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Van Loon tells the story of geography

Van Loon tells the story of geography

亨得里克·威廉·房龙

  • Science learning

    Category
  • 1970-01-01Published
  • 193304

    Completed
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Chapter 1 Humanity and Homeland

May wish to make a bold assumption about human beings: Suppose everyone is 6 feet high, 1.5 feet wide, and 1 foot thick (many people still can't reach such a size), then, as long as you use a length, width, and height A half-mile giant container can hold the entire population (according to the latest statistics, there are about 2 billion people living on the earth now) like sardines.It may sound absurd, but as long as Joga calculates, he will find that the answer is very accurate. The Grand Canyon of North America is a wonderland of nature, created in silence by the eternal hand.Just choose this Grand Canyon as the final resting place of mankind.The beauty of the Grand Canyon is so majestic. In order to prevent human beings from being stunned by it and breaking their necks, on the edge of a lower rocky cliff, the container full of sardines was skillfully placed, and then let A very obedient and smart German spaniel, with its small soft brown nose, gently arched towards this last human giant hall. There was a burst of rumble, click, and the human container smashed trees and stones all the way, from The cliff has been rolling down towards the bottom of the valley, and with a final bang, humans crashed into the embrace of the Colorado River, and the container splashed a huge wave.

Everything returns to silence, and everything is like a passing cloud. Soon, the world will forget about the sardines in the tomb, as if nothing had happened.Let the moon be full and the moon be short, and the Grand Canyon will still be accompanied by wind and rain forever, playing games with frost and snow. And in this mysterious universe, this planet will continue to travel along its established orbit. Regarding the changes that have occurred on the earth, the distant relatives and neighbors of human beings in the interstellar space, as well as the astronomers on those alien planets, will not notice even if they observe space every day.

After 100 years, maybe that small green mound is still covered with layers of green vegetation, which is the only evidence that human beings once existed. At this time, the story of human beings gradually came to an end. I know that most of the readers will be outraged and disgusted with the story because it hurts the self-esteem of human beings when they see this reducing the incomparable human beings to such insignificance. Of course, from the point of view of the problem, I am different from these readers.Human beings are weak in body and small in number, but from another perspective, human beings can have a deep and unaffected pride.

I look at human problems biologically.Human beings, then, are nothing more than a group of mammals, humble and helpless.As soon as human beings are born, they are surrounded by countless other species, and they surround human beings; in this living environment of natural selection, they are more adaptable than human beings.Among the neighbors of human beings, there are behemoths as long as 100 feet and weighing as small trains, as well as guys with shells like medieval knight armor, eating, drinking and having fun everywhere, and beasts with teeth as sharp as circular saws.Although some creatures are invisible to the naked eye, they reproduce at an astonishing rate.We must sincerely thank their enemies for being able to wipe them out at the same astonishing speed, otherwise, within a year, these creatures will run rampant on the human earth.Obviously, human neighbors have the ability and ambition to survive under any natural conditions. They have never been afraid of the cold mountains and the deep ocean.Humanity pales in comparison to these neighbors.Human beings can only live in the most suitable environment, and can only live in those small dry land between the mountains and the sea.

Authoritative studies have shown that some insects can play happily in oil, and some insects can survive under extreme temperature differences, but the same temperature difference will freeze human beings within a few minutes.What is even more amazing is that those annoying little brown beetles (this little thing is always running around in human bookcases, it seems to love literature) even if they are missing two, three or even four legs, they can still move around. Live well.And if a thorn pricks a noble toe, human beings may have difficulty moving and even be bedridden.Therefore, in this indifferent universe, in order to avoid dying in some dark corner one day, human beings have realized from the first day of birth that in order to survive, we have to fight unremittingly.

To indifferent modern people, it must have looked ridiculous that our ancestors threw away branches and canes and tried hard to learn to walk on their hind legs.However, it is precisely because of this clumsy walking that human beings began to move from primitive to civilized. And those past masters, who once ruled supremely over 200 million square kilometers of continents and oceans on the earth by virtue of brutal violence and insidious cunning, what is their fate now? Most of them have disappeared forever on the earth, and only in natural museums, modern people can still see the clues that they once ruled the roost.Some of them survived, but they had to condescend and become human livestock. In order to please the human master, they had to donate their fur, eggs, milk, and intercostal muscles for free, and even Due to the laziness of human beings, they have to drag some heavy objects that human beings can't do.There are also a large number of animals that simply exile themselves to places far away from humans, and humans also think that those places are not worth fighting for now, so they allow these poor creatures to live and multiply there temporarily.

