Insanity of our culture

The level of insanity of our own culture can be somehow demonstrated based on the acceptance of insanity of other cultures. By ‘our’ culture I mean Western, secular, liberal culture which grew up thanks to enlightenment, science, industrial revolution, ancient Greeks, etc. Western culture should be rightfully considered the most advanced on this planet so far (unless unlikely of course, a theory about an ancient, more advanced civilisation would turn out to be true).

By insanity of other cultures I understand practices which are against universal human rights, such as honour killings, genital mutilation and other unacceptable customs. Some of those practices were wiped out due to influence of the West – for example sati (immolation of widowed women in India), cannibalism, human sacrifices, etc. But some questionable practices still exist and for some reasons – even in the Western countries – for example some elements of Islamic Sharia law which discriminates women.

Insanity of Western culture can be also somehow determined based on its own self-despise and confusion in issues like: multiculturalism, what are universal values and what we stand for? And of course, there are reasons for that.

MG

Women on the rise – men are going down

Douglas Adams wrote about days when “spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women” (I’m skipping a part about “real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri”). Yes, the ways of life back in time often seem to be more real than current state of affairs – especially from a perspective of years. But Douglas Adams, who sadly is no longer with us, did not predict a women-dominated society though – at least to my knowledge.

A totalitarian women’s regime has been pictured in “Sexmisssion” (Polish: “Seksmisja”) – Polish famous and cultish – at least in Poland – comedy science fiction action movie from 1984. The story is about (if you are going to watch it – attention: spoilers ahead!) two males subjected to a hibernation experiment who wake up in a post-nuclear female society – because men died out, and in fact they are not wanted anymore – men are considered to be an extinct, aggressive, prone to violence and self-distraction, less intelligent, primitive subspecies – women believe they are better off without men (and that Copernicus was a woman).

And surprise, surprise: todays’ experts predict demise of men and rise of women!  In the world when physical strength is not really needed and aggression and violence is condemned men have to find themselves in the new (for them) empathetic world of soft interpersonal and communication skills, where differences of opinions are no longer fiercely fought out but softly discussed with mutual understanding. And the hell, even women start to earn more than their husbands! Girls even do better at schools! Times are changing – as a man I have to admit it sadly. Listen to two TED talks: Philip Zimbardo: The demise of guys?  and Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women.

MG

An idea for solving ills of welfare depended pockets of the society

First of all, every state has responsibilities to its citizens, for example public safety for individuals and their property. Recent riots in England aroused fear, shock and questions. The state and its institutions failed to protect many hard working, law abiding citizens. It took five days to restore order. Another responsibility of the government is enhancing well-being and prosperity of citizens by providing education, health service, places to work, etc.

Second and foremost, citizens also have responsibilities. People have to pay taxes and abide the law of the land. But menacing gangs of underclass youths on the vicious loose, looting with no restraints and no regret whatsoever, setting everything on their way on fire – where have they come from?  

Surprisingly, they were joined by many so –called “normal” people; people, who usually work and do not commit crimes. But this time, in this very situation when normality disappeared from the streets and so behavioural and social constrains of so many temporally ceased to exist t – in effect so many people found themselves on the wrong side, joining mob, attacking police and opportunistically looting shops, with no dignity and no morals – for a pair of new trainers or a new telly, and I ask rhetorically – what is wrong with this picture? Some citizens failed the state and failed their co-citizens as well. But some people can be hardly called citizens – they do not contribute anything and nothing is expected of them – apart of not causing too much trouble.

The matter is clear enough when we look from the perspective of relations between state and citizens: Citizens pay taxes and expect protection and services in return. From this perspective two problems appear to be obvious:

First problem is that state requires no obligations from some of their citizens without any good reasons. Yes, some people get benefits for doing chronically nothing. In fact, they are hardly expected to do anything. They do not contribute anything. The society seems to be happy enough with keeping them out of the streets e.g. in various forms of social and support housing and they get benefits to feed their basic needs (and addictions). Young and middle aged people who have never worked and who will never be; living all their lives on state benefits and often committing petty crimes or doing drugs. Most of them poorly educated with no real perspectives or incentives or even skills to turn their lives around. They grew up in dysfunctional families and on the streets. They are not needed and they were pretty much abandoned. They have got institutionalised instead and the current system is not helping them. They are entitled but nothing is expected of them.

The second problem is that state is not able to provide work for everybody (and besides, not everybody is able to work). And that is the reality of post-industrial world in which unqualified and low skilled people do not fit well.

If those institutionalised welfare-depended people are entitled to benefits without any expectations then they are not really citizens – that is my conclusion. In fact, they are not even called “citizens” – by various social services they are called “clients”. No surprise: “clients” or “customers” have only rights but no obligations.  And this is just so wrong and in so many ways. Getting something for doing nothing is very harmful – think about perpetual dependence, disconnection, low-self esteem, drugs use – and I am not talking about single mothers (who often work so hard)or other people who are in genuine need and who are not able to do anything constructive in their lives as a way of contributing to the society.  

My idea is simple but fundamental and therefore revolutionary: we should treat people like citizens not consumers.

Citizens are people who have rights and obligations – people receiving benefits should have equally or to some extend their benefits balanced with some statutory obligations as well.

Open minded

People get infected by ideas simply because our brains are pattern-seeking devices. We always try to link the dots and fill gaps – even if we cannot. We also seek control and order – that’s why we categorise things. In an attempt to have influence over things and processes we didn’t understand we created magic. In order to feels safe we invented religion.  In order to understand and submit the world around us we developed science. To express ourselves we often use art.

