What We have Learned So Far...

[tyrannosaurus vex]

At the risk of sounding optimistic or even "hopeful" (god forbid!) about the state of human evolution in general, I am going to make a few points here that fly in the face of the dogmatic assertions by most Fringe groups that OH GOD WE'RE DOOMED. For the average Human animal, I share your contempt. Of the average clot of intellectually degenerate Human beasts, I share both your disgust and your fear. We are, after all, monkeys. And monkeys are good at beating each other with sticks and throwing feces. To be sure, we have over these past 10,000 years developed many amazing and impressive ways to engage in those prehistoric behaviors by more and more unrecognizable proxy.

In large part, our great cities and expansive nations have come to exist and to flourish more out of greed and ambition than of necessity. We engage in all the pettiness and worship the same fruitless distractions that have dominated the Human experience since that first hairless ape fell out of a tree and incorporated the resulting brain damage into his genetic code.

But for all of our faults and failures -- which no doubt far outnumber our positive achievements -- only those among us wholly given over to that rough animal instict, to the detriment of any higher cognitive function at all, can ignore that Humans have at times managed to improve upon the basic model of animal society. For most of us, these changes seem negligible. For some of us lucky enough to have lived both at the time of the horses and buggies and to have watched in amazement on electric machines as humans stepped foot on the Moon, the accomplishments of the Human race seem limitless. Our greatest generations are those who have witnessed the entire range of human possibility, and have decided that our existence in this world may be purely by chance, but that by virtue of being here we have the power to define our purpose and to transcend the parts of our nature that conflict with those ideals we have set up for ourselves.

The stupider cousins of chimps though we may be, we are nonetheless responsible for having made quite some progress in our time. Fractured by ideological and physical and spiritual differences, which some humans have taken great pains to overcome, a larger picture has taken shape of our species as an integrating, if not integrated, whole. We have made progress, and any denial of that fact is only a gross misjudgment at best, and an attempt to undermine and destroy everything we have achieved at worst.

Imperfection defines us as a race. Our shortcomings cannot help but discourage many,- but we should try to remember these shortcomings fall short not of any natural law but of lofty ideals we have invented ourselves. Throughout the ages, the thing that truly separates the Human race from the animal kingdom is not our culture or our language; it is not our bombs or our industry; it is that we have the innate ability and desire to envision a world that is better than the one in which we live. And not only that, but that we also have the ability to actually reach some of these supernatural goals.

In some parts of our history, as in some parts of the Globe, ignorance reigns like an immortal king with all the power of Heaven at his disposal. Death threatens millions and eventually claims every one, too often for no reason but avarice or ambition. Nevertheless the fight for illumination and civility exists, persists, and even prevails. The number of people acquainted with such abstract concepts as inalienable rights, due process, mutual respect, and freedom of expression grows, even as those most threatened by liberty and equality grow more desperate. In one fifth the span of recorded Human history, we have moved from being an oppressed people under the absolute rule of vindictive tyrants, to being an oppressed people under the absolute rule of our own tyranical whims.

On second thought, give up, Humanity. You deserve what you get.