Pigs of the Future

Two days ago, a friend of mine told me about another friend of mine who just did her mandatory service in Papua (a mostly untouched region).
She told him about how the natives there valued their pigs highly.
They cared for them, nurtured them, and even sometimes breastfed the piglets, so it’s not strange to have a tribal war because of the pigs.

She then commented about how she thought of it all as primitive, the idea of valuing pigs, and thought that it had to be left behind.
Upon hearing this, my friend gave his disapproval.
His disapproval would have been the same as mine, had I heard the story.

What really differentiates us from the tribes?
Sure, they value pigs, and we don’t.
Most of us value houses, cars, assets, etc.
But, do they make a difference?
We are just as attached to them as the tribes to the pigs.
They are pigs in other form.
They are the pigs of the future.

I once wrote about how humans, being the only kind of creature who knows it’s going to end, are propelled by fear to search for meaning or something to ease the pain.

Or in other words, humans know that their time won’t last, so they frantically search for meaning, salvation, painkillers, happiness, security, wealth, etc. to make the fear go away.

Isn’t that what we all experience?
So, what really makes us stand out or better than the tribes?

But hold on for a second.
Let me tell you one more story.

Another friend of mine once sent me an article about consumerism in the Great Britain.
The article disclosed how the country wrongfully measured the rate of its citizens’ happiness from the number of products sold. The countrymen believed that the more a community bought products, the happier the community became.
But it didn’t turn out to be that way.
And then the article explained about consumerism and how it was actually a sign of fear.

Now, after reading the paragraphs above, is there really a difference between the Papua tribes, the British, and us?
Aren’t we all just a bunch of scared creatures?
Scared creatures who try to wipe their fears off by attaching themselves to things?

In the past thousands of years, we don’t really move anywhere.
Anthony DeMello once said something like,

"After a few thousand years, we are so advanced that we bar our doors and windows at night, while the less developed people sleep in open huts."

Where is the difference, actually?