A Measure of Character...
As it so happens, this is one of the questions that I use to measure a person's character. More specifically, this is an area of inquiry that I explore to ascertain a person's own passion and their comprehension of power—two characteristics which are important to me in understanding others. In addition to the question I posted in the poll, I ask people sometimes whether they think the world will be better or worse off in 100 years. They usually reply that it will be worse. I can probe at their rationale by asking specific questions. Almost everyone agrees that our technology will be better off in 100 years, but there seems to be widespread agreement that our technology is either irrelevant to the question of humanity's own wellbeing or, more commonly, is actively detrimental to the same. This is reflected in the question of how people think the Earth's environment will be in 100 years. Just about everybody thinks it will be in worse repair than it is today.
The Doomsayers
Materialism, technology, ignorance, the negative emotions (e.g., greed, vengefulness), overpopulation, and social isolation are what people most commonly cite to justify their views that humanity is getting worse. (Ironic, isn't it, how “overpopulation” and “social isolation” can fit together so nicely?) With all of the suffering and injustice in our increasingly dirty world, they ask how not could we be on the road to destruction. There is some variation on this theme depending on a person's political alignment. Liberals focus more on social injustice and environmental degradation. Conservatives focus more on the decline of traditional morality. Libertarians focus on the erosion of liberty and self-determination. All groups focus on the abuses of corporate and governmental power.
The Fatalists
Others say that humanity is the same as it always has been, and the only thing different today is that we have the means to devastate the entire land surface of the planet in as little as thirty minutes. Technology may be more advanced, but human nature, they reason, is the same as it was when our ancestors built the earliest tools of civilization. They resign themselves to the view that humanity will either destroy itself totally at some point, or else will habitually set itself back, age after age, upon growing too heavy to support itself. History repeats. We have no choice but to be what we are.
Behold, the Dreams of the Weak!
All of these negative attitudes make sense. They are endless in number, but they all originate from a few common sources, easily understood. But beneath these common sources is yet another layer, a single genesis that is at the true core of every negative attitude in the human equation. That center is powerlessness. Powerlessness, real or perceived, is the foundation of all negativity, for negativity is the rejection of or dissatisfaction with a gap between the ideal and the actual. That gap is measured in power—not watts, but the capacity for constructive change. All human negativity can be described in terms of powerlessness, in one shape or another, and it is these “shapes” which form the common sources. They include mortality, bitterness, busyness, despair, destitution, impatience, physical pain, jealousy, poverty, confusion, bereavement, wrath, stress, defeat, disgust, decay, fear, trauma, humiliation, corruption, fatigue, restlessness, ambivalence, and on, and on.
The human experience is an unending stream of stimulations, emotions, instincts, ideas, and decisions. We are very small creatures living for a brief time in a vast world. Few of us who ever lived have lived well and died peacefully, with satisfaction. We built a civilization to conquer nature, only to find indifference supplanted by antagonism.
But that's history. Today we have a different problem...a problem that lays bare some of the most difficult truths about what it means to be human. Today, in America, material need has been almost eliminated. If you're reading this, you probably live a life of comforts and complacency. You have a pretty good idea that you won't die of starvation in the next year, or be slaughtered or enslaved. You don't have to worry about what the temperature is outside, because you have warm clothes and a heater. Disease is down; you can go out in public without fearing sickness, and you can go to the doctor if you do get sick. Crime is down too: You're not likely to be assaulted or robbed.
Yet that's just the half of it: You're educated. You can comprehend problems in a way that your ancestors could not. You can fashion solutions. You can perceive what was one unperceivable, conceive what was once inconceivable. You have words and metaphors to express ideas that have baffled the generations before you. You can travel enormous distances in a few hours, in comfort. You can listen to almost any music you like, anywhere, on demand. You can eat just about anything you want, whenever you want. You can pursue friendships and relationships without fearing of crossing the war boundaries of family feuds or violating sexual taboos. You can hike in the wilderness, in comfort. You can attend the ballet or dazzle yourself at an art gallery. You can take a hot bath, or a dip in the public pool. You're safe. You're empowered. You have so many options you can't even count them all.
