Are We Capable of Social Change to Overcome the Crisis of Modern Civilization?

I just read an outstanding article by a fellow author on Medium that zeros in on everything that is wrong with our society, why we have reached the numerous crises that we have, and the way in which we have to change our morality to ensure continued survival and flourishing. The author explains beautifully how adopting a morality of mutual aid, where we consider the needs and well-being of others just as we consider our own, is the key to flourishing and survival, and an effective means to rebuild the very foundations of our flawed civilization.

I am truly touched and inspired as I see more and more writing like this emerge. It shows people really are starting to think in new, better directions. The right values and thought patterns, needed to turn our lives around for the better and ensure a bright future for all of us, are spreading through the collective human conscious and unconscious, and finding expression through writing such as the above article.

I believe that the author’s vision can be furthered in practice by additionally scrutinizing and gaining a fuller understanding of one of its underlying principles. There is one piece of the author’s overall paradigm that I would specify further so the needed changes in social progress, and particularly, in our values and morality, can happen quicker.

In her article, the author states that our basic human natures are not good or bad, that they are neutral, and we can simply choose to adopt a better morality, better ways of thinking, and better behaviors. This is a view shared by many people who think about this topic (including a Philosophy professor I had recently), but I believe it comes from a mindset of denial or avoidance, which actually blocks us from being able to change.

It’s the view that our natures are neutral, and that we are not particularly attached to, or absolutely, hopelessly immersed in the kind of evil, egoistic human nature that has built our dysfunctional societies time and time again throughout history, over and over and over again. There have been so many beautiful philosophies, political regimes, hopes and dreams throughout history, of how humans should build better societies, better lives. Yet the outcome has always been that we always end up building dysfunctional, unhappy societies full of suffering and injustice, and we have proven time and time again that this is the only thing we are capable of producing.

I believe this simple fact of history, including the present time, clearly shows that transformation and progress are not so simple or easy, and that this is because of our innate natures as human beings. A review of history and the present time shows that we are very deeply and absolutely immersed in a bad human nature which we are pretty much helpless to change. We can say that we are enslaved to this nature, that it is like a brutal, merciless enemy and slave-master that is in full control of us, ensures that we can never flourish by thinking and acting differently, and does not allow us any other options. The egoistic, evil human nature permeates us completely, inside and out. This is why changing our society, our morality, has always proved impossible.

In fact, the harbingers of enlightened moralities, the social reformers of history who were guided by enlightened ideals, and were passionate about changing the world for the better, and took action to do so — actually ended up inflicting more human suffering and deaths than anyone else. For example, the enormous campaigns of Christian missionaries that swept across the world to enlighten everyone with the progressive principles of “love your neighbor as yourself” to replace or civilize primitive and barbarian societies. In the real world, this resulted in ruthless Crusades that killed countless people. The missionaries who colonized the “uncivilized” African continent to spread morality and values — and ended up imposing apartheid, wreaking war and havoc, destroying fertile Africa’s ability to even feed itself…

Then there were the communists with their sublime ideal of the perfect society where class division is eliminated and everyone lives and breathes only for the good of society, ensuring heaven on earth. This regime, based on the most enlightened ideals and morality, resulted in the greatest suffering and deaths ever seen before in history.

It’s the same with democracy, another lofty and progressive social regime that, in theory, should have created a flourishing society. We see where this has ended up, however.

There are so many more examples, but they all prove that no matter what people have tried to do to elevate their human condition, no matter how many tactics they have invented and tried in attempts to circumvent the evil human nature, there has never been an escape from it. It is able to capitalize on any attempts of social progress in ways that makes us suffer, and particularly, in ways where we make each other suffer.

The reason I expanded on this point at such length is to underline just how deeply we, as humans, are rooted in an evil, egoistic human nature. And if we ever hope to change, transform, adopt a new morality such as the one proposed in the above article, to create a better society, and in the modern times, to ensure our survival — this change would be a very, very big deal. And it would have to be done very, very deliberately.

Realizing this stark fact about our natures is essential and necessary if we are to ever change. Without fully realizing how hopeless our situation is, how impossible it is for us to change, we will not have the inner fuel, the thrust, the pull, to break out of our condition into a new realm, which our society has never known before. It’s kind of like a rocket that has to break out of the field of earth’s gravity to enter outer space. A very special system is needed to enable this, which starts with the realization of the fact of gravity. Then, once we recognize the existence of gravity, how totally and completely it influences us and pulls us down, not allowing us to enter outer space, and once we understand it fully enough, we can proceed to devise tactics and mechanisms to break out of it and enter a new realm where gravity can no longer pull us down.

If we we were able to adopt a new morality, of being able to think about and care for others just as we do for ourselves, this would actually signify a complete revolution of our original egoistic natures. Nietzsche spoke about this, as well as many other brilliant thinkers.

