INEWORD P

Monday, May 1, 2023 | Pinewood International American School of Thessaloniki

Is Our World Truly Progressing?

E lectra Beli | Contributing Writer

“Then there is us. Humans. The most intelligent species on this planet. The thinkers… the inventors… the visionaries… the brains that fought disease and delayed death… The Einsteins, the Teslas and the Musks. The geniuses that put a vehicle on the red planet, a man on the faraway moon, and that plastic bag in the vast ocean. The same one that killed that stupid turtle.” This extract from one article in the Hindu Times perfectly illustrates the paradox that characterizes the human species, namely, how, despite our tremendous capacity for intellect, artistic creation and scientific progress, we have brought about the destruction of the ecosystem and the near extinction of many species, in this particular case, that of the seaturtle. However, on a broader scale, that transgresses the boundaries of ecology, it poses an extremely significant question: Is our world truly progressing? And the obvious answer would be “Yes, of course it is! After all, “we are the Einsteins, the Teslas and the Musks. The geniuses that put a vehicle on the red planet.” What most people fail to realize though is that this progress is only technological or scientific. We fail to realize that our world is actually not progressing on an intellectual, a spiritual or, otherwise, a truly human level. It is about time we realized that the progress as most people perceive it nowadays is a mere illusion, and that true human pro- gress does not lie in technological or scientific progress, but in the progress of the only thing that actually has power, as the poet Rimbaud wrote, the “Spirit”, or otherwise, the Intellect. And as so many facets of our modern societies undoubtedly and sadly testify to, our Intellect, or otherwise, our passion for truth, for justice, for virtue, has certainly not been progressing.

How many tragic aspects of our supposedly modern, progressive, humane world should I outline? Where should one start from? The constant wars… the human trafficking, the poverty, the famine, the feeling that modern humans live in a state of constant stress, constant melancholy, the feeling that we are all like frogs, very slowly simmering in a casserole, till death comes without us realizing it; without any protest, without any complaint. Where should one start from and where should one end?

…We can live without a newer generation of iPhones, but what about the rights of those who have no equal opportunity? Those who live in war-torn zones? Those who have no access to the welfare or health system? Those who are not allowed to have a voice? How can technology solve these issues? If all our attention is directed towards technology, we will miss the true source of our problems, namely, lack of intellect, which is the only thing that