So do we all, those of us who live in developed countries and are not stricken by extreme misfortune. We live in an era that any other age of humanity, any one of them, would describe as Heaven, the place where gods dwell. We can fly above the mountains. We can repair failing organs. We can create whole virtual worlds for our mere amusement. We have domesticated or cultivated thousands of species. We manipulate the land for our benefit. We have towers that touch the clouds. We have flush toilets! Electricity! Radio, television, phones. We can organize in social groups on the Internet in a way that has never before been done in the whole tale of human endeavor. We elect our leaders freely, and live freely. Injustice is fought with the gavel or the pen, not the sword. Children are given an education. Females, minorities, and unbelievers are able to practice self-determination. We can dress ourselves in every color under the rainbow, and dance beneath black light. Artists can create. Athletes can sport. Hobbyists can recreate. The austere-minded, they can work hard and attend church and eat three square meals a day.
By this measure, most of us who are alive today should be totally and completely happy.
But many people are not happy with this life. Why? In the past they could blame the adversities of the natural world, or the cruelties of a primitive civilization. Today those are almost all gone. That leaves just two possibilities. One is that they could blame all the imperfections that I left out of my description of our modern civilization. The other is that they themselves are imperfect to the point of being unable to accept paradise.
Imagine, if the doors to paradise were freely open for everyone, but, once inside, you didn't feel as though it were paradise. Your own perception, your own worldview...incompatible with paradise. Imagine that. Imagine how frustrating, how dispiriting that would be.
This is where powerlessness comes in. In a land overflowing with opportunities, most people still have limited power even to live out their own lives according to their desires, let alone change the entire world. And their grasp of the idea of power is even more limited. They are born with a flock of dreams that die out as reality conquers their imaginations. Their willpower is broken. They become docile, either by flaming out or fading out. They form routines that become ruts. (I can put myself in that category!) Their minds close. The end draws nearer. All of those lost desires, do not return. And still the world marches on, bombarding them daily. And civilization grows ever more complex. There was once a time when it was possible for one person to possess virtually all human learning. No longer. There is no such thing as a “Doctorate of Everything.” Completeness, wholeness...they seem ever farther away. Most people in America today have less and less understanding of everything around them. Technology becomes more and more like magic...incomprehensible. Corporations grow vast and arcane...unassailable. Social injustices—those we haven't eliminated—baffle and boggle the mind in their intractability...unsolvable. The size and complexity of our civilization reminds many people of just how small and weak they are.
Most people simply do not know how to live. They have not mastered themselves, and they have no hope of mastering the world. Their dreams are a source of agony, not ecstasy. Adversity, oppression...once upon a time these bastions of woe provided a suitable enemy. In their absence today, the multitudes of dissatisfied people who fill the mountains and valleys of our nation have nothing left to strain against. So they learn to see, in a veritable paradise, a purgatory. They need enemies, so they create enemies, because they can do no better. These are the dreams of the weak.
Power
Power is not only a measure of ability, but a matter of perspective. Many philosophies and religions have their own way of saying this, because it is at once very obvious to those who see it, and almost ineffable to those who don't. Swords and money and fame, or books and wrenches and ore, or friends and communities and movements...these are some of the vessels of power. These grails surround us. Often they sit right in front of our noses. History is filled with people who made stupendous achievements starting from the humblest places. Even the smallest person can become very great, if they can learn how to interact with the world to achieve their desires.
But before that—before setting out on the glory road—a person has to know who they are, what they stand for, what they want, and what the future ought to look like. It isn't sufficient to stuff oneself with religious dogma or political propaganda. We have to reason it all out for ourselves. It isn't even enough to know all those whats. We also have to know how, and, where it is applicable, why. Every idea we take for ourselves, we must contemplate and understand. All our convictions, we must reconcile every one with the others. We must temper our preferences with logic, reason our convictions with evidence, and determine our principles by their consequences. Everything becomes about the outcome. In truth there is no difference between “means” and “ends”; at the highest level they are the same thing. No end exists independently of the means which led to it. When we voyage out into the world, to pursue our ambitions—to change whatever we want to change; to take in whatever we want to take in; to explore and expand and experience all the world, according to our desires—we are but tiny creatures in our magnificent little bodies, and ultimately our success or failure is measured by the perspective with which we undertake our adventures. One who does not know themselves cannot succeed and will not know satisfaction. One who does not understand the ideal, or the actual, will be overwhelmed when asked how to bridge the gap between them.
