May We Call Ourselves Civilized?
Man’s structure seemed indeed
to destine him for a more humble existence.
His instinctive resistance to innovations
is a proof.
The inertia of humanity
has never yielded,
save under the impulsion of genius.
In a word,
science demands a twofold effort,
that of a few men to find some new thing
and that of all others to adopt it
and adapt themselves to it.
A society may be called civilized
when you find in it such a power to lead
and a willingness to be led.
The second condition is more difficult
of fulfillment than the first.
— excerpt Two Sources of Morality and Religion
By Henri Bergson p. 171
Read this section of text this morning in Bergson’s sweeping work. The impact of these sentences came at me in a subtle manner, like having a taste of Habanero pepper sauce; the flavor and heat grows gaining momentum to permeate the entirety of the faculty of taste.
I am struck by the timeless unresolved struggle between reason/intelligence which quests for a new insight to act upon, and the instinct toward defending what we have, the circle of well-being now enjoyed. Do we not all prefer the familiarity of what we know, the tested, proven ways? I do.
The writer asserts that civilization is a condition, a state of society that allows gifted individuals with developed expertise in their chosen field to present their vision of an achievable future to the rest of us. The rest of us must demonstrate a willingness to be led. This is what is meant by civilization.
Bergson observes that an openness to dialogue by the majority is not to be taken for granted, that regress is possible. There is struggle between the safety of the known, where each has his/her niche and the heretofore hidden, unconsidered factors, the “new” — which merits action, the risk of progress.
What does your better judgment indicate is the “truth” of the matter in the case of the America in which we live? Are we essentially a civilized society? Or are we a society with the hallmarks of inertia, of resistance to the superior quality of leadership?
2 thoughts on “May We Call Ourselves Civilized?”
Basically, inertia is easy and progress is not. What we seem to embrace with inertia is stagnation, dullness, a place where a lack of curiosity permeates our minds, but the tradeoff is predictability. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t particularly like most change (i.e. people moving from Mundelein to Batavia), but change in today’s culture is inevitable. Those born after 1970 must be accustomed to change, or so it would seem, since stability in terms of societal norms and mores, technology, fashion, design, etc, have been in a state of constant flux during their lifetime. Yet in making this claim, I may be negating human nature, and perhaps that is what Bergson is referring to in his work. Despite the constant barrage of innovation and movement ruing the past 50 years, it may be that the human mind still seeks entropy, much like matter does throughout the universe. Could it be that our minds are just a microcosm of how all known matter works and that we seek to find order? Seems possible, yet it would not explain the desire of so many to find answers to questions we don’t even know how to ask. Maybe this is what sets humanity apart from the rest of everything; curiosity. Is this what caused Adam to take a bite of the apple? Is this what drove the exodus from Africa? Is curiosity alone, the root of our ascent?
Currently we have a government headed by someone who has a complete lack of curiosity, a person who is fixated on self-aggrandizement and who surrounds himself with like-minded lumps. Curiosity about the human potential has been surgically removed from these people. They want to Make America Inert Again at any cost, regardless of the long term consequences. As noted earlier, perhaps this is indeed human nature at work. That the majority of world citizens are tired of the constant change and would prefer life without curiosity, without discovery or even joy. They seem just to want to exist.
So who am I to say this is wrong (or right)? If the momentum of society is towards an end time then nature is doing what it does best: take care of itself. Perhaps we are the cancer and the only cure from nature’s point of view is a reboot. Start from scratch and let the cockroaches rule as the top of the food chain for a few million years.
I don’t want us to loose the “progress” we’ve made with regard to culture, the arts, our scientific insights into the universe and deep within quantum mechanics, but maybe that’s the price we’ll need to pay for setting nature back on course. Saying that we are the melanoma on the skin of our planet sounds harsh, especially if what we want more than anything is to propagate our species and maintain our place in the natural world, but I believe we have overstayed our welcome. Life will exist on this planet regardless of what we do. Mountains will form, the seas will rise and fall, microbes will squirm about, tectonic plates will move and the sun will continue to shine for another few billion years without any human here to witness it or to alter the outcome. This is nature. And in that I can take some comfort. Sorry for rambling.
Good piece. Not rambling at all, rather a tour-guide introduction to what we shall all experience, should we choose to do nothing.
Human beings are of Nature and our ability of intellect/reason is not unnatural. Yet this ability of choice may be used in the interest of humanity which is identical with the interest of Nature. Or we may choose, as our stories have told us over and over, to exceed our boundary limit, and visit ruin upon ourselves. This will also be the ruin of Nature as we know it.
Do we desire to take a last bite of the apple?
I am reminded of Homers great epic, the Iliad. As I’ve thought about the great war between the Achaeans and Troy, the seeds of the ruin of Troy as well as the Greek homeland were sown when the twelve hundred triremes began their voyage from Aulius. How does one take a measured bite of the apple or no bite at all — when desire is involved? How do I handle/manage/temper the rush of desire? The future is always unforeseeable.
As to saying what is wrong or right, someone has to say it. We are all obligated to make confession of what we believe is wrong or right. This is the burden of being an intelligent mammal. As far as we know, no other mammal has the burden of choosing where to draw the line between good and evil. That is on us.
And I’d hate to lose all that we’ve brought into being, what we think of as civilization. I choose to believe that it is not too late to make the call.