Aouda and I had a great saturday-morning-in-bed philosophical discussion yesterday.
Has the world become too complicated for us humans ? We are for a large part primates who owe their evolutionary success to their propensity to cooperate as part of a close-knit group. That’s why language is as important in defining us as opposable thumbs. It’s also probably why we are so good at wars and genocides.
Civilisation until recently had kept us in the environment we like best. It provided for strong leadership, well established values guiding each of us in our everyday lives.
The western world pursued the logic of group domination to its extreme, enjoying a fantastic couple centuries of rise to preeminence. But it probably got traumatized by the butcheries of WWI and WWII. They demonstrated that masses of indoctrinated individuals, bound together by strong group beliefs, can bring horror and destruction to such a scale that it threatens the basis of civilization itself.
So … regardless of the origin of its change of mind, over the past 50 years the west – and especially Europe – has dramatically rewired its social model to put the individual at the forefront. Religion has faded almost totally, families barely hold any power over their members, military service is gone, and divorces are becoming the rule.
This is great news in a number of ways. More creativity, less violence and frustrations, all these probably resulting in greater wealth. It will also probably be difficult to put these populations in an uniform and tell them to go kill others for god or country.
But – at a time when there is less material needs and poverty than ever – people seem to be more unhappy than ever. They value their freedom enormously, but seem to struggle to deal with the ensuing complexities. They want to do what they want, according to their own individual desires of the moment, but they long for the lost sense of community with their fellow humans.
Is Internet a successful subsitute ? Maybe – and its success is probably linked to our deeply-ingrained need for constant interactions with others. But it probably still lacks the “warmth” of real human interactions, and
So what happens next ? Well mostly more questions 🙂
Will we see a war of civilization with the new Eastern powers – India with its community based social structure (but with its elite and middle class moving fast to the western model) – China with its strong government managed model ?
What of the US ? Has it kept kept the sense of community / duty / religion that Europe has lost.
Will humans evolve to satisfy themselves with a more individualistic way of life ? This seems unlikely due to natural evolution because few people really die of loneliness – but can education foster the right balance between individual aspirations and the need to cooperate as part of larger groups ?
Oh well – enough for a saturday morning in bed.
Yours respectfully,
Phileas.
