A Study of Human Culture
The history of human beings has quite a few triumphs. I’ll begin with one of the first great civilizations: ancient Greece. With a well-developed democratic system and an intellectual tradition, the Grecians had a fairly model culture, a fine example of the capabilities of human beings. Unfortunately, they didn’t last forever. But another shining example of human prowess can be found around the 1400s with the Renaissance, a rebirth of the artistic ideals of ancient Greece. With the Renaissance came a lust for life, a worldly secularist view of the world, which was now to be relished and savored rather than spent in prayer and penance.
In the 1500s a revolutionary idea changed the face of religion. This idea cultivated, by one of the world’s greatest rulers in all of history, was one of religious tolerance. In the midst of turmoil, Elizabeth R. kept both Catholics and Protestants peacefully together, promoted the arts, and made great advancements in women’s rights, all before the 17th century. Under her reign, many artists flourished, including the most famous playwright in all of English literature – William Shakespeare.
Not long after the Virgin Queen’s death, a new revolution was in full swing. This time, scholars examined everything around them with a critical, scientific eye, and began to question their accepted methods of looking at the world. But as the Scientific Revolution brought a new way of thinking to the physical world in the 1600s, the Age of Enlightenment definitely gave philosophers something to think about in the 1700s. They began to apply reason to all other areas of life, and some, like Voltaire, made some enemies with their sharp wit and biting criticism of intolerance and prejudice. The Age of Reason also provoked several revolutionary movements, including the United States.
Even in the past century, we too have had our share of victories. Way back on a hot day in July of 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, a fiery defense lawyer named Clarence Darrow fought to allow the instruction of evolution in schools. After the horrors of a second world war, 50 countries gathered together as a global community to create United Nations, a noble effort to create peace. And when efforts to preserve peace failed, the 1960s unleashed a riot of new thinking, emphasizing peace and love instead of the violence and devastation of war. Yes, even the past 100 years is not without successes. But the road back has been fraught with pitfalls in human culture, and cycles of destructive societal behavior.
I’ll start with the first organized and brutal example of religious intolerance. The Crusades lasted for several hundred years, starting around the end of the 1000s and lasting until the late 1200s. Religious persecution continued during the Inquisition, which was run by the Catholic Church and lasted from the 1200s into the early 1800s, killing thousands and millions of “heretics” for their religious “crimes”, many of who were brilliant scholars and artists.
But another form of control had been used for centuries before either the Crusades or the Inquisition. Slavery was considered great cheap labor, and the use of Africans as slaves, especially in the newly discovered Americas, developed into a sophisticated trading system, which began in the 15th century and lasted until the 1800s, when the trade was finally abolished. Slavery still remained legal for a while afterwards. But it was not the only way to exert European control: the Age of Exploration brought with it a surge of colonial imperialism, which made slaves of entire cultures, and has yet to be abolished.
Also in the 1800s, a technological wave called the Industrial Revolution brought with it modernized and efficient methods of producing goods. But with industrialization came pollution and the destruction of natural resources, as well as the environment, a thoughtless mistake that we still battle today.
But even in the last century we are not free from these patterns of cruelty to others. At least twice in the last hundred years a policy of genocide has been used in an attempt to exterminate an entire population — once was the Armenian genocide, second was the Holocaust. Acts of organized violence have become fewer, but racism is still a contagious epidemic that threatens us as a global society, much like AIDS. Unfortunately, the AIDS epidemic can never be annihilated while ignorance, societal limits, and prejudice prevent free and open discussion and prevention.
Prejudice and discrimination are the issues behind the prohibition of homosexual marriage and racial profiling, but the central issue is one of control and power. After over 100 years of national imperialism, the philosophy has filtered down to individuals, though still present in foreign policy today. America’s recent war with Iraq was little more than a remnant of imperialism; in order to gain control of raw materials, U.S. troops killed thousands, soldiers and civilians alike.
As a race, humans fall into the same mindsets, year after year, century after century. Discrimination and imperialism lead to the enslavement of millions, and the situation is worse now that prejudice is less open. Ignorance and societal restrictions prevent open, intellectual discussion of important issues: death and destruction always result. Thoughtlessness and self-interest have already destroyed half of our planet – what will be left for the next generation?
As a global society, the human race will not survive many more years unless changes are made, and many tremendous changes are vitally necessary. People of all races, religions, sexes, and all walks of life need to be able to come together in a peaceful and tolerant atmosphere to talk openly about important issues. Diversity should be celebrated, not persecuted. Freedom and equality are desperately needed, and intellectuals and artists must be encouraged, for they are the future of our people. These are not easy goals to be accomplished; they involve creating a new mindset, a new kind of thinking. But there cannot be a better time to try to improve – our global society is sliding ever faster toward an unimaginable death day. Now is the time to get involved and protect our worldwide community from its disastrous fate. Thos who are able have a moral obligation to fight for the rights of those who have no voice. It is our responsibility to stand up for our fellow creatures, our fellow Earth citizens. For we can never be free while they are enslaved.
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