Yin and Yang

Good and Evil are interconnected

Notice how the light and dark are always connected. One grows at the expense of the other but always connected and always flowing.

Civilization is a bit like that. People have made huge advances in technology and with it there are opportunities and luxuries that would have been unthinkable in ages gone by. However, those luxuries come with a price.

Ebb and Flow
Good and Evil
Light and Dark

Fit for a King

Have you ever thought you were living a life fit for a king (or queen)?

My guess is that you haven't.

However, do a little looking. People are able to live in homes with light on demand. Heat or cooling on demand. Water with the twist of a wrist. Access to a world of information at their fingertips. Food from across the world made available at a moments notice and in large quantities. Comfortable beds free from insects. Medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments. The list just goes on and on.

Truly we live in a world where every luxury is available.
........All for a price of course.

Food for All

Modern technology has made farms more productive than ever before. The amount of food that modern machines can harvest is incredible. The plants that we are growing are more productive than ever before in history. Our ability to preserve those foods for long shelf life is incredible. Our ability to ship that food anywhere in large quantities is truly impressive.
....provided you have the money to pay for it.

A voice for everyone

Modern technology has also given everyone a voice. It doesn't matter who you are or where you live you can contact virtually anyone anywhere. Just look at Hive. I can make a post that can be seen around the world with just a few strokes on the keyboard. Indeed with YouTube I have access to the best and brightest the world has to offer with just a simple search of what I want to learn.
.....But the ignorant and ill-informed also get an equal voice.

But what have we lost?

Sure civilization has brought us so many wonderful things. However, what is the price we have paid? What have we lost in our pursuit of luxury?

Loss of Independence

The most obvious thing I notice is that people have lost their independence. People are so used to being part of the greater society that they have forgotten how to live on their own or as part of a small community.

In the past in my country people would walk vast distances to get where they needed to go. During the Gold rush people would travel on food hundreds of kilometers to get to their destination. In today's world people think walking a few kilometers if a hardship and expect the vehicle to take them places.

In the past everyone knew how to grow food, preserve food, and cook food. A grocery store was for luxury items or trade. Now people have largely forgotten how to provide their food needs and reply on their pay and the grocery store (or restaurant) for their food needs.

People have forgotten how to entertain themselves

We live in a world where we can watch any movie, listen to any song, of play any game in mere moments. However, what happens when the music stops, the internet is cut off, or our device is out of power?

Creativity and imagination has become stunted.

When I was young children could entertain themselves by playing with other children using whatever was around. Rocks, sticks, of simple tools could become building blocks of imaginative play. Now the same children look a little lost when the technology is off.
.....and adults often don't function much better.

A loss of community

Civilization has reached a point where we can live in cities which are so large they would have been unimaginable in times gone past. I have been to Manila many times. Population density 45,000 people / sqkm and a population close to 20 million people. Without modern technology, logistics, food production, energy production, waste disposal and so on there is ZERO chance that a city so large could have existed in the past.

However, with such a large crowded city there is ZERO chance for people to feel well connected to everyone in it. In the past there was a greater sense of community as people knew their neighbors, looked after their community and felt more connected.

The loss of community is very sad. Sure there can be online communities that people can feel connected to (here's looking at you #HiveLearners) and people can have small communities within a larger mega city. However the fact remains that modern communities have many people but also a lot of isolation and loneliness.

Merging New and Old

A Bright Future or the End of Everything

Where do we go from here?

It's hard to say. At least for me.

I believe that if we can merge the best from the past and the best of the present we can make a Utopia unlike anything imaginable. With good planning a single building can hold the entire contents of a single village. With good planning vehicles can take people anywhere they want in a short period of time. With good planning enough food can be produced so that no-one need ever go hungry. With good planning technology can be made available to everyone so that all have a voice, all can connect with loved ones, everyone can connect to knowledge and information, and everyone can have a safe secure place to live

However, we aren't there yet. We are stuck in a world where a few have more than they could ever need while many don't have even the basics. We live in a world where a small portion of people make enough junk that they poison the world for the rest who live in it. Where 20% of the population hold 80% of the wealth and the remaining 80% of people fight over the 20% that is left.

Yin and Yang the quest for balance

Now imagine where the world was in balance.

If each person had an equal share...
...If people maintained their independence while contributing to society.
...If people maintained community while being part of a mega city
...If people balanced their needs in the city with the needs of the world as a whole.

....where people and nature could live in balance.

It would be a Utopia worth of calling the "Pinnacle of Civilization"..

... of we can keep on following progress and calling it Civilization and destroy the world we live in.

I certainly hope the world finds a good balance

Or as a Christian I hope that God comes back to restore it for us

Thanks for reading
And as always, look forward to replies and comments :)