The Failure Of Human Civilisation: What We Have To Lose

254LC Philosophy Assignment

Deterioration of Basic Human Instincts

In the article the author has mainly shown the failure of human civilisation. There have been much advancement in terms of technology or the way we live and our lifestyle, however it is true that the basic instinct of the human being has deteriorated by the day and presently there are far more reasons to condemn the humanity than there were reasons to condemn the barbarians in the medieval days.

The author has shown various examples of such incidents which categorically prove the fact that the human civilisation has failed in its endeavour to really be a civilised society as claimed.

Destruction plays a very important role in the modern human life today. Probably even more role it plays than what is played by construction. The author starts with the example of the destruction of the world trade centre which he had himself experienced, causing the death of hundreds. The author has been writing a book review at that point of time and he shows that how his work so much small and insignificant compared to the large-scale violence and deaths of the falling of the world trade centre. However the scale of a job is always relative. Every individual person is having their contribution to the building of a country and the earth as a whole. The role of a painter is no more less than the role of the doctor, and the sweeper is as important as the lawyer in the whole picture.

The main argument of the author about the failure of human civilisation is supported by the violence that he encountered and experienced in various places around the world through various incidents. Starting from the death of hundreds in the fall of world trade centre to his insights about the bomb shelters, starting from the unrepaired attack sites in Britain dating back to the world war to the scenario in the Centennial hall in Siberia and the broken piano, all reflects the lost game of humanity, the title very aptly is “what we have to lose”, what more do we have to lose?

The author has discussed the riots and violent protests in various parts of the world where the rioters run havoc destroying and breaking whatever comes in their way. The author describes how these people are then seen to be dining in expensive restaurants. The stark contrast of breaking glasses to protest against the “bourgeois” class, and then dining in an expensive restaurant only exposes the double standard of the people. These are the worst kind of satiation of the human instinct where people have this strange feeling of satisfaction by destroying (Kaldor). The activity of destruction in a way gives the feeling of empowerment to the people who have not tasted it. It is a way of satiating the need to show one’s own power to impact the state.

Destruction vs. Construction

There are collective crisis and there are individual crisis and it is seen throughout the history of human kind, that the individual crisis and failures have been ignored on the larger context (Balibar). The example of the young man in his 20’s trying to intervene and stop his mother’s boyfriend from beating her, and then getting beaten himself in a way that he had to be hospitalised, however the mother asking him not to lodge a complaint because she doesn’t wants to lose the man, for her own physical desires, is one of the worst forms of familial tragedy that one can imagine. How much more can the humanity degrade in order to fulfil the desires?  

I agree to the author and his argument and it is a fact that more or less the human civilisation is going towards a moral and ethical degradation and is justifying these by showing the excuse of independence of the individual. However individual independence is more important than the collective interest of the whole community or not is a long drawn debate (Crosswhite).

The civil war in Liberia is an example of the animalistic instinct of the human clan.  “In fact there was—and not very far away, in a building called the Centennial Hall, where the inauguration ceremonies of the presidents of Liberia took place. The hall was empty now, except for the busts of former presidents, some of them overturned, around the walls—and a Steinway grand piano, probably the only instrument of its kind in the entire country, two-thirds of the way into the hall. The piano, however, was not intact: its legs had been sawed off (though they were by design removable) and the body of the piano laid on the ground, like a stranded whale. Around it were disposed not only the sawed-off legs, but little piles of human feces” (Dalrymple). The author says he has not seen any other image that defies and rejects human civilisation, “refinement” as he put it.

It is evident from the recent trends that the humanity is almost coming to terms with the   fact that “destruction” “brutality” and similar concepts are “normal”. The normal of today’s day in many ways defy the normal which was considered previously (Deleuze, Gilles and Félix). Peace and harmony as almost fantastical ideas that is hard to achieve and is hardly seen or experienced these days. “This brutality is now a mass phenomenon rather than a sign of individual psychopathology.” Therefore the trend is going towards an end where there will be spontaneous mass participation in brutality (Bale). The author gives example of a soccer game where two very popular teams come to play and the supporters of both the teams has to be kept separated by Police Cordon otherwise there will be mass violence taking place. This taking of granted the fact that the audience will be participating in violence in the absence of police is the proof of the recent trend that shows the mass participation in brutality.

Piotr Hoffman in his book called the “Violence in Modern Philosophy” gives philosophical insights that the “notion of and concern with violence are not limited to political philosophy but in fact form the essential component of philosophy in general. The acute awareness of the ever-present possibility of violence, filters into and informs ontology and epistemology in ways that require careful analysis” (Hoffman). The failure of humanity is due to its acute ignorance to the rise of “brutality” in every quarters of life. The day humanity is aware about the further consequences of such an irreversible fall, is the day when maybe there will be a change in approach, till that day there is little hope.

Reference:

Bale, Anthony. Feeling persecuted: christians, Jews and images of violence in the middle ages. Reaktion Books, 2012.

Balibar, Étienne. Violence and civility: On the limits of political philosophy. Columbia University Press, 2015.

Crosswhite, James. Deep rhetoric: philosophy, reason, violence, justice, Wisdom. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Dalrymple, Theodore. Our culture, what’s left of it: The mandarins and the masses. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. What is philosophy?. Columbia University Press, 2014.

Hoffman, Piotr. “Violence in Modern Philosophy.” (1989).

Kaldor, Mary. New and old wars: Organised violence in a global era. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.