Right on! I would add that built into most civilizations are the seeds of its own destruction, either from within or without. Our species has staggered from one pinnacle of human creativity to another. We have now arrived at a place where we have the wherewithal to, if not to end the game altogether, at least set it back several millennia.
The only way out is to recognize the corner we’ve painted ourselves into, and to implement basic cultural habits that can take us to a place where we won’t be in immediate danger of imploding. Can we do it? A bedrock condition is that this must be done in a multi-cultural civilization. What are the habits that it is now imperative that we incorporate into daily life? Can we make a list? I don’t think the sine qua non essentials are that many. Here’s a few starters:
TOLERANCE
Tolerance all around: for ethnicity, for religions, for worldviews, for individual differences and preferences, not begrudgingly, but heartfelt. Reaching this place will require adjustments that some will find hard to swallow, but not, it seems to me, impossible.
EMPATHY
A general level of tolerance is necessary but not sufficient. There must also be empathy at all levels, from the individual to the state.
EQUALITY
A state of mind that honors the birth of every human child and supports the life path of every person.
I assume that if we don’t slip into darkness, our civilization will continue to be multicultural, and that the realization of the necessary fundamental principles will take place in different ways in autonomous countries. In such a civilization there can only be a few firmly held common beliefs. At present it’s all up for grabs. Has nature and our history endowed us with minds that that can truly grasp that unless we dispel the mushroom cloud, the continuation of an Earth-based human civilization is problematic?
"we require a solid background of shared presuppositions, without which disputes are impossible to resolve and effective communication becomes entirely inconceivable." No doubt this is the case; but I'm not sure there's a way to hold onto any "shared presuppositions" any longer. So far as I can tell, our education systems simply quit teaching these things and started promulgating the tantalising notion of social construction without noting that notions of murder and rape for instance are also social constructs. We're not the fist civilisation to fall apart. And as I keep pointing out, it seems to be a natural cycle. This fragmentation may even be a good thing, though it is difficult to navigate. While our civilisation is on the decline, it may be interesting to note that the other half of the world is prospering. There's something ecological to it, something even poetic. And yes, also tragic. The image of trying to stitch fallen leaves back to trees comes to mind. On that note, I'll leave you with this poem... which I wrote a few years back:
Fall Awakening
What wedding? What armistice? What coterie
has brightened the woods with such vital confetti?
The canopy alight with gold and glowing eerily
illumines path and grove with chill festivity.
Must have been the wicked winds and slanting rains
that laboured under darkened skies
and all their crafty hands that took the pains
to bring this musky, fecund fall alive.
Yet, I dread the arid grid of days that plots
the month, the bony fingers that tap the clock.
If I could, I’d reattach the flowers to their stalks,
return each leaf to linger at its knot.
I awaken from the drag of the metro train,
from the turnstiles, tunnels, revolving doors,
awaken from the tedium of passageways,
quicken in the midst of this elemental roar.
Here I am at last, I think; hold tight
and do not sink away again in watery might’ves;
do not fly off again in a hot air flight
toward that horizon and its widening bite.
Linger here as the last colours flutter,
as the maple keys twirl and putter;
celebrate with the victors the end of a war you’ve lost,
Right on! I would add that built into most civilizations are the seeds of its own destruction, either from within or without. Our species has staggered from one pinnacle of human creativity to another. We have now arrived at a place where we have the wherewithal to, if not to end the game altogether, at least set it back several millennia.
The only way out is to recognize the corner we’ve painted ourselves into, and to implement basic cultural habits that can take us to a place where we won’t be in immediate danger of imploding. Can we do it? A bedrock condition is that this must be done in a multi-cultural civilization. What are the habits that it is now imperative that we incorporate into daily life? Can we make a list? I don’t think the sine qua non essentials are that many. Here’s a few starters:
TOLERANCE
Tolerance all around: for ethnicity, for religions, for worldviews, for individual differences and preferences, not begrudgingly, but heartfelt. Reaching this place will require adjustments that some will find hard to swallow, but not, it seems to me, impossible.
EMPATHY
A general level of tolerance is necessary but not sufficient. There must also be empathy at all levels, from the individual to the state.
EQUALITY
A state of mind that honors the birth of every human child and supports the life path of every person.
I assume that if we don’t slip into darkness, our civilization will continue to be multicultural, and that the realization of the necessary fundamental principles will take place in different ways in autonomous countries. In such a civilization there can only be a few firmly held common beliefs. At present it’s all up for grabs. Has nature and our history endowed us with minds that that can truly grasp that unless we dispel the mushroom cloud, the continuation of an Earth-based human civilization is problematic?
"we require a solid background of shared presuppositions, without which disputes are impossible to resolve and effective communication becomes entirely inconceivable." No doubt this is the case; but I'm not sure there's a way to hold onto any "shared presuppositions" any longer. So far as I can tell, our education systems simply quit teaching these things and started promulgating the tantalising notion of social construction without noting that notions of murder and rape for instance are also social constructs. We're not the fist civilisation to fall apart. And as I keep pointing out, it seems to be a natural cycle. This fragmentation may even be a good thing, though it is difficult to navigate. While our civilisation is on the decline, it may be interesting to note that the other half of the world is prospering. There's something ecological to it, something even poetic. And yes, also tragic. The image of trying to stitch fallen leaves back to trees comes to mind. On that note, I'll leave you with this poem... which I wrote a few years back:
Fall Awakening
What wedding? What armistice? What coterie
has brightened the woods with such vital confetti?
The canopy alight with gold and glowing eerily
illumines path and grove with chill festivity.
Must have been the wicked winds and slanting rains
that laboured under darkened skies
and all their crafty hands that took the pains
to bring this musky, fecund fall alive.
Yet, I dread the arid grid of days that plots
the month, the bony fingers that tap the clock.
If I could, I’d reattach the flowers to their stalks,
return each leaf to linger at its knot.
I awaken from the drag of the metro train,
from the turnstiles, tunnels, revolving doors,
awaken from the tedium of passageways,
quicken in the midst of this elemental roar.
Here I am at last, I think; hold tight
and do not sink away again in watery might’ves;
do not fly off again in a hot air flight
toward that horizon and its widening bite.
Linger here as the last colours flutter,
as the maple keys twirl and putter;
celebrate with the victors the end of a war you’ve lost,
the resignation of all colour marrying the frost.