Modern civilization is stupid

 Do you know that feeling of being very excited about a certain topic and while you would love to share it with the people around you, you know nobody is interested in it? It’s almost as if everything that makes you different, makes you stand out, makes you come over as smart is not appreciated by the majority. This phenomenon is strange as this behaviour should be encouraged. We should be encouraged to present ourselves for who we are, good and bad traits, not what everyone else wants us to be. 

Image source

 What makes this phenomenon even odder is the fact that in the 18th century thinking for yourselves and having intellectual conversations was strongly encouraged. Those who stood out were praised for having the courage to do so. This would mean that in this aspect mankind has worsened. 

Image source

 The simple concept of having an intellectual conversation between two people has become a form of taboo.

Interactions between two people most of the times isn’t about getting wiser, expressing emotions and giving mutual support, it’s about ‘fun’, about ‘laughing’, about topics many of us know add no value to our lives. Many are caught up in the thought that friendship is all about ‘fun’. No time for intellectual transfer or anything like it.
The truth is that this kind of relationship is very two dimensional, it’s no problem until you start digging deeper into it.

Why is this the case? Why do we behave in this way?

The big difference between the people of the 18th century who were proud to share what they knew and us today mostly is our lifestyle. Our morals and goals have changed. Back in the 18th century, life was far from perfect and most people knew that the only way to make their lives better was to think about the future, act upon it and invest the time and effort to improve. Today many of us within the western world live such lives where everything feels perfect, we hardly have anything left we desire that doesn’t exist yet. Because of this we live lives where we want to preserve as much as possible of what we have today. The majority doesn’t think about how life can be better, it thinks about how life can stay the same without risking anything. 

Image source

 This difference between reaching for the future and preserving the present can even be seen today. As mentioned before, people in the western world preserve the present but when we look at second and third world countries, we suddenly see the same behaviour people had in the 18th century. People from Asia and Africa are applauded for raising their hands and sharing what they know because this society strives for the future and looks at these people in awe.

How can we solve our lack of intellectual expression? How can we turn the teenagers that don’t care about the future and the well being of the world into teenagers that raise hope for a brighter future?

Sadly, we can’t. No matter how much we talk to these type of teenagers, we can’t force them to be encouraged in expressing themselves and their intellectuality. Unless the motivated people that are part of today’s young generations can carry the weight of those who couldn’t care less, my fear is that the western society will continue to slack off, lose interest until we fall, until nobody is left to invest his or her life to make life in general better. 

Image source

 Life will worsen and we will enter a stage where we realise the only way life can become better again is by working hard, expressing who you are and having intellectual conversations

Quite possibly this phenomenon of intellectual prosperity and shortcoming being exchanged through time is one that repeats. We had prosperity during the ancient Greeks and Romans, lack during the middle ages, prosperity during the renaissance and now? Maybe now we will enter a new middle ages. A new lack of intellectuality. 

 

The only thing you and I can do?

Look at yourself. Only you can change you. If everyone reflects to itself and realises its flaws, we will enter prosperity. And all of us will realise that having meaningful conversations is way more ‘fun’ than ‘fun’ is.