There are days I'm proud to be a part of this civilization. We have accomplished amazing things. We've harnessed the power of the atom. We've sent robots to explore other planets. We've sent out 2 messages to interstellar civilizations. We've built instruments that give us an understanding of the tiniest subatomic particle interaction and the largest galactic superclusters.
And yet, it seems like we stand on the brink of disaster. Wars rage across the world. Education is being replaced with propaganda. Morality is being replaced by political affiliation. Religions enslave and kill millions. And the so-called "leaders" are either idly standing by, or actively promoting it.
Humans are greedy, short-sighted beasts by nature. Everything we know as adults, has been taught to us. Morality, ethics, social norms, methods of communication, critical thinking skills, knowledge - those are all foreign to our nature. They're injected into us as individuals, because society needs functioning adults in order to survive. We're no better than cavemen, we just happen to have had better education.
Throughout the span of human evolution, societies have figured out ways to protect themselves, not only from external enemies, but from the bestial nature of individuals. Religion evolved as protection from the fear of death, and brought with it the added bonus of authoritarian morality. Various economic instruments evolved to allow individuals with skills and dedication to improve their financial position and secure the continued existence of their family units, their circle of friends and codependents, and by extension, to contribute to the continued existence of their neighborhood, city, and nation.
When the basic drives of human nature are harnessed for productive ends, amazing things happen.
The desire for fame and riches has propelled countless explorers, entertainers, and financiers to stardom of their respective eras. Greed is good, greed is what drives the world. Without greed, we wouldn't have the concept of nations, exploration and trade, and industrialization that massively improved individual output.
Intellectual curiosity made scientists discover incredible things. The early alchemists tinkered with various substances in search of the "Philosopher's Stone" - and eventually laid the foundation for chemistry. The Vikings looked at the Atlantic Ocean and wondered what's beyond the waves - and discovered North America - and centuries later, we've looked at the Moon and wondered what it's like - and built a rocket ship, and sent a man to another planet. When Hans Lippershey put together the first telescope in 1608, he couldn't have imagined that one day, the multi-million-dollar Hubble would look out across galaxies - but the builders of the Hubble (and Chandra, and ISS, and Voyager) are driven by the same intellectual curiosity.
Speaking of rockets, there's an interesting back-trace. If you've ever seen a Space Shuttle launch, you've noticed the 2 booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank:
Those are "Solid Rocket Boosters" - SRB's. They're built in Utah and transported by train to Cape Canaveral. The engineers would have liked to make them bigger, for reasons of efficiency, but they're limited by the size of a horse's ass.
*blink*
"What?"
The SRB's have to be shipped by train.
The train runs through a tunnel in the mountains.
The width of the tunnel is slightly larger than the width of the tracks.
The US standard railroad gauge is 4' 8.5".
Why is it that width? Because the US railroads were built by British expats, and that's the gauge of railroads in the UK.
Why is that the gauge in the UK? Because they were built by the same companies that built the original pre-railroad tramways.
Why are the tramways that width? Because the tram cars were built with the same tools & templates as horse-drawn wagons of the pre-Industrial era, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did they use that spacing? To match the existing ruts on the roads, and not destroy the wheels on long journeys.
Why were the ruts spaced like that? Because the ruts were caused by Roman war chariots, drawn by 2 horses - and the dimensions of the chariot took into consideration the width of the widest parts of 2 horses.
So, the most advanced vehicle mankind has ever built is limited by the width of a horse's ass.
This is a metaphor.
Even as we strive to reach ever higher, we're bound and limited by the constraints of the past. And just as the Space Shuttle is limited by the dimensions of equine derriere, humanity as a whole is limited by the built-in drives and desires that have been programmed into our DNA over 1000's of years.
Therein lies the problem. We really haven't evolved beyond our bestial natures. If we did, it wouldn't be quite so easy for the puppeteers to strip the veneer of civilization from the minds of millions, and throw them into a feeding frenzy.
"Destroy them! They're Enemies of the People!", screams a Communist. And the crowd applauds, as the dissidents are sent to death camps.
"Destroy them! They're inferior!", screams a Nazi. And the crowd murmurs, "das ist gut", as the Jews are herded into the ovens.
"Destroy them! They're Infidels!", screams a mullah. And the crowd gets their knives and explosives ready.
"Destroy them! They don't think like we do!", screams a politician. And the crowd goes after "the undesirables".
If we had truly evolved beyond the caveman levels, we would not be so susceptible to these crude methods of manipulation. Yet all it takes is one book, one charismatic leader, one pseudoscientific theory, one difference of opinion - and millions are doomed. These methods are crude, but cruelly effective - precisely because the powers that be KNOW that we haven't evolved.
Have you ever wondered, Dear Reader, why post-apocalyptic movies, and zombie films and videogames, are so popular lately? Could it possibly be an expression of vicariously living out violent outbursts? When the mass consciousness is prodded and stimulated into unbounded violence, it's only natural to want to pull that trigger. Laws stop the majority from committing actual violence, but the desire to see the trigger pulled, and an enemy's brain explode, is ever-so-delicious.
And so, a convenient target is presented, a target all can agree on. Who'd want to defend a zombie? Or an Enemy Of The People in Soviet Russia, or a Jew in Nazi Germany, or a Christian in modern-day Syria?
It's a safety valve, offered as a stopgap to satiate the re-awakened thirst for destruction. Stay seated, watch the violence, sip your Cokes, play it out in your minds.
Have you wondered why there's been a dramatic increase in mass shootings, virtually unknown before the 1980's? It has nothing to do with guns, guns have been around for centuries and yet this obsession with violent outbursts is a relatively recent phenomena. Could it possibly have something to do with the culture of entitlement, where men are trained by the media to expect certain things, and when they don't get them, they go off on a rampage? (This isn't a gender-bias thing, it's statistics - the vast majority of mass shooters are male, after all.).
We haven't evolved at all. We have acquired a thin veneer of civilization. All that's stopping it from being stripped is individual morality and critical thinking. Unfortunately, all too often, morality is subsumed by party politics, and critical thinking is bred out by an educational system designed for obedience. It's up to each individual, personally, to decide which path they want to follow.
We have the technological and informational tools to access the sum total of the world's knowledge, and to colonize the Solar System. We're standing at the threshold of a singularity, and we have the biotech to increase lifespan to 300 years or more, and we have the space vehicles to build bases on the Moon.
We're facing a choice, as a civilization, as a species.
Do we follow the shining path of scientists and explorers (and bankers who finance them, and industrialists that build factories to produce their tools), and reach for the stars?
Or do we allow the politicians, the religious fanatics, and the social engineers, to strip the veneer of civilization from our selves, and go back to the metaphorical caves? Do we "vote the party line" and damn the consequences? Keep in mind that the tools of manipulation are evolving exponentially. Do we really want to end up in a "Hunger Games" universe and hope for the statistical fluke of a Katniss to save us?
"2001: A Space Odyssey" - or "1984"?
That's YOUR choice, as an individual.
Morality - or party line.
True tolerance - or religious hatred.
Acceptance of others as equals - or racial/ethnic division.
The line between good and evil isn't drawn across battlefields.
It's drawn across your heart.
Where do you stand?
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