Back in 1946 Einstein famously warned that the advent of the nuclear age “changed everything, save for our modes of thinking.” He also noted that “The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.”
But there’s another, far darker section of the first quote. The full quote reads: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
At the time, and for decades afterward, it was thought that “unparalleled catastrophe” referred to the possibility of future nuclear war(s). And that’s certainly true.
But Einstein was also referencing humanity’s “modes of thinking” and our overall incapacity to evolve and mature in meaningful and crucial ways. And it’s that latter, deadly incapacity I’d like to address in this essay.
Using Einstein’s statements as a jumping-off point, I’d say that humanity as a whole has one very basic, fundamental problem: our technological and scientific knowledge has far, far outstripped our social, psychological, and spiritual evolution. While our science and technology have certainly progressed rapidly, our “modes of thinking” and our hearts and souls apparently have not — at least, not much.
I’d go so far as to say that human beings as a whole are still incredibly primitive. We pride ourselves (arrogance!) on our “amazing progress,” yet can’t seem to solve even the most basic social and political problems. We constantly argue and fight amongst ourselves; judge, hate, and harass each other; and can’t even manage to see all people as equal and equally deserving of happiness, freedom, and prosperity.
In terms of being “civilized,” these are all incredibly basic, foundational issues — yet we can’t ever seem to reach a healthy, sane place and stay there (for long). Every time we start enacting/realizing “progressive” humanitarian ideals, some backwards, reactionary ideology, demagogue, or group arises to “turn back the clock” (prime example: Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement) and undo any social progress we’ve made.
As I’ve noted before, in real life it’s never the cliched “two steps forward, one step back,” it’s always two steps forward, 1.99999 back. So there’s some progress, true — a miniscule amount — but it’s not enough to save us from our worsening collective fate as unevolved “primitives.”
Of course, we have managed to avoid a vast thermonuclear holocaust — so far. Yet the thing that Einstein got totally right about our “modes of thinking” — more than even he imagined, perhaps — is the overarching, horrific end result he foresaw: an “unparalleled catastrophe.” And that insight/foretelling was uttered well before climate change and ecological havoc were even recognized as critical, ongoing — and catastrophic — issues.
What the hell happened to “human progress”?
Remember: In 1946 Nazism and fascism had just been defeated, and the West was about to enter it’s “golden age” of growth, prosperity, and social progress. The United Nations had just been created, and gradually we started to become more “civilized.” Yet now, almost 80 years later, the West is in profound decline and disarray, and fascism is again on the rise here and around the world. So … what the hell happened?
I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that the seeming “prosperity” and social progress of the late 20th century was an outlier, a total rarity. It was only made possible by our deranged “endless growth” model that sought to harness and exploit the earth and all its resources for maximum short-term profit, growth, and “comfort.”
But as our human population has skyrocketed, and our avid consumption of resources and goods has also skyrocketed, we’re now reaching the Earth’s limits — and breaching its physical and ecological “carrying capacity.” This means that our modern societies — and our extractive, exploitative economies — likely have already peaked, and now face a long downward spiral of contraction and collapse.
On some deep inner level, we all know this — and it scares the hell out of us, whether we admit it or not. Plus, our economies are now stagnating or in rapid decline as our global “resource base” shrinks, and the ultra-rich skim off and hoard more and more wealth — and leave less and less for the rest of us.
In my view, the combination of looming ecological and climatic catastrophe and our wildly unfair economic systems has led to fast-rising despair and anger — especially for our now-destroyed middle class — and this in turn is providing intense emotional accelerant for rising fascism and all its false (and deadly) promises of a “glorious” return to a supposedly wonderful past.
Sadly, our entire Western (and now global) growth model is hopelessly delusional and dangerous — and as social and economic collapse intensifies, it’s leading straight to a host of increasingly dangerous consequences as well. Prominent among these consequences is humanity’s escalating reversion to more primitive ways of thinking, feeling, and relating — including increased racism, bigotry, misogyny, class hatreds, ethnic hatred, sexism, and national and religious conflicts.
Wondrous “new age” predictions were hopelessly over-optimistic
What I’m getting at here is simple: All the sweet “new age” ideas about humanity growing up and creating a loving, wonderful “brave new world” have proven to be hopelessly over-optimistic.
