The human intellect is what makes our species the most powerful on Earth, and it is what will allow the human race to continue being the dominant species here on our little planet.
Valid, but surely our own intellect has indirectly caused the end of us all? global warming will make the world rise by up to 5 degrees over the next century, due to the recent discovery of the permafrost releasing methane in to the lakes. If the ice melts, mroe methane is present, and so the Earth warms faster. Therefore, our intellect and actions over development in this past century has meant that we have a severe struggle ahead.
This is not a bad thing; our condition in life has indeed improved, but we should not sit satisfied with the problems we have, complaining about how we've become slaves to intellect and looking back at the simpler past where we were "more immune" or "capable of physical defence," when we should be worried about the economy.
The depends upon perspective and values. Humans have the psychological tenedency to quantify everything, in an essence of greed. If we didn't have this quantification aspect to our mind, I admit, we wouldn't be where we are today, but if we do have this quantification, there are bound to be people with a pessimistic view, so a few years of hardship comes around and does us good in the long term.
All humans should be trying to do what we can for the human race and for planet Earth.
Exactly, but we should have unilaterla effort, instead of competing for business due to our greed for shiny pieces of metal.
I sometimes wonder what idealistic past people look into. What was so good about the past?
The discovery of fire? Dynamite used for mining? A civilised way of life that no other terrestrial being has EVER accomplished? Healthcare? The increase in life expectasncy? Cures for disease?
The mass-killings in the Colosseum, a viciously anti-human form of "entertainment"? They were primarily criminals, as that was one of the aspects of punishment. Plus, you have to say that a fighting stance was the joy of the Roman Empire, so it filtered in to culture.
The world of the Middle Ages, in which the Catholic Church repressed the advance of science and knowledge, whilst arresting and killing people as they saw fit? At that stage, people were scared of such revelations. The Bible was just trying to give a quantity to the beginnigns and workings of the universe, and it was well established. Therefore, people reacted in a strong way, for a survival instinct.
The inefficient open field system used during feudal times? The system may have been innefficient, but the open field system was the start of the development of the agricultural system we have today.
Having your social class defined by the clothes you wear, and the punishing of those who wear different clothes? This isn't limited to an archaic way f life, it still happens, as people like being in groups of people, it makes them feel strong. This is why the class divide has never gone away.
Meat and salt, among other things, reserved as a luxury for the rich? The fudal system was there and in place, so they just went on with it
The ancient medicines of inefficient herbs and leeching?Again, as with the Bible, it was an area that they wanted to quantify, yet we joke at how archaic it is. Even so, some of the rbs were correct, and most modern medicined are developed from organic chemicals in the Amazon.
The lower life expectancy? They were less developed than us, as we have a thiudand years of wisdom from their experiences, so that's just something that they lived with
The slave trade? Torture? Admittedly, two of the few things that western society isn't proud of, and things have moved on to rectify that.
And there are countless other awful things that are long gone. Julius Caesar might not have cleaned his teeth, but he lived in a world where 30 was fairly old, where people laughed at the murder of people in the Colosseum as entertainment and where the people were ruled over by a single, autocratic emperor. No worse than the situation we had 90 years ago. In times of need and disorder, people look towards a dictator. Lenin is the prime example. People were unhappy with the current government, and so followed who they thought were reasonable. Also remember, Hitler, for all his ideals, was elected as an alternative to the Weimar Republic, despite his anti semitic views., so people went along with it.
The world we live in today gives us untold luxuries, a far more fair government and long lives, lives in which we should be contemplating how to improve the world.
Say that to the Chinese, or Sri Lanka, or most African nations. the ideals haven't gone away, merely changed and developed. THe ideals of Fascism and cOmmunism are still around in extreme cases, and the West is living in a crippled Capitalist society, so the ideals resonate.
People shouldn't be looking back at a simpler, stupider past and, through the power of rose-tinted spectacles, deciding that it was much better.
We should be looking back, because otherwise we will fall in to a cycle that has repeated for millenia. Democracy may not be great, but it's the best thing we have.
This is the world we live in today. Let's try and build on it, improve on it, not sit around wishing that toothpaste didn't exist.
Agreed, but ignoring the past is the path to failure, so, despite the irrelevancy of toothpaste, the past still has lessons for us.