IMAGE CREDIT

Cover art: petroglyph tracings from Valcamonica, Italy, courtesy of Footsteps of Man. From the left – late neolithic to first copper age; late iron age; copper age.

Note: the images are not in time sequence. The reason why I show them out of sequence is as follows. The second image is analogous to the modern world. In a sense, nothing significant has changed since the iron age. The third image corresponds to traditional society, pre-modern technology, which even today survives in many, many locations around the world. Now, I don't want to overly romanticize the traditional, which regularly has problems as severe as any modern culture. However, I do believe that those traditional societies which function well, in their relations between people, and between people and nature, represent a high point of the human experience. The modern world should again value these types of relationships, and actively strive for them as our goal. The third petroglyph is a beautiful representation of such a society.