Brief thoughts on humanity

Western society’s main trauma is its inability to appreciate that which it is has achieved. All our basic human needs are catered for. We are fed regularly, abundantly clothed and housed. We control the spread of disease and our medicine is largely successful. Genetic science is pushing towards recreating ourselves more perfectly. We are, very sensibly, separating sexual pleasure from reproduction.

But we have been side-lined, and it looks to be more than just a minor hold up, by our perverse belief in individuality. We have become detached from the sense of a species moving towards perfection. Perhaps we know too well the specifics of space and time and, understanding our insignificance within this vast plain, we cannot bring ourselves to take those final steps towards utopia, sustainability, peace – words that have, somehow, taken on a kind of mundanity. It is as if we have run twenty-five miles of a marathon only to get distracted on the final stretch.

"Is the goal really worthwhile," we wonder. "I have all these wonderful specific items in my life. I have eaten fine food – roasted cashew nuts – whilst on a fast train to Paris – one hundred miles per hour – with my headphones playing music – The Beach Boys – recorded and replicated to the highest possible standards." This is far beyond anything achieved by any other species.

We are asking whether it was ever actually a good idea to aim for the perfect society. Our artists suggest that such a society would become its own kind of hell. No vanity, no superstition, no jealousy. It would be a colourless world of drone-like mechanism. They suggest that variousness and interest are attributes exclusively available to a society of contrasts: as if homelessness, famine, domestic abuse are the natural match for fine architecture, healthy eating and common geniality. But this is not true.

The society we have been working towards does not dismiss individuality. It will just move away from identity as socio-economic alignment. Instead, identity will be about nuance of personality. Individuality will be taken away from products and styles and given back to character. ‘Taste’ will not disappear but it will become more generous as we stop restricting our decisions – subconsciously or otherwise – based upon what others will think.

It is not natural that we should improve. It is entirely unnatural. We should not mistake mellenia of human progress for something accidental or inevitable. As humanity takes a well earned break, moments from the finish line, we are making it harder and harder for us to rise to our feet, shake off the cramp in our limbs, and make our way steadily towards the goal.