Look forward
As society develops, new products and devices become accepted. The older technology is either discarded entirely or retained for specific applications. This is true for communication (going from land line, mobile to cell and internet phones), transportation (horses, autos, modern cars and motorbikes), cooking (fire, electric, microwave) and sound and video (plastic records (78s), stereo hi-fi, tapes and finally CDs and DVDs).
There is always a movement within society that believes that the "old ways" are best, that they seem to be more "natural," more consistent with nature. This can go from the extreme of the Cambodian communist Khmer Rouge, who forced the population of Phnom Phen and other cities back into the countryside in order to reverse the process of "capitalist" development, and in the process murdered a million of them, to the advocates of weaving and country crafts. An example was the belief of Mahatma Ghandi, who wanted every Indian to have their own loom for producing material, to Pandit Nehru who believed that only by developing heavy industry could India truly advance.
But, if you take a person with a 3G cell phone and a DVD player and suggest that they go back to a land line and records, they would laugh at you. That's why I can never understand the attraction that nature worship and going back to the past (retrogression) have for some people.
There is no doubt that medical science has worked, it has extended the average life expectancy in the West from ca. 50 years about 100 years ago to ca. 80 years now and with the understanding of the germ basis of infectious disease has produced a revolution in hygiene and therapy. Why would anyone therefore take to "alternative" medicine, such as Ayurvedic (Indian) or Homeopathy, which have been proven in scientific tests not to work. I understand that scientific medicine has not so far been able to cure all human diseases, but evidently that is the way to go.
In parallel, there have been theories of society's organization, particularly Marxism and syndicalism, that led to actual tests of these theories under Fascism in Italy by Mussolini, in Spain by Franco, Nazism in Germany under Hitler and Communism in the USSR under Stalin. These were great failures for two reasons, first they were repressive and expansionist and second they failed to deliver the goods, literally, they failed as economic systems to improve the conditions of their peoples.
Another system that threatens is militant Islam, or Islamism, that is both a religion and a political system, whose aim is to take over the world and to instal a universal Caliphate. However, the likelihood of this system actually giving economic development to its peoples is no greater than the prior belief systems (in a real sense Fascism and Communism were belief systems based on irrational assumptions). Islamism represents a truly retrogressive system in direct opposition to the forces of progress and modernity that are embraced by our liberal democratic societies, that are based on the ideal of the individual being paramount with the inherent accretion of human rights.
In order to ensure that we remain liberal democracies where everyone's rights are protected, we must continue to look forward and develop. In doing so, innovation and science are our greatest assets.
There is always a movement within society that believes that the "old ways" are best, that they seem to be more "natural," more consistent with nature. This can go from the extreme of the Cambodian communist Khmer Rouge, who forced the population of Phnom Phen and other cities back into the countryside in order to reverse the process of "capitalist" development, and in the process murdered a million of them, to the advocates of weaving and country crafts. An example was the belief of Mahatma Ghandi, who wanted every Indian to have their own loom for producing material, to Pandit Nehru who believed that only by developing heavy industry could India truly advance.
But, if you take a person with a 3G cell phone and a DVD player and suggest that they go back to a land line and records, they would laugh at you. That's why I can never understand the attraction that nature worship and going back to the past (retrogression) have for some people.
There is no doubt that medical science has worked, it has extended the average life expectancy in the West from ca. 50 years about 100 years ago to ca. 80 years now and with the understanding of the germ basis of infectious disease has produced a revolution in hygiene and therapy. Why would anyone therefore take to "alternative" medicine, such as Ayurvedic (Indian) or Homeopathy, which have been proven in scientific tests not to work. I understand that scientific medicine has not so far been able to cure all human diseases, but evidently that is the way to go.
In parallel, there have been theories of society's organization, particularly Marxism and syndicalism, that led to actual tests of these theories under Fascism in Italy by Mussolini, in Spain by Franco, Nazism in Germany under Hitler and Communism in the USSR under Stalin. These were great failures for two reasons, first they were repressive and expansionist and second they failed to deliver the goods, literally, they failed as economic systems to improve the conditions of their peoples.
Another system that threatens is militant Islam, or Islamism, that is both a religion and a political system, whose aim is to take over the world and to instal a universal Caliphate. However, the likelihood of this system actually giving economic development to its peoples is no greater than the prior belief systems (in a real sense Fascism and Communism were belief systems based on irrational assumptions). Islamism represents a truly retrogressive system in direct opposition to the forces of progress and modernity that are embraced by our liberal democratic societies, that are based on the ideal of the individual being paramount with the inherent accretion of human rights.
In order to ensure that we remain liberal democracies where everyone's rights are protected, we must continue to look forward and develop. In doing so, innovation and science are our greatest assets.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:18 AM
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