We all live in an age of complaints. We complain about every detail of our lives: From our daily chores and duties, to the education system, the government, other people's governments, and all such kinds of bits and pieces, which is all a colour in our spectrum of the observed, or rather, life.
While we all want to fight for some better lifestyles, while we try to enhance our living standards, while we voice our towering rage on the current global state, has it occurred to anyone a possibility, that the way we are currently living, is the only way of living? Well, the style of living has changed from the start of the human race, the start of human civilization (Have we really achieved "civilization"?), the advent of cultures, up till our present day. We have, currently, inventions and ideas, that was alien in the previous generation, or even in the current growing generations (The reminiscence of "the 90's" is definitely not a strange encounter for an experienced Internet user). Yet we all are unsatisfied of the current state. Some of us want to go back in time, while some of us continue introducing "freedom" to our society at an astounding rate, that we cannot even catch up. While the naivete of the governing body is constantly shown, and freedom fighters continue on their conquest of a better government, they all have neglected a very important point, which I am about to make.
Human history has gone through a long track. It has evolved from being a simplistic world, which can be argued to be a "utopia" for the modern age, to the current digital world. Yet we hope to find ourselves living in the countryside, away from the so-called decadence of the modern society, where moral values are on the decline. Have we not longed for this lifestyle in a brilliant city, with dazzling lights and bright decorations during the age where these are simply our dreams? You know, the lights, the neon, the xenon, the fireworks. They all blend into one, creating this unbelievably penetrating panorama. It goes through our hearts, and warms the very soul that rests peacefully within.
Then came the age of science, where dreams meet reality. We find ourselves enjoying the results of Tesla, founding electricity, the results of Edison, founding the light bulb, the results of Watt, founding the modern steam engine, and countless of scientists which slipped their wonderful innovations into the daily lives of the common folks. But then, the advent of science also brought to us some catastrophic results. The instruments of war improved over the last century by a huge amount, hanging the survival of the human species by a thread. We all know if another world war is to break out, our species is doomed. We also see industries ruining our environment. Global warming, radioactivity disasters and so on. These should not be strange to any person on this planet.
What I am trying to bring out is that we all have a dream to start off with, whether a benevolent one or a malevolent one. We all sought for it over the past centuries. That is why we currently have so much convenience and our survivability is much higher than that of the past. Our life expectancy is drastically increased, and our mortality is greatly reduced. This is the only way our species could evolve. It is impossible to rid anyone of their dreams. They can be suppressed, but never extinguished. Our species like to invent. We would continue our journey to create new ideas and invent new machines and tools to enhance our survivability on this planet. It is human nature to do so.
Therefore, our lives are dominated by this nature of humanity. It is impossible for humans to stay in the past, despite of the number of people who want to stay in the past. And if we consider the "malevolent" side of the story, we see that many would seize the opportunity to abuse these innovations to bring fortune and power to themselves. The rise of totalitarianism is accelerated by the invention of weapons, which could kill in less than seconds currently. Terrorism is also an effect that is wrought by inventions. Without bombs, suicide bombers would have a much harder time trying to terrorize others. Thus, reverting to a society where peace and democracy is strictly observed is also a mere fantasy.
To sum up, this is the only state which is possible for the society. We have to live with this. It is rather like what the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us, where the entropy of a closed system tends to increase spontaneously. We have to live with this fact.
This seems rather like a discouragement for revolutionary changes. It is not, in fact. All I am trying to say is that we should not complain about our current society without any basis. And to revert to a society in the past or in the future in an instant, is very unrealistic. By trying to do so, a disturbance in human nature is created, and not much of that is achieved over our history. It took over hundreds of years before Europe is convinced that scientists were right instead of the church, and this is only a little part of our human nature. Greed is a human instinct, and simply because someone has none of it does not mean the society has to comply and totally annihilate their greed. I agree that some revolutionary changes will occur soon to our society, but it will eventually revert back to a state governed by human nature: None is totally immune from human nature.
At times, I find people trying to revolt pointless and even to some extent selfish. What if I like the current state? What if I enjoy taking the Tylenol of life, to forget the pain of the present?
