Are We Really That Enlightened Now?
8 Dec
I often wonder about our current “enlightened state.”
In the modern world we assume that we have the best viewpoint. We feel that new is better and everything that came before is inferior.
What if we are wrong? What if we are gaining in data but are losing our intelligence?
You may argue that we have advances in medicine, science, technology and transportation. We have gained in these areas. But have we improved the moral and social aspects of our lives?
In the United States we ended slavery -helped the world beat back dictators during two world wars – and have aided in spreading freedom to people everywhere.
But there is something about our human condition that leads us back to evil. No matter how many good causes are started each year. No matter how much we are enlightened – it seems that humans as a race are bent on evil. It is in our blood. It seems to be our birthright.
So this brings me back to my original question in this post. How do we know that we are more enlightened now?
What gives us permission to say “we now know what is best for the world.” After all, people in the nineteenth century would have felt they had the answers. In hindsight we view these people as uneducated and ignorant.
Will history see us the same way 100 years from now? Will we look unenlightened then?
We are so sure that we now have the best viewpoint of the world and we use our modernity as our apology. But what if we are the ignorant ones and those who came before actually know a more about life than we are willing to admit?
As we continue to live in the “state of now” with instant Twitter messages and multimedia texts, we have less use for information of the past. It seems stale and old to us.
And when I say the past I mean yesterday. It’s as if we are viewing all information as valuable as a daily newspaper. It’s value wanes as time moves on.
Just some thoughts for today. What do you think?
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