Humanity and the world today

Okay I know that I've been blogging really frequenly recently. But there is this sudden realisation that strike me so I have to write it down somewhere.

History tells us whenever a civilisation start to flourish--when the basic needs of the people are met, people generally do not have any problems with satisfying the needs of the physical--that unique cultures are developed, philosophy and the sciences start to take tremendous progress. This can be seen in many cases--the ancient civilisations, notably the Greeks who have came up with so many philosophical ideologies that still hold their places today, ancient Rome which left us Latin, the ancestor of English and is still used widely in the academia. Moving to the more modern ones, we have the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolution. (Pardon me if I make any mistakes or give bad examples--not a history student here) However, as we move closer and closer to the present, we realise that the quality of life of the people are improving, yet the intellectual and cultural pursuits of the people are declining. Looking at the world today, people are "overly fed", both physically and mentally. Most people are enjoying a convenient and hedonistic life (most people as in those who can see this blog). Most people have great food to eat, good sanitation, excellent healthcare, abundance of recreational activities, basically all that is needed physically of that of a human being. However, the level of satisfaction is way lower than what it should be.

Perhaps it is due to a lack of higher pursuit. We are definitely nothing compared to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Look at our so called "pop culture" today. It holds little quality and depth. The ancient civilisations left us with great ideology and inventions. What can we leave for our future generations? Lady gaga? We do have a diversity of newly formed cultures of today, but they hold no value. Most of them are created purely for entertainment and will be soon forgotten, rendering their short existence meaningless but to make a few people laugh. The problem I find with the world today is that our physical needs are certainly fulfilled, but our culture is not flourishing, nor is our intellectual pursuit. Instead, we are trying to ruin the already well established ancient cultures by adding in trashy stuff, instead of building on them.

Also, the fast pace of the modern society has not allowed people to think. People are overly fed mentally as well. Everyday we perceive too much information for our brain to precess and filter, let alone create. We all know that it's only when we get bored does our brain start to fill us with fantastic ideas and inspirations. However, in the modern society there seems to be this fear of boredom. It is as though boredom is a furry little monster that must be kept at bay. When we get bored we must find something to do, it is a duty that we must oblige. Last time when people take long train rides they read their books in leisure or gaze out of the window and simply let their minds go empty. That's why so many ideas were generated on trains. Today, you take a subway ride that stops every 2-3 min with annoying announcements and talking passengers. You, you are furiously scrolling through your social media and feeds trying to get the hottest topic in town. No more ideas will be generated in such a medley environment.

And people think less too, because information is too readily available. People go to that holy site for all their answers in life: Google, and for all the information they missed during lectures because they are sleeping: Wikipedia. I highly suspect that the world will not be able to function properly the day Google breaks down. (Hey that sounds like a great idea for a movie) Basically, people don't undergo the amount of rigour of thinking they are supposed to undergo in order to reach the expected standard of that field of knowledge they are to have last time. When can we ever have our next Einstein? The world now is full of smart people, but they put their intelligence into things such as scoring full mark on a test, finding the right information from the internet and presenting their findings in an interesting way. People who study philosophy, literature and pure mathematics have difficulty finding jobs. The world has turn to a horrible horrible place. People are too short sighted only to fight for their survival or maybe the survival of the future generation. No one actually cares whether the present generation will leave something of value for the future of mankind. That, is a truly sad thing.

(The above whatever is only coming from a viewpoint of a random secondary 4 student studying in a random school in Singapore. Her view may be highly skewed due to lack of exposure to the outside world. Hence, do not fret if you find any sentence in this article untrue. Just wait for her to grow up and she will understand.)