In short, it took only 2,000 centuries (in the river of time, that's just a moment in the river of time) for man to make himself the unquestioned master of every land on this planet.Moreover, the atmosphere and ocean will now be brought into the territory of human beings.Hundreds of millions of human beings have created such an outstanding performance. However, apart from the miraculous rationality, human beings have no more advantages than their competitors. Even so, I'm exaggerating a bit.In fact, this divinely endowed capacity for reason and self-interest, though in its noblest form, is the privilege of only a few members of the human race, and is not permitted to be enjoyed by the majority of others.As a result, this small group of people logically became the masters of the majority.No matter how dissatisfied with this situation, the majority of those who are led can only submit.

Human progress has become such a strange and hesitant process.No matter how hard everyone struggles, a true pioneer can only emerge from thousands of ordinary beings. Where will the pace of human progress lead itself?No one could have predicted this.Although the wildness inherited by human beings from their ancestors makes the killing among human beings more cruel than humans are to animals or trees (the progress of human civilization has deviated from the normal track due to this wild behavior), but in the past 4000 years civilization Under the guidance of the light, human beings can still create a more brilliant future.

Human footprints have covered almost every piece of land on the earth, and humans have mastered almost every resource on the earth.Even though there is still wilderness and wilderness, human beings will gain the right to use all things in this world by virtue of their superior wisdom, far-reaching insights and guns in their hands. The earth is our beautiful home, and nature is the mother of human beings.She produces abundant food, so that human beings will not be hungry; she contributes sufficient earth, rocks and forests, so that human beings can build houses to keep out the cold and live in peace; Withstood the heat and cold.The human homeland is beautiful.Nature supports human beings, generation after generation, as long as human beings make a little investment, they can enjoy the benefits in the years to come.

However, nature also has her own laws.Her laws are both ruthless and just, leaving no room for bargaining. Nature cares for human beings selflessly. At the same time, she also requires human beings to abide by her laws and obey her will. Every rancher knows that disaster will ensue if there are only 50 cows on a pasture and there are 100 grazing.Then, if there is only enough space for 100,000 people to live on a piece of land, but 1 million people live there, it means overcrowding, poverty and misery will appear in this area.Apparently, those leaders who control the destiny of human beings ignore this fact.

Moreover, this is not the worst of the many mistakes that humans make.Human beings are still violating the laws of nature in another way: Among the existing species, the only beings that are hostile to their own kind are human beings.Dogs don't eat dogs, tigers don't eat tigers, and even the most ferocious hyenas can live in peace with their compatriots.However, human beings hate each other and kill each other.In today's world, the quickest response to massacre its neighbors is the top priority of every country. Peaceful coexistence and friendly treatment among the same kind is the first law of nature.Human beings defy this law openly, which makes us worry that human beings may face the bad news of genocide, because the enemies in the competition for human survival are always coveting.If human beings are unwilling or unable to continue to dominate the world, there will be thousands of candidates waiting to overthrow human beings and ascend to the throne of the king of the earth themselves.Compared with a planet full of battleships and heavy artillery, a planet ruled by cats, dogs or elephants or other advanced species is still more valuable. Because of the ignorance and ignorance of their ancestors, human beings have gone astray and fallen into dangerous and tragic situations.Where is human beings going? How can human beings get rid of this sad and shameful predicament? This little book tries to clear up the fog and explore a bright future for human beings. It takes time, hundreds of years, and a gradual, slow and painful process of self-education in order to find the real way of self-help.Human beings will realize that on the same planet, everyone is a fellow traveler, a neighbor, a traveling companion, and even a friend.When we understand that the earth is the only and common home for human beings, and there is no other place to live, we will learn to respect each other like tourists on a train or a ship.We are fellow travelers on the same planet, and we should share weal and woe and help each other. Call me a dreamer, call me a visionary, or just call me an idiot.Call the police to take me away, or call an ambulance to take me to a lunatic asylum, so that I won't have the opportunity to spread this unwelcome heresy.But please remember my words, please remember my words when the final great destruction of mankind comes.Humanity will have to put away those things that started the war, and hand over the keys to happiness to new and more qualified masters of the earth.The following sentence is the only hope for human beings to be saved: We have only one earth, we are partners and friends, and all of us should shoulder the responsibility for the happiness of the human world.
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