The More We Change

I'm a firm believer that humans don't change. If you went back two thousand years, the folks then wouldn't be much different from the folks you know now. Same stupidity, same jealousies, same dumb stunts ("Hey, Eldred, hold muh mead!"), same emotions, etc. It's only the technology we surround ourselves with that alters some of how we interact, but not the basic human drives that underlie those interactions.

In other words, if in the past you found your girlfriend had cheated on you with your best friend, you had to stomp all the way down the road to his farm, find him, then kick his ass. Today, you can call or beep him, get a GPS location on him, jump into your car, have him paged, point your gun at him, and then kick his ass. Same ass kicking, same anger, different tools.

As proof, I offer this story from the Discovery Channel, about ancient Egyptian humor.

For satire, Noegel explained that commoners would make fun of leaders by showing pharaohs in an unflattering manner. For example, some leaders were depicted unshaven or "especially effeminate."

Drawings of defecating hyenas and drunken, vomiting party guests are among the existing examples of scatological humor, while the sex-based jokes consisted of "innuendoes and outright erotica," he said.

Slapstick comedy included drawings that showed people suffering unfortunate accidents, such as hammers falling on heads, or passengers tipping out of boats.

The ancient Egyptians had a special fondness for animal humor, given the many examples of sketches on papyrus, paintings, and other drawings, according to Noegel.

He said, "(The images show) ducks pecking at someone's buttocks, baboons and cats out of control, animals riding on top of other unlikely animals, baboons playing instruments, and animals drinking and dining."

Maybe some day I'll show you all the erotica and pornography of the ancient Greeks and Pompeiians.