This election is about real choice. It's about taking the country back - back to a worldview based on the worst side of human nature - or moving it forward, into a future based on what we have learned about making the world a better place. The Enlightenment was one of the great clashes in which the world moved ahead. It came about by questioning traditional values, customs, and morals in the light of growing belief in the power of rationality and burgeoning scientific inquiry. It helped drive the American Revolution.
Today we're facing a similar choice between a world shaped by rational behavior based on the best science and information we can get, versus those who want to return to a world driven purely by greed, fear, and ignorance. There are those who believe and argue that the only way to view the world is on the basis of "For me to win, you must lose." They consider this natural law, an unchanging truth. But like so much else they profess, it just ain't so. What is coming to light makes the case for the Enlightenment even stronger today than it was in the 1700's.
IF you can spare just over 10 minutes today, follow me over the jump to a video which will lay this out simply and beautifully in a bravura display of animation bringing words to life.
I ran across this video while checking out Geek Culture, a web comic devoted to all things geeky - science, technology, and the way they and humans interact. What I found today was a video that took a 10 and a half minute talk by Jeremy Rifkin and brought it to life with animation drawn on a white board. Titled "The Empathic Civilisation" it's one of a number of videos RSA has put together to illustrate the concepts and ideals they are interested in promoting.
For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.
Conservative ideology - the "Anti-Enlightenment" - is on the march today, fueled by billions of dollars, dedicated propaganda efforts, control of media channels, and outright thuggery. Patron Saint Ayn Rand championed the idea that Selfishness is the one true driving force behind all human progress, and it fits in nicely with a corporate agenda for an economy based on mindless consumption regardless of the consequences. The proponents of this agenda are rewriting and reinterpreting history to claim that their world view is the only possible correct one.
Unfortunately for them, there is a growing body of research that demonstrates they are wrong. While humans are greedy, selfish, fearful, and brutish - that's not the complete picture. It turns out humans and many other species have a capacity for empathy as well, and that humanity has slowly been learning how to extend that ability more and more widely across history. It's not an inevitable tide by any means - but in a world where there are more and more humans upon a dwindling resource base, empathy is the tool we must embrace if we do not want to turn our future into a race to the bottom.
It is a quality Conservatives lack; they can experience empathy only for themselves or those whom they perceive as members of their tribe. They have crippled themselves emotionally and intellectually by denying an essential part of human nature and the broader community of life - and they are attempting to force the world to conform to their pathology. That would be a vast, possibly fatal mistake for the human race.
Sit back, let your mind relax for about 10 minutes or so, and watch as the words of Jeremy Rifkin come to life before your eyes. And if what you see interests you, there is a compendium of the vast body of research showing that empathy matters in the book The Spirit Level, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
Enjoy the show.
UPDATE: I changed the title from "The Choice: Taking the Country Back or Forward" to the more provocative one in hopes of generating a little more interest in the video. It's actually more to the point about the subject of this diary.