Do western civilization weaken us?
I put down some thoughts I have about the society and world we life theses days. Hope the grammar is not too bad. I also did not touch the migrant invasion topic direct even its an issue that's based on the situation we face in our societies today.
Do western civilization weaken us?
Even before the migrant invasion of Europe I was thinking about the struggles we face these days in our western societies. Some say we get weak and decadent and I don’t see a lot to deny that. I don’t want to jump on the train of cultural pessimism. I see it more as a development of our society that went too far and lead to disconnection with your selves. Most of you know the movie fight club, where they talk about a generation without purpose.
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Gender Mainstream, so called equal rights, liquid genders, anti male feminism and now a cultural invasion. Where do we men stand? Be little drones that get a job to pay taxes for the system. A system that use those taxes to work against us? What is our part in these days? To whom we can give our loyalty, our masculinity? Even more, what’s masculinity these days? A society that try to castrate everything that is seen manly? That abuse us to be work slaves? To women that give us the feeling they don’t need us, or if so just for their entertainment? A new pair of shoes that can put back in the cabinet when no longer needed? What’s with the brotherhood of men? How many of you are lone wolves that feel they miss something in life? A deeper purpose? You lost your connection to this kind of reality we face today. Because deep inside you feel, it’s not “real”.
I’m a reader of Robert E. Howards Conan. Conan is a brute barbarian and deals with civilization. Howards believe that what we call civilization is a mask that we use to hide the “real” world. If order is destroyed, what’s left of us? It’s the age of strife and we lost our souls. Our brain, our body is not made for our modern life, for all this technology. How many people fell the disconnection? That there is something wrong? Our genetics did not keep track with the technological evolution. Humans live in gangs, tribes. They are individuals but also social beings. To survive we had to stand together. A gang, a tribe, a group. Everyone had a task for the benefit of the group. The goal was to survive, deal with other gangs and fight those ore trade. Later those gangs get shaped into tribes or even more kingdoms. Later into nations. And now the next goal is the global universal human being? Are we just a giant ant colony? The organization to higher societies did lead to an improvement but it was still slow. Even inside a kingdom most people did stick to their local community. Get their reputation and their duties from this local level. The big change came with the first industrial revolution. Before that life was hard for most and did not change much. You had be bound mostly to your local community. After the industrialization nations did rise in a never known speed before. They got hungry for more and more resources. International trade and colonialism did grew. Still live was hard for most.
Since the 1950s the western world did manage it to raise the standards of many. Capitalism spread all over the world and today even the poorest people live longer and can afford more. But what does it mean to western societies? Before that everyone had a task, also most people tried to make a living and improve the standard of living. Start a family, survive and maybe improve the social status. That was the main goal but it did change. Our generation did grow up in a world of abundance. For young people there is no struggle of survive, there is no more wealth they can gain. They lack nothing. But they also have no more goal. No more purpose. Economist elites talk a lot about that the economy has to grow. It’s their main goal but even if so, a lot of the wealth don’t reach the people any more.
We face times of changes. There is no purpose for any longer. No fights and social status to gain in small groups or tribes. We are wheels of a big machine. Unlike the past where we had the promise to gain something from the wealth and improve by social status, today there is nothing like this. What do we gain? A better job, more money. Always more. But must people feel empty because they lack nothing. Their emotional and spiritual live do not improve. All the stuff that we can consume is an illusion to the emptiness in our souls. We reach a point in mankind where we actual have not to fight anymore, no more hard labor for most of us. Still we feel like trapped in a big machine that offers nothing for us. Everything become relative. People turn away from the state, they go back to the historical state where they found groups and that give them a meaning. They fight for justice and equality. They have raging anger against the system that did gave them freedom and wealth but never did feed their souls.
People want to feel something and this is why they turn mad and feel offended by everything. They have concerns, worries and many other trivial stuff. But at least it let feel them something. Women do not depend on men anymore and men have no longer a call of duty. Get a decent job, start a family, try to improve the standard of living. This all seems more far away than ever. Still this is what most people aim for. Why did it get so hard? With all the wealth and personal freedom we have today, that no generation before us had?
Is it the lack of struggle that steal our purpose? Get we driven away by arbitrariness. We are have no longer a connection to our group, our tribe or even our nation. We did become consuming individuals whose only goal is to satisfy the needs that advertise create inside us. No words of honor, no tribe members that check our actions to keep the frame. The social norms are erasing. When there is no more check for antisocial behavior because we are all disconnected individuals we lost something. We feel it today that the word of a man becomes worthless, even more his action is needless. His only goal is to be a work slave for global companies. The value of a women get lost by complete freedom. Even more the mentality to try everything. Women now should give up their meaning by become work slaves like men, career women is the ultimate goal and till then have as much fun as you can. Men turn into video games and isolate more and more.
The more we are isolated, the less local boundaries and traditions we have. The more we are like a falling leave and not the roots of the tree. Little puppets that can be replaced and move around. No local community that care for us anymore. Just hunt the dream that you can make it when you just give everything to the corporations and the advertisement.
We did not gain freedom, we get lost at some point. If everything is possible nothing is from value anymore. Social boundaries become useless when they are seen as consuming products that fit now into our life. Later we get rid of them when our situation change. Where is the moment where we feel our actions matter? Where we matter, where we can contribute something and get back the feeling of the collective group we care about? Our society is in a deep crisis. It’s a spiritual crisis because the old ideas of economic grow, more personal freedom and everything is possible do not longer work.
It’s up to us to gain back the control over our lives. Bring back values we care for. That give us old and boundaries. Live in communities where we are integrated and get respect. But how do we manage that? What steps we have to take?
For us, these conflicts can be resolved by appeal to the deeply ingrained higher principle embodied in the law, that individuals have the right (within defined limits) to choose how to live. But this Western notion of individualism and tolerance is by no means a conception in all cultures. - Theodore Dalrymple
(This post was last modified: 03-24-2016 09:26 AM by Parzival.)
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