Civilization's Greatest Ideas

In the wake of disaster, such as the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York by religious extremists, reaction is strong and varied.  It ranges from numbing panic to misdirected rage, with perhaps the most common sentiments being "United we stand!" and "God bless America!"  To those of us who are able to retain some measure of composure, it is an interesting opportunity to observe and reflect, for this is when we discover what people are really like deep inside.  It is reassuring to discover that the predominant reaction is one of brotherhood and unity rather than of murderous hatred or impotent despair.

At the same time, however, it is ironic that both villains and victims are singing praises to God.  Certainly believers are in the habit of taking comfort from religion, but in this instance it is like taking comfort from the faithful pet dog that has just mauled your child!  If such calamities are to be avoided in the future, surely our responses ought to involve more thoughtful reflection and purposeful action, and less indulgence in unproductive (or even counterproductive) "feel-good" exercises.  Indeed, although the current aggressor is clearly insane and his actions criminal, it would be unwise to ignore his motivation.  Though we may annihilate him, we will inevitably have to deal with his successors in years to come if we fail to acknowledge and address the cause of complaint.

The same is true of other problems—overcrowding, crime, disease, hunger, ignorance, war—which the peoples of the world face as our numbers increase, as technology brings our diverse cultures into ever closer contact, and as economic interaction and industrial specialization make us increasingly interdependent.  Civilization is undergoing unprecedented changes in response to unprecedented pressures.  Whether its future is written in terms of prosperity and advance, survival from crisis to crisis, or catastrophic collapse depends on whether we are able to overcome our tribal instincts and traditional taboos, and deal realistically with problems in a thoughtful and purposeful manner.

The Worst Ideas

In developing the necessary strategies for humanity's future, it is essential that we consider the tactics of the past, paying close attention to those which brought success and those which led to failure.  Following are some momentous ideas which have proven detrimental to civilizations which adopted them.

Abrogation of personal responsibility:  A fundamental element of a healthy society is each individual's acceptance of personal responsibility for the consequences of his or her own actions.  People who either hold themselves accountable or expect to be held accountable by others tend to act responsibly; people who expect to be forgiven tend to conduct themselves in ways which require much forgiving.  While forgiveness may be a positive gesture under exceptional circumstances, the practice of routinely absolving guilt without requiring just reparation short-circuits society's mechanism for protecting itself and recovering from damage done by those who behave irresponsibly.  Such policy is destructive, for it rewards misconduct.  It is unjust and unfair to victims of negligence and malice, and demoralizing to those who make a habit of conscientious behavior.
Examples:  Christianity grants absolution in return for a statement of confession, contrition, and acceptance of the Christian faith.  Islam forgives a man's sins if he is martyred in defense of the faith.  While the intent of such policies is to attract believers, their practical effect is to breed societies of righteous scoundrels.  (Don't believe it?  Look around!)

Economic stratification:  History has repeatedly demonstrated that prosperity is greatest when more people have the opportunity to participate in it.  An affluent citizenry constitutes a strong consumer base, which drives production and prosperity; an impoverished citizenry, having little purchasing power and generating many problems to be dealt with, is an economic burden and a drain on resources.
Example:  In ancient Greece, dramatic reforms transformed a tiny and faltering aristocracy into a democratic system embracing major socio-economic segments of the general populace.  In that form it survived and prospered, fostering the great cultural advances of the classical Hellenic period despite other difficulties.

Irrational laws:  Frivolous laws, typically enacted on the basis of moralistic grandstanding rather than thoughtful evaluation of cause and effect, neither serve the citizenry nor protect it from real dangers.  Lame, unfair, and needlessly repressive laws are viewed with scorn and contempt, and breed disrespect for law and order in general.
Example:  Some laws seek to curb the use of tobacco as a dangerous drug, while other laws subsidize its production.

Religious fanaticism:  The fierce or coercive adherence to an idea, in the absence of reliable evidence, or even in defiance of evidence to the contrary, impedes humans' already limited ability to perceive the world and other people as they really are.  Fanaticism discourages genuine thoughtfulness, and seeks to eradicate the freedom to evaluate ideas in accordance with objective observation and personal conscience.  It leads inevitably to both faulty decision-making and unnecessary conflict, with the consequence that the advance of civilization is unreasonably hindered, and in some cases reversed.  While intellectual freedom demands protection of the right to hold and express anti-human beliefs, civilization is endangered if it becomes controlled by them.
Examples:  Witness the willful ignorance of natural science by fundamentalists, the terrorist activities of extremist sects, and the repressive policies and destructive acts of fanatical regimes.

