“Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery.”

“So what?” You might say. Here’s so what. Temples that old aren’t supposed to exist. Traditional wisdom in the field of anthropology suggests that temples were a late development. First comes agriculture, then the city, then city walls. Once there is sufficient specialization population density increases, which in turn increases the benefit to those who hold sway over the masses, i.e. priests. Up till that point religious practice (burial, rites, shamanism) had been a quaint reminder of pre-civilized superstition. But after the development–both culturally and technologically–of the city, the proctors of religion, the keepers of the mysteries, translated religion into just one more power narrative.

In Marxist terms, civilized religion (priests, temples, rites, profit from the sacrificial system, social power) is a development of the superstructure which is a result of infrastructure (agriculture, urbanization, walls, techological and cultural specialization). But,–say it again with me folks–”Gobekli Tepe,” changes all that.

Millennia separate this Turkish temple from the development of city walls, let alone the city. What this suggests is startling. In the case of religion, superstructure enables infrastructure. Or, in other words, its not only developments that drive history, ideas drive history. This might sound dry or dull, but what it means is that our consciousness shapes the world.

It’s not just that we react to the world. It’s not just that we find a way to exploit its infrastructure. It’s that there exists an iteration between the world and our thought. Our posture toward the world terraforms it. Rather than infrastructure then superstructure then ideas. It runs like this: ideas then superstructure then infrastructure.

The idea, the oldest and until recently unspoken idea that drives human history, is domestication. Let me suggest at the end of this post that it is worth thinking seriously about the (terra)formation of such an idea. It is worth considering the outcome.

Look for more posts on domestication in the coming weeks.

Yes, our economy is totally fucked up, but I’m talking about a bigger problem here. The American propensity for totally freaking the hell out. For contracting the WAG-d virus. (We’re All Gonna DIE!)

Let’s take a deep breath and a trip down memory lane to look at all the things that were supposed to kill us yesterday.

(Two notes. One, I am fully aware that some of these things represent HUGE problems. My point is that we make these problems worse by freaking out. And some of them only seem like real problems because we hear about them so much. Two, all stats are from Gallup.com.)

1. The Economy – Current Great American Freak-Out. We had this coming people. Let’s tighten up and take our medicine. Yes, this is a big deal, but we will probably survive this big deal. (By the way, since 1984 every major spike in overall concern about the economy has happened in the months leading up to a presidential election. Just in case you were wondering.)

2. Gas Prices – Remember way back in July when gas prices nation wide were up over $4.10 a gallon? And the news was talking about 6-8-10 $/gal? Now that they’ve fallen back down to $3.22 (as of this morning) this one doesn’t get the same play at the water cooler.

3. Illegal Immigration / Globalization – “The Mexicans are stealing my job,” or “my job got exported to India.” Huge deal in my part of the world, oh, last summer.

4. Colony Collapse Disorder – In late 2006, honeybees started dying off, entire colonies disappearing. Listening to the news would have led you to believe that we would all be cropless and starving by the fall of ‘07, but summer of ’08 has come and gone and I’m still eating apples.

5. Bird Flu – Remember Bird Flu? Half of you should. In November of 2005, fifty percent (50%!!!!) of Americans were at least ‘somewhat worried’ about contracting Bird Flu.

6. S.A.R.S. – In April of 2003, 37% of us were stocking up on surgical masks, worried about a mysterious disease coming out of Asia.

7. Anthrax – In late October of 2001, 38% of Americans were worried that they or someone they knew would be exposed to Anthrax. Nearly 50% believed the Anthrax mailing incidents going on at the time were the beginning of a sustained terror campaign.

8. Terrorism – In early October of 2001, 59% of Americans were worried that someone in their family would become a victim of terrorism. Today that percentage sits at 38%. Throughout the history of Gallup asking this question, less than 0.5% of people have (voluntarily) admitted to actually knowing a victim of terrorism.

9. School Shootings – Remember Columbine? Immediately after the Columbine shootings, in April of 1999, 55% of people polled were concerned for their child’s safety at school. Today it’s 24%, the same as it was in 1977.

10. Killer Bees – In the 1990’s the Africanized Honeybee was supposed to swarm us all and leave us dying itchy and swollen. There have been fourteen deaths recorded in the U.S. since they first invaded our borders.

This is turning into a long post, so let’s launch into hyper-speed. Here’s a quick list of Great American Freak-Outs, very roughly in reverse chronological order, off the top of my head.

We ended with Killer Bees, so that means… west nile virus (we love our diseases), polygamists, Gay people, killer asteroids, acid rain, the Big One ripping off the whole West Coast, dumb people, the war on drugs, AIDS, communists, cults, satanic influences of Rock ‘n Roll, free love, Vietnam, inner-city riots, Black people, pissing off the aliens (or God) by invading the moon, political assassinations, nuclear holocaust, Russian people, actually being invaded by aliens, Jewish people, FDR becoming king, Japanese people, the whole entire world being at war all at once, German people, the American heartland turning into a dusty desert, and finally, oh yeah, the Economy, all over again.

Hey, I did the whole post without mentioning China, Iran or the environment! (I didn’t want to stress anyone out.)

-transom