Civilization

By SKIP MENDLER

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been operating under a false assumption. All these years, I have been imagining that I had been born into a civilized time.

Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. You may remember that at the end of the ‘80s, with the fall of the Soviet Union and the repressive regimes of eastern Europe, some conservative wag had the temerity to come out with a book entitled “The End of History”—as in, that’s it, capitalism has triumphed, there’s nothing else to be decided. Subsequent events, of course, have proved him wrong on that score.

End of history? Heck, we’re not even out of the Dark Ages yet.

Now before you try to refute that assertion with a litany of our advances in fields like dental medicine and indoor plumbing, let me tell you what I mean by “civilized.” I believe we can be said to be more or less “civilized” as a society, culture, or species to the extent that intentional acts of violence are unnecessary. That is, one would never come to a moment where one feels that one has to resort to causing harm or suffering to another. It might happen accidentally, or as an unforeseen consequence of a decision, but not by intention.

Some reflection will show the implications of such a definition. In such a civilized society, any motivation for violence would have been eliminated. Human needs would be sufficiently addressed, including understanding and treatment of substance abuse and mental illness. Our communication skills, and cross-cultural awareness, would have been well enough developed that conflicts would not arise from interpersonal or intercultural misunderstandings. All theologies would have disavowed violence as a justified means of carrying out their missions.

By such a definition, we obviously have a long way to go. To be fair, we have made some strides. To a large extent, we do regard violence as a last resort, rather than the first. We did get rid of dueling a while ago, and fisticuffs are not generally accepted as a means of conflict resolution any more (except on the Jerry Springer show, of course). In fact, we’ve actually become a very pacifistic society in many ways. I think it might be accurate to say that we are beginning to get a glimmer of what actual “civilization” might look like—but we are also still close enough to the edge of the abyss of absolute savagery to hear its echoes. What veneer of civilization we have managed to develop is still quite thin, and is looking a bit threadbare in many places at the moment.

Some people might think such a society is unattainable—and maybe it is. But what I’m really talking about here is the proper application of a word. Let’s not call ourselves “civilized” if we’re not. And above all, let’s not use the contention that we are “more civilized” than any other given bunch of humans be our excuse for causing them harm or suffering.

If I’m honest with myself, after all, I see that my own veneer of civilization is itself pretty thin, and there’s not as much distance as I’d like to think between me and my “barbarian” ancestors, plasma-screen televisions and ultrasonic toothbrushes nonwithstanding. I haven’t completely gotten the violence out my own system yet. But while we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that we’re further along the road than we actually are, let’s not abandon ourselves to the supposed inevitability of human violence, but realize that this is an ongoing process, a journey that can at least be undertaken, and possibly even completed successfully.

Someone once asked Gandhi, “So, sir, what do you think of Western civilization?”

And as he famously replied, “I think it would be a wonderful idea.”