#64 Quizás debamos empezar a ser un poco menos egoístas en este mundo tan saturado de humanos y al llegar a la vejez, dejar espacio y recursos a las nuevas generaciones.
Precisamente el último párrafo que leí anoche antes de acostarme, del libro "La ayuda mutua, un factor en la evolución", de Kropotkin, hablaba de cómo en las sociedades prehistóricas (concretamente en las tribus de "salvajes" que aún perduran, o perduraban en 1902), en cuanto los ancianos se sentían una carga para la tribu, ellos mismos se cavaban su tumba, invitaban a los colegas a una última cena y ponían fin a sus días de manera voluntaria.
El fragmento en cuestión:
"When a "savage" feels that he is a burden to his tribe; when every morning his share of food is taken from the mouths of the children --and the little ones are not so stoical as their fathers: they cry when they are hungry; when every day he has to be carried across the stony beach, or the virgin forest, on the shoulders of younger people there are no invalid carriages, nor destitutes to wheel them in savage lands-- he begins to repeat what the old Russian peasants say until now-a-day. "Tchujoi vek zayedayu, Pora na pokoi!" ("I live other people's life: it is time to retire!") And he retires. He does what the soldier does in a similar case. When the salvation of his detachment depends upon its further advance, and he can move no more, and knows that he must die if left behind, the soldier implores his best friend to render him the last service before leaving the encampment. And the friend, with shivering hands, discharges his gun into the dying body. So the savages do. The old man asks himself to die; he himself insists upon this last duty towards the community, and obtains the consent of the tribe; he digs out his grave; he invites his kinsfolk to the last parting meal. His father has done so, it is now his turn; and he parts with his kinsfolk with marks of affection. The savage so much considers death as part of his duties towards his community"
Precisamente el último párrafo que leí anoche antes de acostarme, del libro "La ayuda mutua, un factor en la evolución", de Kropotkin, hablaba de cómo en las sociedades prehistóricas (concretamente en las tribus de "salvajes" que aún perduran, o perduraban en 1902), en cuanto los ancianos se sentían una carga para la tribu, ellos mismos se cavaban su tumba, invitaban a los colegas a una última cena y ponían fin a sus días de manera voluntaria.
El fragmento en cuestión:
"When a "savage" feels that he is a burden to his tribe; when every morning his share of food is taken from the mouths of the children --and the little ones are not so stoical as their fathers: they cry when they are hungry; when every day he has to be carried across the stony beach, or the virgin forest, on the shoulders of younger people there are no invalid carriages, nor destitutes to wheel them in savage lands-- he begins to repeat what the old Russian peasants say until now-a-day. "Tchujoi vek zayedayu, Pora na pokoi!" ("I live other people's life: it is time to retire!") And he retires. He does what the soldier does in a similar case. When the salvation of his detachment depends upon its further advance, and he can move no more, and knows that he must die if left behind, the soldier implores his best friend to render him the last service before leaving the encampment. And the friend, with shivering hands, discharges his gun into the dying body. So the savages do. The old man asks himself to die; he himself insists upon this last duty towards the community, and obtains the consent of the tribe; he digs out his grave; he invites his kinsfolk to the last parting meal. His father has done so, it is now his turn; and he parts with his kinsfolk with marks of affection. The savage so much considers death as part of his duties towards his community"
en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid_a_Factor_of_Evolution