The first thing they tell you in Atapuerca is that we survived in an extremely hostile environment thanks to the cooperation and solidarity. We did not abandon our elders or those who could not feed themselves, as the skull of a girl who was born with a major deformity but was protected by her tribe shows. He couldn’t hunt or assist with other missions, but the group wouldn’t let him go. That’s why we’ve risen layer by layer, created tools that respond to needs, and learned that we can only face wild animals, the cold, or the night that fills the world, in a group, not the other way around, as we do now. shadows.
They also tell you that we never lived with dinosaurs, how they lit the fire, or how our bodies adapted until we got to where we are now. In the wonderful Museum of Human Evolution, where children’s questions do not bother them and curiosity is rewarded, they say that we have always been the smartest, the best fit, not the other way around. What the museum does not show, though perhaps the most recommended, is the current state of humanity. We came this far because we took care of each other and we learned from our difficulties, but now we prefer to look the other way.
We have come back from the pandemic, which I never tire of repeating that we will emerge smarter, more supportive and better, without learning any lessons, without making tools, as the primitive people of the same name did. Fewer children are born, our elders are more lonely, and we live in a chaos of antidepressants and tranquilizers that makes us endure rather than change a life we dislike. More than five million people live alone in our country, including two million for more than sixty-five years. We park kids in endless activities because we work with pointless schedules and cannot take care of our parents or our children.
As a people we leave much to be desired, in those times when we were supposed to be together we wouldn’t have survived a minute and we wouldn’t have left out the weak to withstand the dark nights. The story they tell us in Atapuerca is overwhelming, exciting and at the same time frightening. And that makes us feel ridiculous. We were like that not long ago, and it took little time for us to forget what we’ve learned over millions of years. We have no value on our own, we are nothing if we do not take care of our elders, we are doomed to perish if we do not protect our children and our future, it is no longer in the grip of a sword. tiger, but in a deep abyss where our bones will tell future paleontologists the story of our imbecility.