The Upside Down World: Decivilization

A different Way to Look at Things:

The West, under the guise of missionary and trading campaigns, enforced for generations their
claim to the "sovereign right" of civility. This belief has been enforced through imperialism, colonialism (both different forms of slavery) and outright slavery. The West is civilized and the rest of the world is not. The west is right and the rest of the world is wrong. In particular, this notion has been prominent in the areas that were once British controlled. The British empire was so large that commentators stated that the "sun never sets" on British land. They had land in all time zones. Nevertheless, it's interesting that these colonizers who trace their origin to barbaric beginnings in the Mountains of Europe, were once considered by the Roman empire "too dumb to enslave" and to colonize.

Nevertheless, there is a prominent distinction and title claimed by the West: This is the title of "First World" countries. First world countries: capitalistic, and technologically advanced. Other "less developed" countries are given the derogatory title of "third world". These countries are not good enough to be in the first world and it is implied that they are inferior and are not advanced because they are not "modern". In other words they aren't civilized, or as fully civilized as the "First world" countries. Now one must consider the meaning of civility since it is so often used to praise a society or degrade it.

According to Merrian Webster's Dictionary (m-w.com) civilized is: "1 a: a relatively high level of cultural and technological development."
A lot of cultures of the world have a relatively high level development of arts, beliefs, religion, sciences, and practices. Civility is therefore left to the second half of the definition, which is the basis of technological development. The utter most objective for technological progress is enrich human life and the environment that humans live in. Technology, through the development in Sciences, should help human beings. According to this definition of civility, one cannot help but wonder "how truly civilized do we claim to be".

In our process to be truly civilized and advanced in technology, we have been left with a dying Earth. We have caused Global Warming and Climate Change. Our innovation in weapons has caused the deaths of hundreds of millions (Nuclear Warfare). Our superior knowledge in chemical and biological sciences has led to biological and chemical warfare. Capitalism has corrupted mankind's ambitions so that even in the U.S. only 5% of the population control most of the wealth. Capitalism has corrupted ethics and morals and as a result Needy nations are left ignored to fend for themselves because they have no capital worth that's good enough to be invested in. Regions without capital leverage such as oil, gold or minerals are left without capital leverage. Un-healthy hormones are injected into livestock and vegetation in order to be grown at abnormal and unhealthy speeds in order sell a quick buck and make outstanding profits. Consumer products such as electronics and cars are made inferior so that they may always be replaced. Capitalism is the only entity in history to encourage people to buy and trade with money (bargain and barter) that they do not actually have. Wars are now waged solely for capital interests. Large companies and corporations receive tax cuts in reward for their financial support to legislators. Our financial greed has corrupted us and today stock markets world wide are reaping the consequences. The advance of Media and Television has enabled peoples and groups to spread their beliefs and agendas for society. It is interesting that our culture, Western culture is the only culture to support and glorify disrespect to authority, decline of moral right/wrong, use of violence, and family values (mainly through Music and Media). Today in the U.S. the average divorce rate is 50%. The average worker works more hours than any other avg worker in the world and family time as a result is not so easily afforded by the middle and lower classes.

Catch 22?

Maybe global warming and the melting of glaciers is a good trade-off. Maybe the unnatural dependence on medicine (due to unhealthy diets and lifestyles) is a good trade off. Maybe the constant worry of making money, protecting it, and spending it (capitalism) is a good trade-off. Maybe I am wrong! But if the true definition of civility is to advance human life and preserve the most favorable living conditions (society-wise, political-wise, including healthy global temperatures, etc.,) we are living in a backward society, uncivilized and steadily heading to destruction. Our civilization (Western civilization) very well may be the very first civilization to make "progresses" , unconsciously or not, that supports the deterioration of human life, social standards as well as living standards. Making us truly uncivilized.
A society that is truly upside down.

S.M.AFREEKA.M