The Rise and Fall of Man

Ok, so far, we who are alive today are the luckiest of generations---we've experienced nothing but the rise. Access to information, education, increased life expectancy, standards of living, access to food, housing, healthcare, etc. all of it on the rise. Hell, most of us don't even really "work" anymore. No, we pursue careers: hobbies, essentially, for which we get paid handsomely.

But, is all bliss?

...why, for example, there is so much profound discontent, depression, drug abuse, despair, addiction, and loneliness in the most advanced liberal societies. His response to the sixth great mass extinction of the Earth’s species at the hands of humans is to propose that better environmental technology will somehow solve it — just as pharmaceuticals will solve unhappiness. His general view is that life is simply a series of “problems” that reason can “solve” — and has solved. What he doesn’t fully grapple with is that this solution of problems definitionally never ends; that humans adjust to new standards of material well-being and need ever more and more to remain content; that none of this solves the existential reality of our mortality; and that none of it provides spiritual sustenance or meaning. In fact, it might make meaning much harder to attain, hence the trouble in modern souls.

...humans in the last 500 years (and most intensely in the last century) have created a world utterly different than the one humans lived in for close to 99 percent of our time on the planet. We are species built on tribe; yet we live increasingly alone in societies so vast and populous our ancestors would not recognize them; we are a species designed for scarcity and now live with unimaginable plenty; we are a species built on religious ritual to appease our existential angst, and yet we now live in a world where every individual has to create her own meaning from scratch; we are a species built for small-scale monocultural community and now live increasingly in multiracial, multicultural megacities

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Maybe...just maybe, we should keep this in mind.

I have never seen such an astonishingly rapid ascent without an equally sudden decline, a return to the mean. Maybe I’m just a doomsayer. But it takes a remarkably sturdy set of blinkers to think it’s an impossibility.

Sullivan: Things Are Better Than Ever. Why Are We Miserable?

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I just think that man's success in dominating the earth can put a strain on earth's limited resources and eventually lead to man's ultimate failure. What really is at more imminent risk of doom are many non human animal species as humanity keeps taking away their environment or hunts them to extinction. I don't think it has anything to do with how man is "built". If man was not built for technological advancement we would not be doing it.

devildavid said:

I just think that man's success in dominating the earth can put a strain on earth's limited resources and eventually lead to man's ultimate failure. What really is at more imminent risk of doom are many non human animal species as humanity keeps taking away their environment or hunts them to extinction. I don't think it has anything to do with how man is "built". If man was not built for technological advancement we would not be doing it.

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We may be "built" for tech advancement, but it's highly probable that those advancements outpace our ability to cope with them. One does have to ask why man is so tormented in such an unprecedented time of plenty.

calamity said:

We may be "built" for tech advancement, but it's highly probable that those advancements outpace our ability to cope with them. One does have to ask why man is so tormented in such an unprecedented time of plenty.

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Hi Calamity...I'm back...lol...good to find you still here.

I believe it is man's nature to be tormented regardless of technology or plenitude. We search for "meaning" for our existence. Those who find it cast away the torment and those who do not continue to suffer "if they are aware enough to identify a lack".

_Sal said:

Hi Calamity...I'm back...lol...good to find you still here.

I believe it is man's nature to be tormented regardless of technology or plenitude. We search for "meaning" for our existence. Those who find it cast away the torment and those who do not continue to suffer "if they are aware enough to identify a lack".

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Hey, welcome back!

The article briefly touches on what I believe is key--we humans are aware of our morality. That we know we will die is a bitter pill to swallow. And, knowing we will be dying slowly (old age) may be the most bitter pill of all.

That's actually new--most of us living long enough to die slowly and having plenty of time to think about it. I've said it before, perhaps dying young, via tragic event, beats hanging around until 90. Of course, I prefer making it to 90. But that is the true paradox.

calamity said:

Hey, welcome back!

The article briefly touches on what I believe is key--we humans are aware of our morality. That we know we will die is a bitter pill to swallow. And, knowing we will be dying slowly (old age) may be the most bitter pill of all.

