Sometimes I feel like a sailor lost in the storm that is our world, a broiling, tumultuous sea of havoc and war. We are constantly affronted by motivational messages, inspiring us to find the eye of the storm, and change the world. It seems like an insurmountable task, yet the universe is constantly looking for the next Einstein or Karl Marx, to change the world and advance our society. Can one person change the world? Just look at our past for inspiration. Throughout history there have been countless men and women that had the courage to try to change the lives of everyone on this Earth. It's these people that have moved us from little more than Neanderthals to the advanced race we are today. The evolution of human society is not yet finished and will continue until man meets its inevitable Armageddon. To evolve as a society we must look to the past, and innovate for the future. Any one of us can do it. Advancement is key to our society.
While advancement seems necessary for society we must question if it is the right course for society. While the world occupies itself with incessantly moving itself forward it is intriguing to ponder if we're occupying ourselves with the wrong things. I can see the world growing and evolving around me, but the more we grow, the more I can see the world we were given wither and die. We are drying up the planet's natural resources with each passing day. Each new invention uses up a little bit of our resources, each new factory defiles one more piece of our atmosphere. Each new advancement makes our lives easier, yet are we really planning for the future? What will the future generations do when they enter into a world, barren, infertile, and drained? Will there be future generations? We can see images of mankind's cataclysm in movie after movie; maybe the Terminator wasn't so far off. With the invention of A.I. and nuclear weapons, there are growing fears that we will cause our own demise. It seems only a matter of time before a new invention will destroy us all.
Not all advancement is met by society with open arms. For example many Christian and human rights groups have openly despised the evolution of cloning technologies. They fear that these new realms of technology are interfering with God's will and that they will begin to treat humans as experiments rather than sentient beings. Cloning isn't the first technology to face controversy either. Aviation and even that the fact that the world was round was feared and tossed out at first. If heaven was just above the clouds, could we fly to heaven? How were we to be sure the world was round? You couldn't very well test that the world isn't flat; you just might fall off the edge! But, with time, all of these became accepted as general knowledge and I'm sure over time we will grow to accept new controversial sciences. Perhaps that is the trap of advancement.
People are beginning to fear each other as their beliefs are beginning to cross. Science has grown to become an enemy of religion as new theories are put out contradicting what has been stated in the Bible. Evolution sparked a huge debate back in Darwin's era. How could a man question the teachings of the Good Book? It was blasphemy, and to many people it still is. New ways of thinking are shot down as insane. Communism, while not effective, was the plan to create a utopian society. The principle of equality, while due to our God-given differences would be impossible to fully realize, would be the system to end all war. At any war's root there is a conflict of beliefs. Whether it be religion, political, or revenge, they are all caused by two people having a different way of thinking. Conformity would be the way to end all war. Yet it was the burning fuel behind countless wars following. Communism was not viewed well among capitalist societies for many reasons. I think one of the biggest would have to be that conformity would almost cease advancement. Without the capability to dream of something new and different society would still be back inventing the wheel.
So where will our future lead? There's only one answer, onward. Time will go on without stopping for breath until its end, and man will be there working towards its goals until their own end. The brilliant minds of tomorrow, whether they will improve upon us or destroy us, will continue on to advance society and there's little we can do to stop it. Whether our future family will be the Jetsons or the Connors has yet to be decided. You can change the future; each idea will push us toward either extreme. It is up to us, the youth of today, to decide upon our future. Don't let yourself get lost in the storm. Sail off into the future, search for what the horizon may hold.
