Thor's Short Cuts

A civilization is a shared system of values. To those not sharing the particular values, that civilization may appear deficient, even uncivilized. Then we have a clash of civilizations. International agreements try to manage clashing civilizations, and mostly rely on armies to back up the deals. However, the main problems with civilizations are internal. Almost always there are large numbers of people who privately do not believe in the core values of their civilization, but publicly pretend to do so. After all, it is a big ask to have millions of people with radically different agendas sharing a system of values. Those who secretly disagree with public values are often amongst the most ambitious members of a particular civilization, indeed frequently its leaders. The upshot is a corruption of idealized values by one means or another. Over decades and centuries leaders will seek to reinterpret public values. This might be necessary, for in a changing world old ideas may no longer be practical. Many hidden changes however will be for the personal advantage of leaders. A typical pattern of corrupted values might result in, for example, the degradation of women, exploiting the less lucky, restricting opportunity to certain social classes, or the double-speak abuse of ideas like ‘freedom’, ‘the people’, ‘equality’, ‘order’, ‘subversion’ … and so on. Past and present it is pretty hard to think of any civilization, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Communist, Fascist, Dictatorial, Libertarian, Democratic, Socialist, Capitalist, or whatever, which has remained mostly decent at its political and social core. ‘Decent’ here is defined by the originating ideas of right and wrong within each civilization. Thus all civilizations are unstable, have moral crises, and may fail, though the people in them ‘go on’. Perhaps they then accept belief in some new model. Each ‘new civilization’ will also, of course, eventually be weakened by the corruption and abuse of its new values. Now think hard and name your own examples.

What do you see when you see? What do you hear when you hear? During World War II the Australian military command brought some New Guinea village chiefs to see the city of Brisbane. Shock and awe? They went home and excitedly told their countrymen about the different trees and animals. They had nothing to say about the skyscrapers and trains. Well, of course. Now take young adults, whom I have spent a 34 year career teaching. They come with various poses. a) Some are too self involved to notice anything; b) Some live for fashion and boy/girl approval; c) Some find the world full of laughter and friendship; d) Some notice that the world is full of rivals and liars; e) Some notice that there is injustice everywhere; f) Some feel that enemies and danger cancel out hope for a better world … and so it goes. But the really interesting question is what they do about all this stuff they notice. The short answer, after a some party heroics early on, is mostly … not much. At bottom many want a sleepy comfort zone. True energy of the human kind, to move and shake usual “reality”, is a very scarce resource.

“Hundreds of interviews with people who took part in the disturbances that spread across England in August revealed deep-seated and sometimes visceral antipathy towards police.… Just under half of those interviewed in the study were students. Of those who were not in education and were of working age, 59 per cent were unemployed. Although half of those interviewed were black, people who took part did not consider these ”race riots”. Rioters identified a range of political grievances, but at the heart of their complaints was a pervasive sense of injustice”. ( Brisbane Times, 6 December 2011).

All the big struggles in life are about body chemistry. Suffer a serotonin drought, then even a lottery win can have Masters of the Universe jumping from skyscrapers, and wan Goth girls slashing their wrists. Continue reading →