I believe in civilization. More specifically, I believe in the power of human beings, organized together along ideological lines and agreeing to a social compact with one another for the betterment of all. More simply, I believe in the gathering of folks to make each person’s life better because of that gathering. Call it community if you prefer, but that word never seemed large enough for me.
Civilization brings us everything we hold dear--science, culture, craft, exploration, education. Human beings do not need to struggle alone with civilization. In fact, compared to other animals, we are woefully underprepared to survive in a world red with tooth and claw. Only in banding together, in developing a civilization, can we hope to thrive.
Civilization advances. That is a hallmark of the idea--it grows, it learns, it becomes more than what it was. We usually think of this in terms of scientific advancements (a term so common as to become trite--can you think of a scientific regression?) and technological achievements, and those are indeed one form of progress. But civilization also advances socially and morally. We develop new and better ways to treat one another, new and better ways to think about the human condition. We look back on an earlier ethos and decide it is no longer valid--or indeed, it never was valid. Slavery, for example. Yes, civilization practiced slavery for countless thousands of years, but we advanced. We are on the verge of eliminating it from the face of the earth entirely. We have faith that in civilization, we will move ever forward. To paraphrase Theodore Parker (who was himself paraphrased by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.): “the arc of civilization is long, but it bends towards justice.” There is no justice in nature, or in barbarism, or savagery. Justice is a term wholly born of and nurtured by civilization.
American education, for all its faults, is an endeavor of civilization that should be praised in the same breath as the scientific revolution, and the Enlightenment. We have, however imperfectly, set out to educate each and every person in the nation to a level that just a century ago would have been unthinkable, and which a millenia ago was impossible. Even the meanest American public school sixth-grader knows more about mathematics, weather, science, history, language or any other subject than what we would have called a highly educated person from five hundred years ago in Europe. Just the idea--to educate each and every person in the nation--is such a grand one that we can hardly state how unusual it is. In history, this has never been done. It has never even been attempted in many parts of the world. But as civilization advances, so does education. When we think of a civilized nation, we think of its educational system.
I believe in civilization. I believe in the collective power of humanity to uplift each individual. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and in turn, we hoist others to stand on our shoulders to reach the stars.
Be seeing you!
Civilization brings us everything we hold dear--science, culture, craft, exploration, education. Human beings do not need to struggle alone with civilization. In fact, compared to other animals, we are woefully underprepared to survive in a world red with tooth and claw. Only in banding together, in developing a civilization, can we hope to thrive.
Civilization advances. That is a hallmark of the idea--it grows, it learns, it becomes more than what it was. We usually think of this in terms of scientific advancements (a term so common as to become trite--can you think of a scientific regression?) and technological achievements, and those are indeed one form of progress. But civilization also advances socially and morally. We develop new and better ways to treat one another, new and better ways to think about the human condition. We look back on an earlier ethos and decide it is no longer valid--or indeed, it never was valid. Slavery, for example. Yes, civilization practiced slavery for countless thousands of years, but we advanced. We are on the verge of eliminating it from the face of the earth entirely. We have faith that in civilization, we will move ever forward. To paraphrase Theodore Parker (who was himself paraphrased by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.): “the arc of civilization is long, but it bends towards justice.” There is no justice in nature, or in barbarism, or savagery. Justice is a term wholly born of and nurtured by civilization.
American education, for all its faults, is an endeavor of civilization that should be praised in the same breath as the scientific revolution, and the Enlightenment. We have, however imperfectly, set out to educate each and every person in the nation to a level that just a century ago would have been unthinkable, and which a millenia ago was impossible. Even the meanest American public school sixth-grader knows more about mathematics, weather, science, history, language or any other subject than what we would have called a highly educated person from five hundred years ago in Europe. Just the idea--to educate each and every person in the nation--is such a grand one that we can hardly state how unusual it is. In history, this has never been done. It has never even been attempted in many parts of the world. But as civilization advances, so does education. When we think of a civilized nation, we think of its educational system.
I believe in civilization. I believe in the collective power of humanity to uplift each individual. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and in turn, we hoist others to stand on our shoulders to reach the stars.
Be seeing you!
RSS Feed