On Civilization

If you are like most everyone else, you don’t think much about civilization. You may know Arnold Toynbee said, “Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.” Understanding civilization and society as equivalent concepts, “Society is a made-up formula of what we are supposed to be, kept alive by those who believe in it…,” according to Christina Gerogiannis.

It may not be quite as malignant as B. F. Skinner suggested, “Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless,” or as detestable as Edgar Saltus suggested, “The progress of civilization corresponds with the spread of general nausea.” Nonetheless, H. G. Wells had a point, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

Alan Jay Lerner wrote, “They civilize what's pretty, by puttin' up a city, where nothin' that's pretty can grow …. They civilize left, they civilize right, till nothing is left, till nothing is right.”

And Alfred Tennyson wrote, ““I stood on a tower in the wet, and New Year and Old Year met, and winds were roaring and blowing: and I said, ‘O years, that meet in tears, have ye aught that is worth the knowing? Science enough and exploring, wanderers coming and going, matter enough for deploring, but aught that is worth the knowing?’”

Let one more observation suffice for today, “Evolution made civilization steward of this planet. A hundred thousand years later, the steward stood before evolution not helper but destroyer, not healer but parasite. So evolution withdrew its gift, passed civilization by, rescued the planet from intelligence and handed it to love.” (Richard Bach)