Rigid moral codes:  Strict moral codes have the advantage of being easy to memorize and apply in ordinary situations.  However, a strict code necessarily works best in simple situations envisioned by those who devised the code.  When innovations in philosophy or technology, or simply unforeseen complications, arise, the strict application of an antiquated code can yield unjust or nonsensical results.  To be of continuing value in a vibrant and developing civilization, a code of behavior must be adaptable to new and complex situations.

Scapegoating:  Scapegoating is the odious practice of falsely laying blame for troubles upon a hated individual or group.  In the case in which the troubles are actually the consequences of the accuser's own actions or policies, scapegoating is an especially vicious form of failure to accept responsibility.  Besides being inherently unfair and unjust, scapegoating blinds people to the real problems besetting them, thereby preventing those problems from being accurately identified, rationally evaluated, and effectively dealt with.
Examples:  The Hitler regime assigned blame to a fictitious "Jewish conspiracy," initially for Germany's economic woes and subsequently for the many problems resulting from disruptions caused by the Nazis themselves.  Similarly, the Stalinist regime suppressed and executed the very intellectuals whose ingenuity might have solved the many problems besetting the U.S.S.R.  Scapegoating is not limited to governments, however.  People who can't find work during a slack economy often scapegoat people of other races for displacing them; inadequately trained job seekers scapegoat businesses for not hiring them; engineers scapegoat production workers for problems caused by design flaws.  And religious fundamentalists blame scientists for discovering that nature conflicts with a literal interpretation of scriptural mythology.

Social stratification:  Order and stability are arguably enhanced by social stratification.  However, two of its detrimental effects upon civilization far outweigh any supposed benefit.  (1) It maintains in positions of power those who may be incompetent, unscrupulous, malicious, or even insane.  (2) It deprives society of the natural talents of those born to low station, who are therefore arbitrarily denied education and the connections to make a positive contribution.

Superstition:  Superstition is often regarded as a harmless and even amusing peculiarity of human culture.  However, by impeding or even contradicting rational thought, superstition in certain situations has had disastrous effects.
Example:  It is no mere coincidence that the Black Death (bubonic plague, transmitted by fleas borne by rats) decimated the population of Europe during the fourteenth century.  This was a time when cats (the most common natural predators of rats) were widely hunted and destroyed as "satanic creatures," by a superstitious populace obsessed with fears of demons and witches.

Supply-side economics:  Tax cuts and subsidies are often used by government as tools to reverse a downward economic trend.  There are various strategies, some effective and some futile.  One approach, "supply-side economics," pumps money into the wealthiest sector of the economy, on the assumption that it will eventually "trickle down" to the average consumer.  However, this approach ignores both basic economic forces and human nature.  Unlike poor people, who typically spend most of their income just to survive, wealthy people tend to retain money once they have their hands on it; they spend relatively little of it, and save or invest any surplus.  Consequently, only a relatively small proportion of the money which government hands to the rich enters the production-consumption cycle.  The hoped-for miracle never trickles down to people of average income; consumer demand and cash flow are not enhanced; production, employment, and profits remain low, and economic stagnation continues.
     The key factor in stimulating a sluggish economy is public purchasing power, which is not significantly enhanced by subsidies and tax breaks for businesses and investors.  Although a faltering business can be helped temporarily by an infusion of cash, no amount of investment capital will make a business profitable if prospective customers cannot afford to buy what it produces.  While many politicians apparently do not understand this, investors do.  They are not motivated to invest when they cannot foresee a healthy market for what business produces; instead, they place any extra cash into "safe," low-yield instruments, to wait for an economic upturn—which is delayed because of the misdirection of government resources. 

Theocracy:  Consider what theocracy has produced so far, as well as its future vision:

• the blood sacrifices of ancient cultures;

• the Hindu caste system of India;

• the bloody conflicts between Rome and Judea over religious sovereignty;

• the failed Crusades and brutal Inquisitions of the Holy Roman Empire;

• the hysterical witch hunts of Europe and colonial America;

• the oppression of the Iranian people by their Shiite leaders;

• the refusal of the Roman Church to acknowledge the existence of, or to consider humane solutions to, the growing problem of overpopulation;

• the counterproductive shift, from targeted actions against terrorists to vengeful reactions against the innocent, by the current Israeli regime;

• the ruination of Afghanistan, the destruction of its culture, and the alienation of its people, by the Taliban;

• the rejection of science, the sectarian revision of history, the sterilization of culture, and the suppression of free thought (not excluding the extermination of free thinkers);

• the call of fundamentalists for abolition of pluralistic democracy, and for government endorsement of superstition and tribalism as righteous virtues.