That's actually new--most of us living long enough to die slowly and having plenty of time to think about it. I've said it before, perhaps dying young, via tragic event, beats hanging around until 90. Of course, I prefer making it to 90. But that is the true paradox.

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thanks :mrgreen:

it is the true paradox...the older I become, the luckier I feel in many ways but the more I state "aging is not for the weak"

today's technology like yesterday's slavery has allowed ample time to reflect upon our powerlessness over death...everything gets "equalized" in the end, money or not

suffering is a given, how we approach that suffering is pivotal to our peace of mind

calamity said:

Ok, so far, we who are alive today are the luckiest of generations---we've experienced nothing but the rise. Access to information, education, increased life expectancy, standards of living, access to food, housing, healthcare, etc. all of it on the rise....

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I applaud the OP. I think it raises an important question. The reply I'm about to give is in no manner a criticism of the OP. It is a criticism of assumptions we all make, assumptions all of Mankind share.

Mankind's self-concept -- whether as just below the angels in The Great Chain of Being or as "the luckiest of generations" in the long march of generations -- is the underlying assumption for both our expectation of happiness and the disappointment of that expectation, the apparent paradox of our unhappiness. Is the happy leper a moral contradiction or simply a contradiction in terms invented by us?

That the happiness of Mankind is an issue at all derives from the narcissistic assumption of a privileged position in the grand scheme of things. There are three albino rhinos left on earth; do you imagine that the albino rhino is bemoaning its fate? Do you imagine that the elephant laments the extinction of the albino rhino?

So where does Mankind get this notion of privilege? Clearly it is part of a story we tell about ourselves. Man appears to be the only living thing that tells stories. And how do we come by this capacity -- if it is not indeed an incapacity -- to tell stories? It seems to be related to a unique form of consciousness that permits and promotes symbolization.

So how is symbolization related to our expectation of happiness?

Once Mankind, through its story about itself, becomes a symbol, then it is no longer itself merely -- it stands for something else. It is no longer merely animal; it is animal plus something more.

In the ancient and medieval story of The Great Chain of Being, Man's place was between beast and angel.
In the Enlightenment story that replaced that old story, Man is a secular angel in the vanguard of Progress.
In the modern scientific story, Man is just a beast.

So, to return to the OP question: Millennial Man, as a consequence of his own story revisions over time, suffers from a Cosmic Identity Crisis.
A beast with angelic aspirations in a confused story in need of major revision.

Angel said:

I applaud the OP. I think it raises an important question. The reply I'm about to give is in no manner a criticism of the OP. It is a criticism of assumptions we all make, assumptions all of Mankind share.

Mankind's self-concept -- whether as just below the angels in The Great Chain of Being or as "the luckiest of generations" in the long march of generations -- is the underlying assumption for both our expectation of happiness and the disappointment of that expectation, the apparent paradox of our unhappiness. Is the happy leper a moral contradiction or simply a contradiction in terms invented by us?

That the happiness of Mankind is an issue at all derives from the narcissistic assumption of a privileged position in the grand scheme of things. There are three albino rhinos left on earth; do you imagine that the albino rhino is bemoaning its fate? Do you imagine that the elephant laments the extinction of the albino rhino?

So where does Mankind get this notion of privilege? Clearly it is part of a story we tell about ourselves. Man appears to be the only living thing that tells stories. And how do we come by this capacity -- if it is not indeed an incapacity -- to tell stories? It seems to be related to a unique form of consciousness that permits and promotes symbolization.

So how is symbolization related to our expectation of happiness?

Once Mankind, through its story about itself, becomes a symbol, then it is no longer itself merely -- it stands for something else. It is no longer merely animal; it is animal plus something more.

In the ancient and medieval story of The Great Chain of Being, Man's place was between beast and angel.
In the Enlightenment story that replaced that old story, Man is a secular angel in the vanguard of Progress.
In the modern scientific story, Man is just a beast.

