Advancement

I wonder what it will take for us, the human race, to stop being such whiney babies and get our collective crap together. I think it might actually take an Alien invasion. Even then we’d probably try to convert the alien’s to Christianity or Islam or Scientologists and then make them choose sides. Or get their thoughts on gun control. I have a hard time imagining intergalactic gun toting Christians. (Although I’m sure Arthur C. Clarke would be overjoyed at the concept.)

I just don’t know what the galvanizing event will be that will help lead humans out of this current Dark Age and into a new Renaissance. I say it is a Dark Age because of the wild amount of ignorance rampant all over this planet. It’s not an intellectual ignorance so much as it is deafness to possibilities. Perhaps even an emotional ignorance in play. There are a lot of very smart people out there, but they don’t seem capable of reaching the right ears or hearts. It seems that in some parts of the world intelligence is frowned upon and ignorance is rewarded. Religious beliefs or strict adherence to dogmatic principals are used as excuses to oppress people instead light their minds with curiosity and compassion. The question askers are silenced or sullied.

I’m not sure what to blame for this Dark Age. Is it poverty, a failure of the education system; is it a lack of clean water, Hollywood? At what point did we lose our grip on the realities of life and decide it would be easier to shoot first and ask questions later. I just don’t believe as a civil and intelligent society we can make any advancement while teenagers shoot each other in the street over temporary things like money or territory. It really makes me miss Gandhi.

I suppose I watched way too much Star Trek. I really believe that we have great potential as a people to advance as far and as wide as we want, as long as we stow our petty bickering and ridiculous justifications for violence against each other.  I don’t have all the answers though. I barely know where to start. I keep thinking that an exterior source will force the human race to get along and work toward a common goal. That may be a bit of wishful thinking. It’s likely up to us to make this a world we can be proud of, so when the aliens do come we can show them a thing or two about what it means to be human.

This piece has been forged out of the strangeness of humanity. We are a race capable of the most compassionate treatment and the greatest cruelties to each other. We can justifiably shoot a teenager in Florida (allegedly) while simultaneously wag our finger at an African warlord for recruiting children to fight in a war.

I hope we soon find that one thing that everyone can get behind. Something that lets us leave our superstitions and fears behind and embrace a new era of compassion and open mindedness we know we are capable of. Only then will we truly advance and enter the new Renaissance.