Era of Enlightenment

[Falcon]

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the Era of Enlightenment. If there was one era to live in during human civilization, I would choose the Enlightenment era no doubt. In this era, there was the American Revolution and the drafting of our constitution, Mozart, Newton, etc. Mankind as a whole made remarkable and noticeable improvements. As I read more about enlightenment figures, I am astounded by their completely different mindset. These people did not succomb to corruption. Benjamin Franklin wielded so much power being the printer that he was, you would wonder why he didn't use it to become filthy rich. He didn't do that, what he did was use it as the voice of the lower and middle class. I slowly began to realize that these enlightenment figures were at such an advanced moral level, nothing that you would find common today. The amount of empathy and wisdom they had was astounding. You wanna know who were the real pushers of human civilization? It was these people. Unlike corporations and such entities that try to take credit to this, enlightenment figures were not shackled by the bonds that greed brings (selfishness).

What is troubling is that as I read more and more about the Enlightenment era, I am finding out that the times we live in is the opposite of such an era. There has been much recording and studying of what the Enlightenment era is, but there isn't much on what its opposite is. As I observe more and more, our lifestyle, society, and mindset of our time embody everything the enlightenment era fought against. I personally am ashamed to take part in such a disgraceful era. We will go down in history books as the age where we threw all those values away.

This may sound a little crazy, but I realized that the person of our time that many of us know of that embody enlightenment values is Pook. I came to this realization after reading the ending paragraph of his last article. http://dapook.blogspot.com/2007/10/difference-between-matriarchy-and.html

"For yourself, plant your seed of Talent and grow it. Follow your passion in life. Pursue your dreams. Get better, every day. But for the nations, it would be to discard the values that prop up animal values as 'noble' and raise the hated 'noble' values back to their true place. Let Wisdom, not Beauty, wear the crown and let Time and Talent, not Money or fun, hold the guiding scepter."

Bingo, that's a big part of the enlightenment mindset right there. Not only that, he seems to recognize what hurts the enlightenment mindset in that very article too. He refers to such mindset as 'animal-values'.

What I seem to be wondering is that can our era get any worse? When will we hit rock bottom? Will it come to a point where people cannot get any more selfish, or show anymore intolerance to our fellow human beings? When will the corruption in our politics get crushed?

I don't mind going against the grain and living a life different from most people. To me, it's a challenge worth living for. But will I ever live to experience an age of enlightenment?

 

[speakeasy]

I tend to stray away from the notion of idealizing any particular generation or zeitgeist. There was plenty of selfishnish and greed during the "age of enlightenment." I mean this was the era of colonialism, decimation of native peoples and slavery. Plus you had a lot of serfdom. You didn't even have much of a middle class back then. Wealth was concentrated and it was rich land owners who called the shots. I'm not saying it was all bad, but don't get caught up in looking at that time in history as better than ours necessarily. In many ways it certainly was not, especially depending on who you ask.

 

[Falcon]

I tend to stray away from the notion of idealizing any particular generation or zeitgeist. There was plenty of selfishnish and greed during the "age of enlightenment." I mean this was the era of colonialism, decimation of native peoples and slavery. Plus you had a lot of serfdom. You didn't even have much of a middle class back then. Wealth was concentrated and it was rich land owners who called the shots. I'm not saying it was all bad, but don't get caught up in looking at that time in history as better than ours necessarily. In many ways it certainly was not, especially depending on who you ask.

Yes, what you say is true, there definitely are some bad spots. It's actually interesting especially when dealing with slavery. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both were ahead of the times in America, they actually opposed slavery. But unfortunately even they had limits to their influence. I may be idealizing a little but I don't think it is outrageous to say that there are ups and downs in human civilization and the enlightenment era was definitely heading upward while our own seems much the opposite. Sometimes I ask, why don't we have people like the enlightenment figures in our society? I mean, surely they must exist out there, but how come they are no longer looked up to?

 

[speakeasy]

We just might have those figures around today but just don't recognize it. History is usually the final judge and most people's greatest glory comes long after they're dead. I mean look at the abolitionists. At their time, they were probably seen the way we see PETA people now. But history proved them to be right in hindsight.

 

[Firepower]

Each era had its own weltgeist. I've tempered my favorites (The Enlightenment) with the reality of smallpox, polio and candlelit reading.

If I had to bear these realities, I'd be a Venetian prince or a Borgia during The Enlightenment and really have a fun gottdam time

 

[Falcon]

One thing I like to keep looking into is the causes of the Age of Enlightenment. There are many who say that it was things such as the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War that made people start to question their behaviors and beliefs in search of a higher wisdom and knowledge. Although I definitely believe that these horrible events caused human beings to look at life differently, does that mean that for it to happen again (another age of enlightenment), something horrible must occur? Do we have to make a mistake (like carelessness of nuclear weapons leading to a nuclear fallout or ignoring global warming) in order to question our beliefs and have change in the way we see life? I'm actually challenging that we don't need to have something bad happen. It was Pook who mentioned the importance of 'foresight' in his posts and that learning from mistakes was not the only way. Considering that the age of enlightenment was ushered in by a very few select group of men, geniuses that were able to change the whole world, why can't it happen today? Is it our society that is holding them back? I don't know, sometimes I ask these questions because I feel that we were given our huge amount of potential for a reason, ya know? I'm willing to bet maybe that's the same question the enlightenment figures thought.