A Case for Optimism

How are we doing, I mean, as humans?

...Because from where I sit, it doesn't look that good.

There's:

• Brokenness: Broken families, broken hearts, broken lives. Many people in this world will never begin to experience what love is.
• Corruption: Just take a look at Mexico, where anyone with the cojones to stand up to the drug trade ends up six feet under.
• Ignorance: That the Newark public school system could inspire Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift should be evidence enough.
• Rhetoric: Glenn Beck. Jesse Jackson. Lady Gaga.
• Rhetoric listeners: The rhetoric offends enough by itself. But when I learn that my beautiful grandparents watch FoxNews, witness the black community's failure to recognize the overwhelming bullsh*t of its leaders, or wonder why a celebrity's opinion can make headline news, I cringe. And a little hope dies inside.

I'm like Ironhide in Transformers. That's him, pretty studly.

• Ironhide: "Why are we fighting to save the humans? They're a primitive and violent race."

I get tired I wonder if I should even bother to try and change the world.

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But maybe I should take a more historical perspective.

• Optimus Prime: "They're a young species. They have much to learn. But I've seen goodness in them."

We are a young species, and to look back over the last 50,000 years is to see a lot of war and violence; suffering and apathy. But look again and observe a steady progression from darkness into light.

We have formed society. Cooperation has begun to overwhelm conflict as the means of overcoming difficulty. Education has begun to dispel ignorance and its resulting technologies have improved our quality of life. And although these types of progress have marked human progress from the start, never before have they been so widespread.

Since 1970 the percentage of the world's population with access to clean water has increased from 30% to upwards of 85%. Free elections are no longer a luxury, but an expectation. "For the first time in human history all people are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be extended to everyone" (GS).

Cause for optimism abounds.

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But how to ensure further progress?

It falls to the leaders and thinkers of the age to discover and protect those principles and underpinnings of society that, in the midst of change and evolution, steadfastly bind humankind to itself. Failure in this regard will leave us slaves to our creations.

Success, well success would just rock :).

Special thanks to Mike Toohey for his ongoing friendship and his contribution to this article. Cited material: Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. The Vatican, 1965.

On the Insanity of Modern Life

"...And on the eighth day God invented free time. Humanity could diversify. Each person was no longer tied to subsistence and could now dedicate life to activities formerly too "expensive" to enjoy.

Education flourished, human bonds matured and strengthened, and every individual became a font of wisdom and experience."

Ironic then, that you probably discovered this post on your Facebook NewsFeed—A well-spring of knowledge boasting gems such as:

• Amber can't stop thinking about his eyes.
• FML!..., IMAO..., lol
• Only 12 more days until CHICAGOOO!!
• ...coming to grips with the dark shroud of life without you...

What convinced modern man that other people cared so much about his melodramatic, pithy self-expression?

Who decided that free time should be best used to wallow in constant introspection instead of the pursuit of additive meaning and the construction of a more beautiful humanity?

Demographics

If you've ever been married you know that marriage (and especially kids) cuts down on free time and eliminates the waste of this precious resource.

I don't know what it used to be like back in the day ;) but statistics alone demonstrate that the marriage age for both men and women has risen about 5 years over the last 50 years while the divorce rate for first marriages has risen from 25% to 50%. The factors combine to produce a plethora of single adults: bored single adults with lots of free time.

A Little Rant

So, into which vessels does our generation pour its creative energies and time? The following comes from the lips of Brad Pitt in Fight Club, an all-too-apt expression of the meaninglessness of so much of our activity.

"I see all this potential.
And I see it squandered.

Goddamn 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. No purpose or place.
We have no Great War. No Great Depression.
Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars.
But we won't. We're slowly learning that fact.
And we're very, very pissed off."

Non Serviam

All in all, our decisions suggest an new theology...

The Economy is now God. He seeks profit.

His creatures best serve him through self-transformation into factors of production. They go to school so that they can work for the rest of their lives.


To keep them from achieving the autonomy that could lead them astray he plies them with television, the Internet, meaningless possessions, and any other opium that will occupy their minds without actually effecting true personal formation.

Humanity accepts the Economy's Matrix: the alternative demands too much effort.

I will not serve. The light of humanity has not gone out in my soul. Today will be an investment in the subtle riches of tomorrow. So help me God...

Faith in Science: The Difference between Girls and Boys

"Baby Blues" by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Sociology treats gender as a culturally generated phenomenon. Can Wanda and Darryl really teach Hammie his gender role before they can teach him to use a toilet?