Great Evil
From a historical standpoint, the question of whether we are worse or better off has a right answer. We are so enormously better off today than we were historically that I suspect most folks would not believe it short of being flung into history to see for themselves. But it doesn't matter. The most perfect paradise in the cosmos is just another shithole if that's the kind of person you are.
My creative spark has always rebelled against the cynicism and pessimism I see all around me. I've had some outstanding conversations on this topic over the years, but the running theme is that most people feel humanity is either in decline, or never changes. And there's almost always a negative connotation attached to the claim that we never change, making the fatalists as bad as the doomsayers. It disturbs me sometimes, just how many pessimists and cynics there are, because those outlooks on life can be self-fulfilling. There are people alive today, right now, who would, if they had the power, press the button and nuke the Earth. Not because they're evil, but because they are that fucking ignorant, and, in their powerlessness, would pass such a doom upon the whole world. Thankfully, “the button” is hard to find, but there are smaller buttons all around us and easily accessible, and they are frequently pressed, and the power behind these buttons contributes greatly to the injustices and imperfections in our world. I see it in the futility of our political debate. I see it in the widespread contempt for those who are different. I see it when a person betrays their own principles out of fear or greed. I see it when our beaches are closed from clam-digging because of toxic bacterial blooms. I see it whenever someone can't bring themselves to speak above the level of a child, or contemplate problems beyond the contemptibly poor comprehension and smarm that passes for conventional wisdom.
What I'm getting at is that power can be misused, and often is...even by those who are the most powerless. No...especially by them. There's a laboratory in the UW plasma physics building that has a warning label on the door: “If you don't know what you're doing, don't do anything.” Life is like that. With objects of power all around us, and words of power afloat in the air at all times, this world is a dangerous place to be a mook. We all have a responsibility to grow our power, if only to understand just how much power we already have, so that we might be more judicious, more thoughtful, more considerate in our actions.
The Struggle
Humanity is no worse off now than in the past. Humanity is better. We have a superior language, and a wealth of history, and new opportunities. But the negativists have one thing right: The human genome is almost exactly the same as it was at the dawn of civilization. We have powerful minds, but we are still animals. We are not ethereal beings of light. We are animals who evolved from a world of physical brutality and mercilessness. We take with us into civilization all the compulsions of our genetics. From civilization we encounter all the ideas humanity has yet produced, both good and bad. Genes and histories alike, we pass on to our children.
Passion, and What Is Yet To Come
Humanity has come a long way from its prehistoric origins. In fits and starts, we have built a great civilization, and one that holds much promise for greatness yet to come. We can lift up the nations who live in darkness. We can lift up our neighbors among us who have been forgotten or injured. We can drive ourselves to new heights, explore new questions, create new wonders, and vastly improve our awareness and appreciation of all things. We can do that without killing the planet.
But we may yet all perish, tomorrow or perhaps the day after that. Those nuclear missiles are not a fantasy. Neither are the many other rising dangers of biology and chemistry. The Earth's environment is not infinitely stable. Our material quality of life depends upon finite resources. And there are so many failures and losers and scum and downtrodden who walk among us, who, together, could pull civilization itself into their dark dreams.
There are no guarantees. None whatsoever. The bottom line is that our way of life and indeed our entire existence is still precarious. That sword hangs over our heads, and will for a long time to come. We may fail as surely as we may succeed. Are we better or worse off now than then? Better. But the stakes are higher. We have farther to fall, and more ways to trip.
Here is how I want humanity to be remembered: We were a species with great potential. We did the best we could. Every individual lived wisely, and cultivated their passion.
If that's how we would live, then it won't matter what happens to us in the end. It could be that the deck has been stacked against us from the beginning, enough so that we were always doomed, and we just don't know it yet. Or it could be that we hold our fate in our hands. Either way, if we do our best, respect our world, and strive to better the human condition, for ourselves and everyone, and fashion ourselves into beings who are truly worthy of the paradise that is utopia—a place so named because the very premise of it was once preposterous!—then our tale will be a satisfying one.
Anyone who says humanity is in decline is telling you only about themselves.
Poll