Being a civilized person

CIVILIZATION

I'll probably make someone extremely furious if I call him uncivilized. We think of ourselves as being civilized, which explains why. The usual synonyms for "civilized" in dictionaries include "educated," "polished," "gentle," "refined," "polite," "well-mannered," "sophisticated," "urban," etc. Examples of antonyms include illiterate, uneducated, uncultured, vulgar, impolite, barbarous, crude, rustic, etc. As a result, when we try to visualize a civilized person, our minds tend to conjure up images of people dressed appropriately in western attire working hard at something white. A native American, an Australian aboriginal, or an African tribal person will, on the other hand, be portrayed as being uncivilized. In actuality, everything that is civilized today follows what the West does.

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The concept of civilization is dynamic. Because they had no greater purpose other than to survive day to day, the early human hunters and gatherers were not civilized. As civilizations and kingdoms developed, people made decisions about the laws of society and what was acceptable and wrong. If you are acting morally, you are seen as civilized, and if you are doing immorally, you are regarded as uncivilized. In other words, one had to abide by the rules set forth by society and the ruling authority. After the industrial revolution, several European nations went on a rampage to conquer nations in Africa and Asia and impose their own definitions of a civilized society. Local traditions and cultures were regarded as uncivilized. Agrarian societies were stigmatized as being less civilized than industrial societies. Then the age of science and technology arrived, further complicating the notion of a civilized society. A nation that excels in these areas is viewed as being more civilized than others. A person who adopts a natural lifestyle is uncivilized, while a person who adopts a technological lifestyle is civilized.

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Going back a few centuries, we can see that it was commonplace in Europe to burn witches and engage in witch hunting. Fighting between nations was accepted as normal, as was oppressing the underprivileged working class, slavery, uprooting locals and sending them abroad to work, robbing other nations of their wealth, killing people in the name of religion, and eradicating the indigenous population. Were these actions civilized and expected from nations at the time that were regarded as civilized? These things still take place today, but they do so in a subtle, elegant manner without the associated stigma.

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Then democracy emerged in the West as an improved alternative to monarchy and dictatorship. Even though many countries did not seek advice, this was propagated to other nations as a better form of governance. Now, communist governments were viewed as barbaric, while democratic governments based on capitalism were regarded as civilized. We fought cold wars and even hot wars to impose their system.

Finally, discrimination based on race, color, and other factors as well as gender equality were achieved. Women didn't gain the right to vote, work, have an opinion, or value until the 20th century, even after the establishment of democracy. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' vision of a spirit of brotherhood, however, is still a distant ideal.

When we view the lives of indigenous tribes around the world through the prism of western civilization, we frequently fail to recognize how civilized they are. Even though it might not fit our definition, it doesn't follow that they aren't. Their culture, which has been rooted in rituals and spirituality for thousands of years, is also based on kinship, clans, and total harmony with nature. They had created their own hunting tools, were well-versed in flora and fauna and their medicinal properties, could navigate by the stars, could cook and build shelters, could give birth, had rules governing their way of life, had myths and folklore, dances and songs, and wisdom of the wise man. They also had developed their own hunting tools. They led their own, supposedly "uncivilized," civilized lives. However, it took the white Westerners only a short while to nearly exterminate them, seize their land, and enslave them.

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We are aware that even today, it doesn't take much for a person or a country to go from being civilized to uncivilized. It took little for America to invade Vietnam and Iraq, and it takes little for China to lend money to underdeveloped nations and usurp their resources like infrastructure and land. It takes very little for a man to defraud others, and very little for large corporations to establish monopolies and evade taxes. It doesn't take much for people to start fighting with each other over trivial things.

Thank you