Tag: Conflict

I find that a lot of people don’t like the new toolmakers. They sit on their stony hills, chipping away from dawn to sunset. They demand all the best and freshest meat and fish and fruit in return for what they make. They speak to the rest of us little, and it’s usually only to say how much better they are making the world and how grateful we should be for that.

But I wouldn’t characterise them all as bad, careless people, indifferent to our fate, as some speakers here have done. I have noticed that there are differences between them, and in their attitude to the rest of us, which are important given how much power they now have.

The first type – let me sketch this shape in the earth – is ‘A’. The shape of a shelter. These people recognise that they live in the same place as us, even if they are far away in distance and spirit, because we all build the same shelters and live under the same sky. They genuinely want to improve life for all of us. They see the dangers of abuse and conflict in the new, sharp blades and they speak with the councils and shamans about how best to make us all safe in this new world. Often they are not heeded, because their understanding has moved to a different realm to that of the rest of us, but they keep trying.

Then there is this type. ‘E’. They have no patience with the old ways. Their spears point outward at any who resist the idea of change. Many believe themselves to be a different kind of being: no longer human, but superhuman, immortal. To them, the rest of us are not players in this new game they have made, but animals like goats or sheep. They have killed already, and they will kill more, because they believe they need to do it.

I can see from your faces that you think that’s the worst it can get. But it isn’t. There is a third type. ‘Z’. They twist and turn like the snake. You cannot say where they are going, because they have no destination. They believe in nothing. Not humans, not spirits, not good, not evil. Only themselves. They can never be trusted, never be known, never be reached. Already, they live at the top of the hill, surrounded by men carrying spears. They make no tools themselves, just gather the profits from the others.

If we aren’t careful, their rule will be our future.

I do like the new blade tools. They give you much more cutting edge for the amount of stone used and can be turned into specialised tools, like knives, scrapers, points and drills.

Yes, I know the arguments against them. Weapons are sharper, making conflicts potentially more lethal. Even the tools can be dangerous to those who don’t know how to use them. And the new tech is putting the traditional hand-axe makers out of a job.

Worse, the manufacture of the new toolset is in the hands (literally) of a specialised set of makers who increasingly control the flow of tools from tribe to tribe, overwriting the traditional honour of trade and changing the way we see each other as people.

But think of the advantages. We can now skin and butcher a whole animal in less than a day. Hunting is safer because spears can be thrown from a greater distance. Whole new technologies are possible – like the rumoured bow-and-arrow hunting device from the South which can injure and weaken an animal without the hunter even needing to approach it.

Ultimately, all this means more food for everyone, less time spent hunting and foraging, more time to rest and feed the spirit.

So it’s inevitable, I think, that the new tools will be adopted by everyone, and the old ways will change. We just have to work out how to live with it.