4 posts tagged “l”

As a way of inducing reflection I frequently ask people to write their own epitaphs. This exercise in summarizing their lives in a few words inevitably produces puzzlement and often results in som humorous and self-denigrating responses. Among them: “He read a lot of magazines,” “She started slowly, then backed off.” “I told you I was sick,” and “I’m glad it is over.” I encourage more thought about this and people begin to identify those aspects of their lives of which they are proud, their roles as parents, spouses, people of faith.

I actually think this exercise should be incorporated into every written will. At the point when people are contemplating their deaths, why not suggest that they add a paragraph that reads “And for my epitaph I would like the following….”?

--

Gordon Livingston in Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, 2004

If the people of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression, culminating sooner or later in yet another alien domination; perhaps from a new Europe reverting to old ways, perhaps from a resurgent Russia, perhaps from some new, expanding superpower in the East. If they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavour, then they can once again make the middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major center of civilization. For the time being, the choice is their own.

---

One can only hope that, in time, the cause of freedom will triumph once again as it has already triumphed over the Nazis and the Communists. If it does not, the outlook for the Islamic world, and perhaps for the West, will be grim.

Bernhard Lewis in What went wrong? 2002

Mutual growth is possible with respect to all global issues and opportunities. Security can be improved for all nations and not limited to some at the expense of others. If all agree to disarm, to reduce their defense expenditures, and to institute effective peacekeeping systems, global security can be improved without resultant insecurity fo any nation. More food can be produced for all people through a proper use of existing technologies and development of new methods for the distribution of produce. The better diet of some need not mean deprivation for others. The world population can likewise be stabilized without having to pay for reductions in the birthrate of one population with increases in that of another. Economic growth can be selectively achieved for all nations and populations, and higher levels of development can be assured for the poor without reducing by the corresponding amount the standard of living of the rich. ..

Ervin Laszlo et al in Goals For Mankind, A Report to The Club of Rome, 1977

I have discussed eight separate but causally connected processes that are threating to destroy not only our civilization but mankind as a species. These processes are:

1. Overpopulation of the earth which, because of the superabundance of social contacts, forces every one of us to shut himself off in an essentially “inhuman” way,  and which, because of the crowding of many individuals into a small space, elicits aggression.

2. Devastation of our natural environment with the destruction not only of our surroundings but also of man’s reverential awe for the beauty and greatness of creation superior to him.

3. Man’s race against himself, which pushes the development of technology to an ever faster pace, blinding people to all real values and robbing then them of time for the genuine human activity of reflection.

4. The waning of all strong feelings and emotion, caused by overindulgence. The process of technology and pharmacology furthers an increasing intolerance of everything inducing the least unpleasure. Thus human beings lose the ability to experience a joy that is only attainable through surmounting serious obstacles. The natal waves of joy and sorrow ebb away into an imperceptible oscillation of unutterable boredom.

5. Genetic decay. In our modern civilization, apart from the “innate sense of justice” and a few transmitted traditions of right and wrong, there are no factors that exert a selection pressure tending to preserve instinctive norms of social behaviour, although with growth of society, these are becoming more and more necessary. It is an alarming possibility that the many infantilisms are turning a certain type of hippies into social paracites.

6. The break in tradition. A critical point is reached in which the younger generation is no longer able to communicate with the older one, still less to identify with it. Therefore, the younger treats the older like an alien ethnic group, confronting it with the equivalent of national hatred. Hence, the continuance of tradition is threatened. The reasons for this disturbance are to be found principally in the lack of contact between parents and children, which even at the earliest stage of infancy can have pathological consequences.

7. Increased indoctrinability of mankind. The increase in number of people within a single cultural group, together with the perfection of technical means, lead to the possibility of maneuvering  public opinion into a uniformity unprecedented in the history of mankind. Furthermore, the suggestive effect of an accepted doctrine grows with the number of its supporters, possibly on geometric progression. There are cultures in which an individual who purposely keeps aloof from the influence of the mass media, for example television, is regarded as pathological. Deindividualizing effects are desired by all those whose intention it is to manipulated large bodies of people. Opinion poll, advertising, cleverly directed fads and fashions help the mass producers on this side of the iron curtain to attain what amounts to a similar power over the masses.

8. The arming of mankind with nuclear weapons constitutes a threat easier to avert than the seven other developments described above.

The process of dehumanization discussed in chapter 2 to 8 give support to the pseudodemocratic doctrine which maintains that the social and moral behaviour of man is in no way determined by the phylogenetically evolved organization of his nervous system and of his sense organs but, rather, that this behaviour is determined solely by the “conditioning” to which, in the course of his ontogenesis, he is exposed by his particular cultural environment.

         Konrad Lorenz: Civilized Man’s Eight Deadly Sins, 1974