So, to return to the OP question: Millennial Man, as a consequence of his own story revisions over time, suffers from a Cosmic Identity Crisis.
A beast with angelic aspirations in a confused story in need of major revision.

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It may not be all of "man." The article seems to focus on Western man. Men of privilege, enlightened men, men who are "writing the story" essentially.

I don't know. Most notable to me is that we now have the time and the freedom to lament. We can meet our caloric needs for an entire month by working a few hours and then hitting the grocery chain once a week. Our shelter, depending on our preferences, perhaps requires a few more hours of labor to secure. But, very few of us really labor on our shelter. We hire others to labor for us.

In short, I postulate that we maybe have it too easy. And, I also suspect that most of us understand that getting anything too easily is never a good recipe.

I look at it in a different way.

First, if one is to discuss the 'fall' of Man or the 'rise' of Man, one must address what such 'rise' or 'fall' actually entails.

One way to look at a 'rise' and 'fall' is with individual civilizations, such as Rome.

When what became Rome began, it was based on a republic, centered around the family. It was the 'traditional' family in every sense. The father was the ruler of his own household, with his wife as his 'queen'. Each town also had a 'father' figure (actually two of them), known a Consuls. These were chosen by the town members themselves. They served one year and then could serve no more as Consuls...ever. Like any republic, it had a constitution that defined and declared this structure of government. The Consuls acted as the town 'mayors', also seeing to the defense of the town.

Once a Consul served, he automatically became a Senator. This brought the various towns under one 'roof', forming for a common defense and the common welfare of the Republic of Rome.

And Rome prospered. They were able to locate and make use of technology such as naturally occurring cement and other goodies to make their roads, bridges, aqueducts, and indeed their entire infrastructure.

And Rome prospered. They were able to form and train armies using techniques of battle that were very effective for the day. Use to protect and expand Rome, the Republic spread further and further.

Now Rome was quite prosperous and the people began to turn away from the foundations that made Rome great. They turned away from their families more and more. They began to suffer the usurping of power by the now bloated Senate. To keep the party going, the Roman armies began conquering, not defending.

The revolts became worse and worse. People trying to recover the Rome that was were trying in vain. Rome was on the way to succumbing to an unproductive life of ease and entertainment, leaving the traditional family values abandoned more and more.

In the crisis, the Dictators came. Now Rome was no longer a republic. It was a dictatorship. As each dictator rose and fell, the each brought with them their own twisted destruction to what was once a prosperous Rome. The Roman armies, despite recruiting locals from the nation they conquered, could not maintain a function force across such a wide area of what was now the Roman Empire. More and more they began to lose their battles.

Costs went up to main the fat and bloated government and the army, now losing more and more. Taxes had to skyrocket to pay for it all. Confiscatory taxes became the norm of the day.

Eventually, Rome fell to the Barbarians. The city was sacked, and all that was left of the greatness of Rome was rubble and roads and aqueducts that went nowhere. Rome never recovered that greatness ever again.

You can see the same general pattern in any civilization. First, basic traditions that formed a society out of the wilds. Prosperity and free enterprise and open trade. Then, complacency, overexpansion, and the abandonment of the very principles that once made the society in the first place. Then followed by a loss of freedoms, rule by dictatorship or oligarchy, and eventual downfall as the unproductive government expands beyond any ability to support it.

You see it in the United States too. Sometimes the cycle can arrest itself before total destruction, but there will always be such a cycle. Will the United States survive this cycle? Good question.

To me, this is the 'rise' and the 'fall' of Man. Not as a species, but as a variety of civilizations that form, prosper, grow, distort, decay, and fall over the span of the ages. While one is falling, another is rising. I don't see a 'rise' or 'fall' in toto.

Thoughts?

calamity said:

We may be "built" for tech advancement, but it's highly probable that those advancements outpace our ability to cope with them. One does have to ask why man is so tormented in such an unprecedented time of plenty.

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I would agree - tech is far outpacing our ability to cope.
I can't remember who said this:
Humans have primitive minds, medieval institutions and God like technology - not a great recipe for long term survival.