Is The Human Civilization Actually Developing

“Our greatest evils flow from ourselves”, these words of Rousseau remind us of one of the most important threats that we face all the time. It is the threat from our own selves. It is a threat that can arise from our own misconceptions about what is good for us and what is not.

Rousseau is not the only one cautioning us against the side effects of luxury on human psyche, capacity and character. In fact, one look at the industry of human fantasies, called Hollywood, will make you aware that a hero is always borne out of crisis and challenges. It is difficult to think of a movie where in the main protagonist lived a life of luxury and abundance without any problems from the beginning to the end of the movie. It is an irony that human beings strive for luxury and fantasize about adversity that would give them an opportunity to prove their worth.

Early Civilization & evolution of human values

When a civilization begins to take root, survival is the primary objective. At such primitive stages of social evolution, human values are primarily geared towards ensuring survival. In a tribe of humans, which is facing all kind of threats from all sides, there is very little scope for tolerating a person who cannot be trusted. A person whom other members of the tribe do not believe and trust will soon be abandoned, and without the social support and protection of the society, a human being is as good as a lame duck in the vast expanse of nature. Thus the human values of truthfulness, honesty, fairness, sacrifice and compassion – the basic tenets of morality, are essential for survival of the group, and any deviation from these values is unlikely to be tolerated by the group as a whole.

Once the civilization takes roots and expands, it grows both in size and complexity. It establishes means and methods of its security and its survival is not under the kind of threat as faced during the initial phases of civilization. As people are free to pursue higher learning, there is development of science and technology, as well as arts, with which the civilization is able to meet most of the challenges posed before it by nature.

As a civilization continues to grow further, individuals who are a part of it have greater resources to experiment and indulge in adventure. Security and safety combined with advances in science and medicine lead to population explosions. In time, with development of urban societies, there are just too many people around, and gradually it becomes a state where everyone is practically anonymous. This has important implications for social values. An anonymous individual in a sea of humanity is threatened not by nature but only by fellow human beings, with whom he is faced to compete on a constant basis for her survival. This struggle for survival leads to a premium for individualism. As everything becomes highly individualistic, arts and sciences provide luxury, which becomes a status symbol – a symbol of strength and importance in the society.