I find it interesting that while our culture loves the idea of man ever bettering himself, of evolving to greater hights; the message that man has great potential which he is only just beginning to realise, very few people seem to be truely motivated by this idea.
Instead, by all appearances, the majority of people seem most content to be diverted from bordom by outside forces and thus bide their time in relative comfort and ignorance untill death.
Was this always so? Who is to say? For it seems only natural that we should hear of and have passed down to us the fruits of those who did not simply bide their time.
Today it seems that a mythical race called the 'Professionals' are expected to do all the great things, while everone else sits back and watches, never thinking they actually could be one of them.
If this idea of realising potential was truely a common value, then would not more people be ernestly seeking the improvement of themselves? Seeking to become more knowledgeable, more capable, more productive, more admirable?? It would seem that in many cases money and comfort are what is most sought after, not making the most of one's potential.
Perhaps this idea of man's potential is so apatizing because of a half realised feeling that we are not living up to it, or even as a way of comforting uneasiness with our intertia by saying 'but we have come so far already'.
I wonder if, when a person's world was smaller, when one didn't see himself as lost amongst the masses of people out there, it was perhaps just a little harder to put off one's own capbilities for another theoretical person out there to pick up the slack? I wonder if the very things which have brought about the idea of being a global society and thinking about mankind as a whole have allowed more individual worlds to be created.
Is the world big enough out there without you?
Or is the world so small that nothing matters more than dinner in 5 secconds so you don't miss the next program on the telly?
Where is the desire to learn? to create? to discover? to mature? to grow wise? to earn respect?
Where is the desire to experience? to LIVE!!!
(Disclaimer: I am no one to talk, indeed.
....perhaps more than some, but certainly much less than some. But it is a thought, and regretably it may turn out to be less unsettling than it should. Still..there it is.)
3 comments:
An interesting and complimentary theme in sci-fi is that man has the ability to seriously screw his world up with his innovations.
I think part of it has to do with the corporate nature of science and innovation right now. Such things can cost a lot of money, and the people who have it don't really want to risk it on something that's not going to pull a market share. Working in the medical industry, I see that there are all these experimental procedures and medications out there that could work wonders, but they can't get them for most patients because insurance won't cover any non-standard procedures, and *someone* has to cover them. A lot of times, if a doctor is really passionate about making progress in the area, he or she pays for it out of pocket.
And, of course, there's always just sheer laziness, lack of confidence, threat of failing, threat of non-acceptance, thought of other people having the idea previously....
Funny, though. When you read the story of the Tower of Babel, God mixes up the languages because He says that if man continued on the path they were on, they would be able to achieve just about anything. It's odd to think that we are living in a world that is rapidly counteracting the curse of Babel... one of the end signs, and also the strange thrill of being able to achieve things beyond the human race's wildest imaginations....
That is quite true - the idea that man can, and probably will, seriously mess up his world through his innovations. Sometimes I rather have the impression that the people who actually create and prodice those kind of things don't take time to read science-fiction....which is scary.
Even when people do value bettering themselves and whatnot, those values aren't always enough to counteract the short-term pleasure of laziness. It's human nature, seen in extreme form as addictions. You want to quit, but... And I think it's easier in today's world to fall into those traps, with less support and accountability from society.
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