The Regression of Western Society

We live in interesting times.  Western society boasts some of the greatest advances in human history.  We pride ourselves on these advances and call ourselves progressive.  The great majority of people live in comfort almost 100% of the time while chasing endless amount of pleasurable activities.  

While many of the advances we see in today's world are beneficial.  It would seem that they have created a variety of problems that most "experts" believe we have never seem before in human evolution.  The interesting thing about human evolution is that if you really dig deep and research it, you will uncover that most things are in fact not new.  They are cyclical.  What we are experiencing in western society has already occurred, just in a different form.

Don't believe me?  Let me paint you a picture.

Let's go back to 3rd century Europe.  During this age the population of the world was much less and people tended to live in small tribes close to geographical areas that provided the necessities for them to survive.  Since there was no such thing as Globalism, each tribe or group of people developed their own culture, traditions and beliefs to explain their world and give meaning to their lives.  Each group also developed their own origin stories that included their creators or Gods.  Examples of these different belief systems included the Germanic Gods, Celtic Gods, Roman Gods and Greek Gods.  People worshiped their Gods and were intolerant of the Gods of other cultures.

When different tribes of people with different Gods and belief systems came in contact with one another it usually led to blood shed and war.  The proverbial "If you don't believe what I believes then I'm going to kill you for it."

See any parallels with this when compared to modern society?

In today's western society we have traded the Gods of old with the religions of Isms.  Racism, Sexism, Classism, Communism, Liberalism, Conservatism and Environmentalism are some of the new Gods.  People worship at the foot of them like the ancient Greeks did with Zeus.  People now base their belief and value systems on these Isms and are willing fight others because "you don't believe what I believe so now we are enemies." Based upon past experiences the next step is outright war based upon the religion of Isms. 

It doesn't sound like we've progressed very far.

We've reached the pinnacle of human existence, yet we're still making the same mistakes as people who lived 1500 years ago.  In all our infinite wisdom and advances, we couldn't see this coming?  Current generations pride themselves on being wiser than previous generations, yet we seem to be stuck in the same cycle, just calling it something different.  I don't see any of this as progressive.  Instead it is the opposite.  

Great minds in the past worked diligently to uncover the great mysteries of the world.  They ventured out on great excursions and adventures.  They wrote great works and explored the depths of the human psyche.  They attempted to answer great questions.  All we can do is sit around and bitch at each other about the type of genitalia the other person has?  This is what we've been reduced to?  The most superficial, surface level society on the planet?  This is the best we can do now?  

Historically, what finally ended most of the fighting was when Christianity conquered the western world.  Now I'm not advocating on behalf of organized religion, only the foundation with which it was built.  What Christianity did was unify (unwillingly most of the time, but I digress) the belief systems of all the tribes.  It provided a platform where people's values were aligned and they recognized that their human experience wasn't so different from everyone else's. 

These same principles can be adopted in today's society.  If people just took a moment to see past their Isms, they would realize that we are much more similar than we are different.  To truly become progressive we first need to understand this principle.  We need to stop this superficiality that in no way enhances the human experience.  If we can't, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors.

Historically speaking, human beings have been at war more than we have been at peace.  I fear that even though we consider ourselves to be progressive, we are in fact doomed to repeat the same pattern in the name of Isms.