Is this culture the best we can do simply because it’s all we’ve ever known?
We’re six millennia into the culture of Abrahamic religions. We’re more than two millennia into western civilization and the six questions of Socrates. Every person reading these words is a product of an industrial civilization that depends upon expansive use of fossil fuels.
Is this the only way to live? Is this the best way to live? Do our hyper-connected, high-tech lives lead us along paths of excellence, in the spirit of Socrates?
This culture is steeped in patriarchy and depends upon violence for its continuation. Is it safe to assume this culture is the ultimate expression of our humanity? Is it safe to assume that this culture is the best we can do simply because this culture is the only one we have known? Is it safe to assume there is no other way beyond the hierarchical omnicide we’ve come to depend upon for money, water, food, and personal identity?
Questioning this culture and its underlying assumptions follows the model promoted and popularized by Socrates. Answering these questions requires one to step outside the normalcy bias and profound enculturation of the way we live. Asking challenging questions, much less answering them, requires enormous courage when the questions themselves refuse to validate, much less approve, this irredeemably corrupt system.
I do not claim to know the answers to these questions. I’m not certain they have answers independent of the person pondering them and his or her personal experiences. I nonetheless believe it is important to ask the questions and develop personal responses to them. As a result, I will tackle these and related questions with a series of forthcoming articles in this space.
–Photo: “Beautiful Pollution” by hometowninvasion/Flickr
Good one. Looking forward to the series, thanks.
Great line of thinking, Guy. Tugging at the strings of what binds the human condition to today’s ugly realities is not so much technical or financial as it is social. There’s a lot we have yet to discuss about how to live in this world without tanking it. The longer individuals ignore their elephants (carbon waste and energy footprints), the riskier becomes the future, currently dicey at best.