There is an alarming population of paranoid individuals who speak out against the dangers of spreading advanced scientific knowledge (like nuclear science or clock building, for example). They believe that, like most in the world, the more one knows, the more power one has. And everyone knows that adjective power corrupts adverbially.
This fear stems from this fact: People have been programmed, for the purpose of survival, not to trust each other. In a world saturated with indiscriminate massacres, premeditated murders, corporate espionage, and betrayal, it is difficult to trust a member of a species that may spontaneously become violent, like werewolves or hamsters with brass knuckles. And all this because, throughout history, there has been no comprehensive oversight to curb the violent social deviancy that afflicts our world. We either resort to violence, or the threat of violence. But we have evolved beyond the cage and cattle prod.
That’s not to say there have been no attempts to tame the destructive propensity of homo sapiens. Religious institutions and similarly influential ideological groups use words (and the possibility of ostracism) to sway their audience towards cooperation and tolerance, and away from coercion and malevolence.
However, many of these systems become obsessed with hashing out dogmatic judgement--for their own benefit. They subdue their personal fears of obsolescence, by instilling the disciplines of fearfulness, timidity and subservience in their followers. In their selfishness, these leaders fail to see the damage being done to homo sapiens as a whole.
The lazy ignorant mantras adopted by the masses have opened the door to irrationally divisive sentiments merely based on differences in cultural values. Some of these values serve only to insulate their respective cultures, some are misused to that end, while others do nothing for humanity at all. But that they are merely differences should not be a basis for rejection. As a species we should learn to distinguish between the logic that threatens our ability to advance and what ideologies promote and foster a peaceful progress for future generations.
As someone who watches how the promise of progress throughout history can easily become a farce for greed and injustice, I propose that humanity sharpen its specific mission beyond simple procreation and survival. To breed is easy--unless you are a basement-dwelling eccentric with erectile dysfunction, or have some programmed aversion to coital acts.
To guarantee the continuation of our species, it is our responsibility to teach the duty of knowledge, trust the effectiveness of those lessons, and reward healthy and well-intended contributions to our global community. If we don’t start thinking like a planet, there’s no doubt that we will cease to be one.
