Basic Primate Family Group Behavior

For over forty million years
until very recently
we lived in large family groups
experiencing endless moments of
familiar interaction
with parents
siblings
aunts and uncles
and their offspring
nurturing
feeding
grooming
playing
sleeping
spatting
guarding...

always within
sight
sound
smell
taste
and touch with each other

in the modern world
of migratory search for work
with family values reduced to
with mom and pop
and 1.2 offspring
living in a rented apartment
that sense of finding the self
within the security of a familiar group
one that is large enough
to develop a fully grounded set
of personal values
and find one's rightful place in a hierarchical social structure
is invisibly missing

it has happened so gradually over the past five generations
that we have not realized the gravity of what has happened to us
just three generations ago
there were a dozen or more siblings in each family
all interacting with the extended family
living in the same community

the clan name held honor
mate selection was a family matter
divorce was rare
infantile neglect non existent
psychological dysfunction
and all the physical malfunctions
which manifest from mental disease
almost unheard of

who sold us the idea
that 1.2 kids is the correct size for a well adjusted family group
and sending grandma and grandpa to an old age home
is reasonable family behavior?

Who said that zero population growth
is the only way we can manage our planet?

There is enough sunlight calories falling on this planet
to feed 2000 billion humans
without harm to the environment
all we have to do to
to get back to mental health
is to stop thinking negatively
and use our massive brains to engineer the home planet
more constructively
go upwards
instead of outwards
make better use of our oceans of space
and get back in touch
with basic primate family group behavior