Does Technological Advancement Lead to Advancement of Human Civilization?

It's really no wonder that we consider ourselves evolved. What with the amazing technological advancements and the unprecedented material progress of Western civilization; how could one think otherwise?

But before the modern era, technological advancement was slow and new discoveries were rare. Cultures changed so slowly that it was barely noticeable. Without having witnessed any significant change or even being able to imagine how change might happen, people formed the impression that the world would remain more or less the same.

Rarely, when change did occur, especially if that change included advances in comfort, knowledge, beauty, or involved profit, people began to think civilization was was evolving. But is it really?

Take the use of radioactive materials in cosmetics that dates back to the 1920-30s.  It is a good example of the what can go wrong when any industry jumps on the bandwagon of a scientific advance too soon. Despite this, and other technological "advances" that proved detrimental to life, the role of science in industry exponentially increased. 

Zapped with radioactive dust that was supposed to have been 100% safe.



Moreover, during this same time period - the twentieth century - we murdered more human beings than during the nineteen centuries that led up to this age.  Could it be the more technologically advanced we become, the more deadly we become?

"We are close to dead. There are faces and bodies like gorged maggots on the dance floor, on the highway, in the city, in the stadium; they are a host of chemical machines who swallow the product of chemical factories, aspirin, preservatives, stimulant, relaxant, and breathe out their chemical wastes into a polluted air. The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again".- Norman Mailer

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Twin Archetype: Mythic Union of Opposites

Throughout the history of mythology, twins appear, representing polarity, duality or opposing principles, within what is essentially, a united structure: Good/evil, light/darkness, masculine/feminine, introvert/extrovert, etc. These dualities power the circulatory process so crucial to the eternal cycle of renewal and the cyclic nature of our universe, thus, always a center of spiritual force.

The 'horns' (bull) were a sacred symbol of the Minoan religion. It was this "corner of the Aegean that saw the rise, nearly 4,000 years ago, of the first high civilization of Europe, the prelude to the Homeric age and to the full noonday of classical Greece that was to follow". Like the sacred 'horns', the sacred 'towers', gave an asymmetrical appearance, as they were not actually side by side on the same axis, often portrayed as one appearing taller than the other.

Today, 4,000 years later, the bull is still sacred. He represents virile strength, massive power, stubbornness, and destruction. The ultimate "blessing" of our one true religion, capitalism, is the bull market; the twin towers (horns), emblematic of - amongst the numerous other meanings interwoven into it - our might and trade.

'Leaving the waters of the splendid East, the sun leapt up into the firmament to bring light to the immortals and to men who plough the earth and perish.' - Homer, Odyssey, Book III

He came back,
This time for me.
On the 110th floor I was so close to God
I could almost grab his beard.
Never before has heaven been this close to hell.
I can feel its fire on the floors below
Raising ash and paper and smoke
Thick as Satan’s laughter.
At the window, shattered,
I look for salvation and he tempts me,
Dares me to jump,
Whispering a psalm in my ear
He spits as he speaks:
“He will bid his angels watch over you.
With their hands they will support you.”
I mumble “Amen,”
Close my eyes and sense the rush of air.
I cannot breathe until I finally feel
Those hands of angels
Hard as cement against my face.
-- By Doug Seubert

Funeral for Staff Sgt. Marcus Golczynski. Christian, Golczynski's son receives flag from Marine Lt. Col. Ric Thompson. Photographer Aaron Thompson

8/19/09 Paul Pickett of Minden La., U.S. Army's Apache Company, 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, covers injured soldier as helicopter lands to evacuate wounded after armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province. (AP Photo/David Goldman) #

Links:

Perspective On 9/11 And The Invasions Of Iraq and Afghanistan

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Empathic Civilization

Jeremy Rifkin, founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends, is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. Rifkin's work explores the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. In the video below, he investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.

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