Back in the 90s, I was enthralled by the “hundredth monkey” concept that basically said that humanity is on the cusp of an amazing spiritual and social breakthrough. It theorized that any day now we’d reach the magical tipping point where enough of us had “awakened” to trigger a vast, humanity-wide “awakening” — and suddenly, human life would shift in dramatic and positive new directions.
What I’ve observed over the past 30 years, though, is this: Not only is that mass awakening not happening, but humanity is moving fast in the opposite direction now. An additional factor in all this — and another possible “explanation” for current trends — is that as the light and love-in-action within humanity increased (as happened during the late 20th and early 21st centuries), it stimulated a strong counter-reaction in the primitive “forces of darkness,” and now propels a sharp rise in primitive fear-based emotions and separative beliefs focused on “us vs. them” and “me and mine vs. everyone else.”
Put differently: the raging, hateful forces of egotism, fear, and darkness are not giving up without a massive fight, and will certainly not recede into the background quietly (and again, Trump, MAGA, and extremist Republicans provide a perfect example). Rather, they are fighting back hard — and very aggressively — against democracy and all things “progressive.”
A potent spiritual teaching: This is the realm of conflict
This brings me to a powerful spiritual teaching I heard years ago (and I vividly remember the teaching itself, but not the teacher’s name!). This teacher said that our sweet, loving ideas about peace on earth and creating a glorious, heavenly civilization among humans were pure folly, and were both impossible and utterly misleading. According to him, this earthly existence of ours is neither peaceful nor meant to be peaceful; instead, this is the realm of perpetual conflict — frequent, ongoing, repetitive conflict. Eternally and always.
According to him, this is (despite our aversion reaction) as it should be: first, because this is what is, and can’t be changed much — if at all; and second, because we humans need all this conflict and pain in order to grow and evolve. But here’s the crucial distinction from the “hundredth monkey” theory: he was talking about individuals growing and evolving, not humanity as a whole, or human civilization as a whole.
No, according to him, humanity and human civilization will always be mired in frequent disputes, disagreements, ethnic and racial hatreds, and overt conflict of every type and description.
In other words: humanity is deeply and fundamentally primitive, and will as a whole always be deeply primitive. The only possible “salvation,” therefore, lies in individual growth, awakening, and transformation. All else is a total illusion.
Conflicts, priorities, and “choosing our battles”
Now, I’m not saying that this jolting teaching is “gospel truth,” or any such thing. Yet it makes a lot of sense to me, and I keep wondering: If it’s really accurate, and humanity-wide evolution and transformation is not in the cards … then where does this leave us, as we try to understand and “deal with” these crazy times we’re living through?
On the one hand, I’d say that we progressives need to think long and hard about our beliefs and our priorities, and remember just how hard and unlikely massive change and transformation is in humanity as a whole.
We need to be satisfied with societal “baby steps” — since that’s all we’re ever likely to achieve. And I’d say we also need to focus more on individual growth and evolution, and stop placing our entire focus on social and political change.
But on the other hand … fascism and oppression are never conducive to either individual OR societal well-being, so even if we really do live in a realm of perpetual conflict — we can still choose which conflicts we wish to ignore, which we want to engage with, and which issues are truly worth fighting for.
We can “choose our battles” (hopefully wisely!) — and to me, the battle to preserve freedom and democracy is a worthy battle. Fascism and exploding hatred are far too dangerous and destructive to allow them to grow unchecked — since by their very nature they push us even deeper into our most fearful, primitive mental/emotional states.
Since we humans tend toward “primitiveness” to begin with, we need all the help we can get to move past our inherent backward or antisocial tendencies. That’s why the fight against fascism and ethnic and racial hatreds is so crucial — not because we can ever fully “conquer” our primitive tendencies for good, but precisely because … we can’t.
That’s why, as we’ve all heard, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” But we always gloss over what this really means. We gloss over the daunting truth of this statement: Preserving freedom requires eternal … endless … constant vigilance. It demands unflagging awareness, patience, and commitment.
The struggle for freedom, justice, and human evolution … continues. And keeps continuing … on and on. And on.
Forever.
P.S. And oddly enough … that’s OK. It’s just “what is.” And there’s some peace in that realization.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com
