Progress and Responsibility: A Meditative Commentary - Essay Example

Progress and Responsibility: A Meditative Commentary “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Aldous Huxley (Huxley 112) The development of technology is determinative. On the one hand humanity struggles for progress and always moves towards something new and better. On the other hand in this often blind pursuit for comfort and stability civilization seems to lose its direction. For many thinking individuals it may seem that the direction of the modern technological progress is no longer in the hands of people. Instead of people deciding how to use technological process it is technology that decides what people will do. Some may say that this statement is way too critical or maybe even too radical to be true. Most probably with some time humanity will feel the pressure of responsibility connected to the massive expansion of highly technological systems and gadgets. Look around yourself. We are surrounded by all kinds of technological tools at any place at any time. Our ability to control them is obvious yet we got used to them so seriously that we no longer have the ability or chance to exist without them. It can be applied to even most simple light bulb, television or telephone. Without electricity our desire to watch football match will be unfulfilled. Without electricity we can’t call a doctor or police if necessary. Cars? In the modern world the pace of life is so quick that we must be in places at exact times so we can do our work to prolong our existence. And any even the most insignificant technological aspect of the progress pushes us further and further from nature. You may see me as a dreamer or even as a romantic but I admire ideas of Jean Jacques Rosseau and Erich Fromm. Being really important social critics and humanists they both saw nature as the most precious thing. The more progress we have the more unnatural becomes our life. We provide lessefforts and start to live in an illusion of activity instead of living with a real connection to the natural environment (Fromm 72). Look again at what you ignore everyday. Holes in the ozone layer, huge changes in climate and global warming. Extinctions of rainforests. Can we control it? No. What do we do to stop these things from spreading? Nothing. Do we as civilized individuals even think about our place in nature and on this planet? Unfortunately, no. How can we talk about control when the most significant damage done by industrial and technological progress to the nature is totally out of our control. We can only control channels on TV or decide which IPhone to buy. People play videogames, try to invent virtual reality, try cloning while on the other side we have Ebola, Fukushima, Chernobyl and a lot of endangered species. Remember Cuban Missile Crisis or Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are all the consequences of progress. Progress also brought chemical weapon which is widely used in the Middle East almost in every large conflict. Technology is a tool. How this tool is used depends totally on the one who uses it. It is impossible to blame progress itself because progress is just a process. People think they can handle this process. It is in the nature of a man to look for the shortcuts and easy ways. Why walk when you can drive? Why swim when you can fly? Why try to cure Africa when you can build another rocket either for space exploration or military purposes? Our conscience became corrupted. We continue to move forward not because it is crucial for us but because of the momentum. We move only to feel the changes because people simply just can’t live without active changes be they good or bad. 20th century is a great example that maybe it is better do not to do anything than try to something just to do it? The history of mankind and its ethical responsibility towards the planet Earth and duty of each person towards the other one should all be reconsidered. I state that progress as it is now will only crush humankind. Take Facebook or the Internet in general. Add basic human laziness and inactivity of youth. Get videogames addiction and maniacal chatting. Get the absence of real human face to face and eye to eye contact. No feelings and no real communication can be maintained only through the technological devices. Social media are great as they help people all around the world to connect with their relatives and friends. That is beautiful. But deeply in the human nature there is an inherent disposition towards immoderation. We can’t moderate our desire to live comfortably. Everything is not enough for us while at the same time in Africa half of every 10 people don’t even have the access to the clean drinking water and at least one of them is having AIDS. What progress is that? Our technology disconnected us from our basic moral and humane principles. How can we continue to occupy this world and torture mother-nature without meditating about the future of our children? What future awaits our grandchildren? Future with lack of resources? Can you at least imagine for a little bit what will the war for resources look like? Such things don’t bother us now as we have everything. There are so many people that have so much and so many that have nothing. The most incredible thing is that both these kinds of people don’t look happy. To make science, technology and progress work for us we at first must become people of higher moral and ethical principles. How can you blame a killer for killing someone when you gave him a gun? Civilization looks more and more like an ape with a gun. All philosophy, psychology, history don’t teach us anything. It seems that inequality, hatred, unhappiness and complexity of material objects are our curse. We destroy ourselves and we do it so quickly that we don’t even notice it. As Hegel said what we learn from history is that we do not learn anything from history (Hegel 156). Before using a tool we must be sure of ourselves that we are able to use it with intelligence and for the benefit of humanity. We can’t just use it for the amusing of using it and we surely can’t gave technology the right to decide what is wrong and what is right. We can’t depend on technology too much because we always will be responsible. We and not technology or progress. If people can’t handle the responsibility then all technology is nothing but a dangerous weapon in the hands of an immature infant. The roots of problem are psychological as any problem (as well as anything else at all) comes from inside the mind of a man. Unfortunately even the best ideas (Newton, Edison, Einstein, Ford, Tesla etc. were all real humanists) have the tendency to be corrupted by the massive consumption of these ideas. To deal with progress people should at first deal with their attitude towards the progress. As for today I’d say that their attitude shows itself in the motto “bring me progress for the progress”. Works Cited Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956. Print Hegel, G. W. F. Introduction to the Philosophy of History: With the Selections from the Philosophy of Right. Boston: Hackett Publishing, 1988. Print Huxley, Aldous. Complete Essays: 1939-1956. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002. Print Read More