But where in the world would we possibly get such an ability, if we’ve never been able to do it before? We would need to be affected by a motivation and a force of change that would be stronger than our original natures, which control us completely from within. We would need to be influenced by a force that is stronger, that can pull us out of our absolute attachment to egoistic self-care, and give us the power, the ability to care for others as well, and not only to care for them, but to be able to act on it. As in the example in the above article, a force that would actually allow us to give up that one available TV in the store to the other person who wants it…

Gaining such a force of opposition to our original natures, strong enough to cause real transformation, hinges on three main factors. First, the need to change. Only our needs determine what we do at every moment, how we expend our energy. If we don’t have a true need for something, we would never bother to do it, especially if it’s difficult and contrary to our very natures.

Thus, to be able to really start changing, adopting a new morality, building a new society, enough people would have to feel an internal need for it. Otherwise we might end up being similar to the communist experiment, where a few people at the top believed in some lofty idea of communism, but they ended up violently imposing it on other people through a brutal regime. People did not want to or feel a need to love others, to live in a society where they contribute to others, so they had to be painfully forced to do it — and the whole experiment failed after causing enormous suffering.

Thus there has to be a real need for change, a desire and necessity for it as this kind of change cannot be coercive. Fortunately, because of the enormous negative progress that society has made in our times, meaning progress that has reached almost total hopelessness and dystopia, where our very existence is threatened from all sides by newer and newer problems that keep emerging, the need for change, for redemption from our very selves, is already there. And if it’s not there yet, the crises will keep hitting us from every direction until we do feel a need to change.

The other factor that is necessary to provide a force of change strong enough to overpower our original natures, is the force of social opinion and mutual support and influence. Social opinion is capable of almost anything. Think of the Nazi regime and how social opinion was able to turn regular people into killing machines. Think of any other social setting where the norms and values of that social environment determine what happens there, even if it is contrary to every individual’s personal qualities.

Thus, the influence of the social opinion, which values caring for others as each one of us cares for ourselves, would create an enormous force that would offset our individual human natures. It would have the power to peel every one of us from our attachment to self-care and add an additional new quality of care for others — the one quality that is missing from our society.

And finally, the third factor, which is necessary to make this possible: is education and large-scale marketing of the new values. Since the issue at hand is change, adopting new morality and values in both thought and action, people can only undergo such a change by practicing it, experiencing it, and being within a society that imbues them with these values and behaviors. Thus people of all ages would have to be engaged in activities, studies, and education, that accomplishes all of that.

Education is kind of a very broad concept because it includes all of the information and influences that we receive from the society around us. This includes, for example, what we see on billboards and advertisements. By being exposed to that information, we are being educated about what we should want, what we should look like, act like, what we should strive for. If we see a billboard advertising a violent movie, it excites a desire to see that movie, maybe to try out some violence in our real lives. If we see a billboard or ad that shows kindness and care for others, we let those thoughts and values penetrate us as the norm, something to be desired.

This is why I get so excited to see articles such as the above on the need to change morality to build a better society. Because every person who reads such an article exposes themselves to a morally good kind of education, gets influenced by it, shifting the tide in the right direction. But understanding just how enormous and momentous of a change this would be can help us actually accomplish such a change, for the first time — something no society has ever been able to do before.

At the same time, notwithstanding the broad public and educational campaigns that are needed, I still completely agree with the author, Anna Mercury, that each of us has the capacity to begin effecting the needed changes by setting a personal example of the new morality, and spreading the values as much as possible outwards. We shouldn’t wait for new educational systems or marketing campaigns to emerge, or for society to adopt the new morality broadly enough so it becomes possible.

Each of us can make the choice, at every moment, to have thoughts, intentions and behaviors, of ourselves as better human beings, human beings who are deliberately and consciously striving to overcome our original egoistic human natures. Even the slightest personal efforts of each of us in this direction have tremendous effects on everyone because they bring this new trend, this new idea, into the collective human consciousness, thus pushing all of humanity closer to such ideas and desires.

But for anyone that is attempting to make this change on an individual level, it is important to feel and know that they are part of a worldwide community of people, part of a worldwide society, that is already adopting and living by these values. Because only within a social environment that supports one another, is it possible to make such changes on a permanent and ongoing basis. Today there are more and more people all over the world who feel the need for change, who no longer agree to be enslaved to their egoistic natures, and who are making efforts to think and act differently. They realize that their personal well-being depends entirely on the well-being of others, and this awareness helps them exercise care for others in thoughts and actions.

It doesn’t matter that the people making this change all over the world do not personally know each other, do not exchange messages or communication online. The communication, and mutual influence, takes place through the invisible web of human connection, directly in hearts, minds, and the subconscious. Hence whenever each of us makes efforts to change, to oppose the egoistic human nature and to be more caring of others and the world, they are operating within an emerging global society where such values and behaviors are becoming the norm.

It’s certainly a minority in the world for now. The minority of those who are already living as a virtuous society of the future. A minority of those who are offsetting the destructive forces of global crisis to ensure the flourishing of everyone in the world.

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