Monday, November 23, 2009
A quick thought
It could be argued that the greatest leaps in human thought, and social/religious development, have been spawned by the crossing of different cultures. There's nothing like encountering a different people, who have different beliefs and values, to make you question your own. This being the case, what lies in store for us once all populations of the Earth know each other (and perhaps homogenise to some extent), and we can no longer be surprised and awakened in this manner?
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Good point. I wonder about that.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a valid question, but I'd point out that homogenization should not necessarily be assumed to be the end result of such extensive knowledge. Often, the more a particular group becomes aware of its neighbors, the more isolated it becomes (consider, for example, the ancient Hebrews, or current-day Christian or Muslim fundamentalists). Instead of assimilating differences, they react by forcefully separating, creating not a world of "us and them" but "us versus them." There may always be this give and take, this oscillation, between homogeneity and heterogeneity, so long as people remain, well, people.
ReplyDeleteAs a hypothetical question, however, yours is an interesting one. Perhaps, if we managed to move away from the group-think behavior of religion and nationalism via some kind of social homogenization, spirituality would become a much more individual thing: each person would be a religion/nation unto him- or herself, learning from other individuals, passing on knowledge gained from individual insight, that humanity might behave as one cohesive whole.