These are the historic fruits and the current goals of theocracy*—certainly not what I would wish for my grandchildren.  How about you?

=SAJ=

*To be fair, I have tried hard to think of something distinctly positive which has been a direct result of theocracy—i.e., some significant benefit which mankind would not likely have received except through a theocratic government.  So far, I have not been able to think of anything.  Aside from temple-building, theocracy appears remarkably destructive.  If you know of any clear benefit of theocracy, I invite you to share it with me via e-mail or post it in the Mail Bag, both of which are accessible from FEEDBACK on the main page.  Please include any references or reasoning as to why you believe that such benefit could not or would not have been acquired by other means.  =SAJ=

The Best Ideas

Not all powerful ideas are of the dangerous sort, of course.  Civilization has advanced dramatically since the Stone Age, and this advance has been the cumulative product of ideas, some of which must have been pretty good (i.e., positively productive).  Indeed, discussing all good ideas since our ancestors first learned to control fire would be far beyond the scope of a single web page.  However, let us briefly consider a few great ideas which have advanced civilization to an extraordinary degree.

Abolition of slavery:  For thousands of years, slavery (or similar institutions, such as manorialism) was the only way that civilization could avail itself of an affordable labor force to accomplish major projects.  The empires of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Spain, and Great Britain simply could not have existed without it.  With the advent of the Industrial Age, however, machines could take over the dangerous, backbreaking, and demeaning tasks for which forced labor had previously been indispensable.  The liberation of human beings formerly treated as property, to take possession of their own lives and to pursue their own goals and dreams, has indeed signified the liberation of our entire species from dependence upon an inhumane institution.

Democracy:  In the seventh century BCE, self-government of a very limited sort was attempted by the aristocracy of Athens.  Because it focused upon the preferences of the aristocracy to the exclusion of all else, however, it produced economic dislocation and social unrest among the rest of the populace.  To address such problems, administrators were chosen, and one of the most effective reforms was to extend democracy to all free adult male citizens.  As a result, Hellenic culture flourished for over two centuries, until, weakened by plague and factional squabbles, the world's first notable experiment with rule by the people was finally overpowered by the Macedonians.

General education:  The greatest benefits of civilization can be realized only when each citizen is educated to his or her optimum potential.  Literacy, numeracy, and logic are fundamental skills which no civilized person can be without.  Basic knowledge of science enables us to understand how the natural universe works, while geography and history give us an essential perspective of our own place, time, and direction within it.  Investment in general education is essential to the maintenance and progress of civilization; without adequate education, society gradually reverts to a primitive state incapable of maintaining the structure necessary to sustain a high living standard.

Humanism:  As a philosophy and ethical system, humanism embraces the ideas that human beings have inherent worth, that by virtue of their ability to think and reason they are accountable and responsible for the consequences of their own actions, and therefore that the practical rightness or wrongness of those actions can be judged on the basis of their overall benefit or detriment to humanity.  Humanistic thought is both the seed and the sustenance of government of, by, and for the people.

Logic:  Logic is a highly organized process of thought, which allows ideas to be compared and evaluated as either consistent or inconsistent, both with each other and with external evidence.  Logic is the basis of both scientific method and modern justice.  The ability and willingness to employ it has demonstrable effects upon our perception of reality, and consequently upon our quality of life, both as individuals and as a society.

Meritocracy:  During the formation of any civilization, it is typically the strongest and most cunning who lay claim to political power, and are thus able to pass control on to their heirs.  However, history has shown that heredity is not a reliable means of ensuring qualities of good leadership.  In the late sixth century BCE, Chinese philosopher K'ung Fu-Tzu (Confucius) proposed the idea of civil service examinations as a way of determining impartially whether a person had the knowledge and skills necessary to perform official duties.  The idea was so effective in terms of benefit to both people and government that it was widely adopted, not only in China itself, but in neighboring countries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.  The extent to which meritocracy was embraced or rejected by each society dramatically mirrors the historical advances and declines of its power and culture.

Scientific method:  During the European Renaissance, those who studied nature began to rely more heavily upon critical observation and logical reasoning as the most dependable way of discovering the workings of the universe.  They developed methodical systems of observation, experimentation, and logical deduction, which have accelerated the accumulation of reliable and useful knowledge far beyond any process known before.  In the past five centuries, scientific method has done more to enhance the physical quality of human life than all other innovations in the preceding millennia, and its ideas and techniques have been applied as well to the benefit of other fields, such as art, philosophy, and justice.

=SAJ=