Gap in Humanity

07.02.2016

I don't even know if there is a point to this piece. 

The strange thing about modern culture is that it is progressing at such an unfathomable rate that we are oblivious to the extremities of change that surround us. We remember the days of cassettes and box televisions like pages from an history textbooks, memories of past lives, foreign to our contemporary eyes; overwhelmed by this age of digital enlightenment. Our elders frown on the millennials they raised, as we are consumed by pixels and wireless frequencies. They forget that they too were frowned on when they welcomed electrical telephones and home radio; as though there is a difference between the block that was mounted on their walls and the feather-light bricks we hold in our hands. That somehow, hiding behind books and magazines contrasts to the reflection of our Facebook feeds on our pupils.

It's been said that since humans domesticated themselves, they have brought the evolution of our species to a stalemate. I cannot believe that. Surely the past millennium stands as testament to its falsehood. Our lifespans have doubled, we have created vaccines and treatments. We have granted breath to the recently deceased. We have built walls that withstand hurricanes, machines that detect terror before it hits. You cannot call that a stalemate, when we are conquering what was previously unimaginable. We have made ourselves stronger in the face of constant doubt. And still we are doubted, by the possessors of balding heads, scattered with wiry gray hairs, on frail builds, bent over shaky limbs, with eyes buried in folds of leathered skin; who dispute our choice to catalyse transformation. We have taken change into our own hands and are moving so fast that their eyes cannot keep up. We welcome technological "enslavement." They think we are weak. But we are not the slaves. We are the creators; the masters. But perhaps, there is no difference.

We have always been preached that the future rests in our hands. I suppose, the preachers never imagined the future as electrical circuits and high definition screen. The ability to transmit a message half-way across the globe, in less than time than would be taken to speak it; is nothing short of revolutionary; deserving of praise. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, and what's below the surface is only limited by our imagination. The scope of what we as humans can achieve is infinite. We will change the world in ways we cannot yet comprehend. We already have changed it.

Now, only the great moral question stands; if what we are doing is good? We make mistakes, and we patch them. But some mistakes cannot be undone. We have the nuclear power to obliterate ourselves, our planet. Can we be trusted with the power we could acquire? Can we be trusted with the power we already have?
I suppose, though, that if we cannot be trusted, we don't really deserve our accomplishments. If we ever cross that line, our fall will be just.

Perhaps, our elders are right to have doubts? We will either conquer or destroy the Earth, and thus far we haven't made a promising impression; with our wars and governance systems that turn us against each other, putting bullets in the knees of imaginary enemies. Some of the things we've done are too atrocious for redemption.

We're already complacent to the power we possess; blind to the beatings of our hearts. We are growing cold.

I suppose, it's rather ignorant to generalise an entire species. And perhaps that shall be the greatest war; the one as old as time, the one fought between ourselves, for earth, for freedom, for equality and peace, or the one for power and control, and system. Ultimately, the nature of this war depends on the lead. Shall it be a peaceful exchange, a transformation of the human spirit; or shall it be forced, with guns and threats?


We read classic novels; words describing the laugh that bubbles in a girl's throat. spilling over her tongue at the most inhumerous of consequences, and we are left to wonder how romanticized was the conversation, or was she truly touched by her encounters? Because nowadays, you crack a punchlines and are met by slightly exaggerated exhalations and muttered "lol"s underbreath. We are apathetic to our own understandings and I wonder if it's because our elders have worn down our hopes for the world, smothered us in their opinions until our own livelihoods could no longer breathe or if we have simply grown bored of concrete walls and glowing screens, that the absence of green-life in our peripheral has caused us to forget that we too are alive? Or perhaps we have grown so accustomed to drastic change and radicalism that nothing surprises us anymore. We are numb to the possibility of excitement. Our feelings have become a scale of grey tones, that even disappointment washes over us like a brief drizzle.

We're living a dream, and maybe that is why it doesn't feel real.