat them right back. And it’s not like there was a time when the animals tasted worse, or when the carnivores all agreed to only eat sugar cookies. Their systems could not take it. They evolved as predators. Their systems required carnage.

As well, from all that I’ve seen about it, it seems like the key factor that brings about the terrible change from innocent bliss to our modern state of chaos always boils down to the same thing. Knowledge. The horrible white man who came and tricked the noble natives out of their land did so with his cunning and his technology. Eve’s apple was the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The Industrial Revolution was the product of rampant technological advance. It seems a common thread. It almost seems like they believe that ignorance is bliss.

I see the same sort of foolishness when I listen to alternative medical proponents describing their favorite all-natural cure. These miracle cures are the products of ancient wisdom, and relate to a time when all medicine was more in tune with nature, when medicine men would find the cures for all of our ailments in the natural world around them.

It’s a beautiful image, and based on the absolute truth. I will never argue for a minute that this was not the case. Before the gigantic pharmaceutical companies, there were roots, grubs, herbs, bark, pollen, blood, feces, and any number of natural cures. And a ridiculously short life expectancy was the inevitable end result. And then along came science. A quick glance at the impact science (and modern medical science in particular) has had on life expectancy alone says it all.

But that’s not enough for the alt-med woo peddler. Look at the statistics on the effectiveness of vaccinations and you can’t help but be moved by the incredible and obvious impact. But the fear of the unnatural in those vaccines triggers this wild-eyed zeal. You just never know what those “toxins” are doing to your system, probably triggering autism and hepatitis and Gulf War Syndrome. Of course, they don’t know anything about the magic yokumberries in the tonics they’re drinking either, nor do they understand the possible toxic constituents of those tonics. But hey, medicine men have been doing it for a long time, so it must be safe, right?

The real beautiful people, as I see it, are the people we are becoming. By embracing technology and questing for understanding, we are learning how better to move into that relationship. This is not to say that everyone’s on board, but the growing acceptance of solar technology as a means of providing for our power needs is a fine example of this. As primitive beautiful people, we would have never surpassed the stage where power comes from the burning of things, and we’re not past that yet, but we’re beginning to understand that power from the burning of things results in pollution, carcinogens, and less things to burn. We’re learning to search for other ways to generate our energy, ways like solar power that will, as we learn to harness it better. We’re learning that our actions impact the health of our planetary home, and that a time will come when further growth can only take place if we venture in new directions to find that home.

I reject the Beautiful People myths when I see them, but I hold out hope for the Beautiful People yet to be.