These days we use technology in more ways and to larger extend than we have done ever before.  Although modern technological progress was a direct result of scientific discoveries many of us still lives in more or less superstitious paradigms. Apparently, old habits die hard but the next tests for our species lie ahead: how to accommodate and feed the growing number of people? What about climate changes? How dissolve social inequalities and injustice throughout the world? The world is bound to change within the next 50 – 100 years more than it had changed in any analogical period in the past. We simply cannot go further sticking to old ideas and old worldviews. To be open-minded is a good start. But then, children’s minds are open as well – and what we do? We allow them to get infected and brainwashed by old memes, old ideas.

MG

Atheistic Christians

No surprise for me here, but the recent BBC article about Rev Klaas Hendrikse titled “Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world” by Robert Pigott is significant. Rev Klaas Hendrikse who does not believe in God and the results of a study by the Free University of Amsterdam that “one-in-six clergy in the PKN (Protestant Church in the Netherlands) and six other smaller denominations was either agnostic or atheist” demonstrate an important cultural change. 

Well, this reflects not just a cultural change but a fundamental change within western civilisation reflecting shift from monotheistic agrarian worldview into new, scientific, modern perspective. Maybe that’s the way how denominations and institutions of mainstream monotheistic faiths will follow to accommodate the growing number of non-believers – or something-believers.  

The article about rev. Klaas Hendrikse is here.

MG

What has been taken from us?

Many people of current modern generations have lost something. We used to live in small communities, and certainly, it had had its drawbacks, many drawbacks. But people had lived knowing other people and people lived close to the secrets of nature.

It is not possible anymore. Hundreds if not thousands years ago we gradually moved from fields and forests ending up in those modern, advanced, big cities and big societies. Our new lifestyle gave us many things we today enjoy but it has robbed us as well. We have gained a lot but we lost so much.

MG

How long we can keep up?

I just have watched an interesting Geoffrey West’s presentation: “The surprising math of cities and corporations” on TED Conference (click to watch it here). He points out that complex systems are governed by certain laws and those laws can be statistically measured and analysed. Gathered data forms similar patterns whether we talk about animal kingdom, forests, cities, corporations. 

Organisms have their life spans and they live as long as they keep up. What about our civilisation? The common consensus is we live faster and faster. Science, technology, social development, and pretty much everything seems to be accelerating. We have to adapt faster and faster. Geoffrey West says: “The image is we are not only on a treadmill which is going faster and faster but we have to change treadmill faster and faster”. The question is how long we are going to keep up?

MG

Not evolving anymore

This is meant to be a kind of nerdy and annoying, maybe even it's not politically correct, so don’t take it too seriously, ok? After all, I would hate to offend anybody, wouldn’t I? ;)

To drive a car you need to pass driving test and your car needs to be roadworthy. In other words in the cases of cars and driving there are certain requirements. However, there are none in the case of humans having children. Quite often it seems people who actually shouldn’t have children for various reasons have them quite a lot. Of course, these reasons may be environmental and social. However, from evolutionary standpoint there is a biological and genetic problem.

The point is that human species is not evolving anymore in biological terms – or so it seems. Humans have created artificial environment disconnecting themselves from the nature and social conditions which effectively ceased the process of natural selection in human population. People, who would certainly die due to, let’s say bad genes, are not dying anymore but rather live long enough to pass their bad genes to next generations. Therefore and as I said there is no natural selection: likely general pool of genes is getting worse. Due to different factors giving birth resemble Russian roulette.

Is there a solution? It appears it will be. The problem likely will be fixed due to genetic engineering and progress of science. Unless some cosmic cataclysm struck the Earth I would expect some time in the future a situation where parents will be able to choose which set of genes their child should have. Another option will likely be upgrading not through natural biological process but through technological means (effectively creating some sort of cyborgs).

Somebody could ironically notice that so far humans counter this and other related problems (like overpopulation) with social alienation in modern societies. More alienation, less breeding. Good.

© MG copyrights

It is getting better

My grandmother used to say better before the war even apples had been better. Individuals and societies - many of us humans tend to embellish the past and complain about the present. This phenomenon is variously manifested but one question remains: Is the world really getting worse? And is that true in the past life used to be better?

The fact is that in the past people used to live in much worse conditions. Nowadays our life is much better in terms of its quality and in terms of life expectancy. With that statement may disagree various fundamental religious groups within Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the Judeo-Christian tradition time is linear - it has the beginning and it has the end. In those traditions people are awaiting for the Judgement Day, Armageddon, the end of human history and punishment all wicked and unbelievers. Then in the paradise (on earth or in heaven) there will be everlasting true peace and justice. According to such beliefs before will be 'better' first must be 'worse' because only if there will be miserably enough here the God Almighty will intervene at the end of times. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, referring to the Bible, believe that we live in the last days which are hard to bear, and soon God will bring the world to His divine order.

But the facts are that we live better and better. Take the account of the violence. In modern societies, death as result of violence affects only a small fraction of the population. We live longer, many diseases have been eliminated, and hygiene and living conditions have been improved. Old nightmares of humanity decimating population of the medieval Europe - famine and plague - have been eliminated in modern societies. Tourism and leisure have been invented. And I would say we just have started - our modern civilization just has started some 200-300 years ago with the industrial revolution.

The picture is different for preindustrial societies. According to some researches endemic tribal warfare and vendetta causes from 15% to 60% mortality in primitive populations still existing in places where time has stopped - e.g. Yanomami Indians of the Amazon jungle. In the Bible there are descriptions of unbelievable violence and cruel warfare. There were no human rights. Life was short, difficult and far more brutal.

If we take into account the history of mankind up to contemporary times we can notice without doubt the quality of our modern life is far better than reality everyday life of our ancestors.

See what says Steven Pinker about the myth of violence: VIDEO

© copyrights MG