Civilization

Has Civilization Ended?

If so when did it happen?

To answer this question it will be necessary to provide a concise definition of the object.

Civilization:

Dictionary: Those peoples considered to have achieved a high stage of social and cultural development.

Mine: A non natural and artificial style of life made possible by consciousness and characterized by adherence to ideal conceptions that exclude subservience to the rigors of survival.

In order for civilization to exist it will be necessary for the ruling class to subscribe to the ideals governing the definition of civilization. In western culture those will be the values of Judeo-Christianity: consciousness and separation from the natural world.

Natural life, that is to say all life except human, has its whole awareness concentrated on the requirements of survival: the acquisition of the energy necessary to the continuance of life, that is food, and successful procreation.

Civilized life excludes as many as possible to as great an extent as is possible, through efficiency from the necessity to concentrate on these problems. By doing so, it becomes possible to consider what aspects of natural life are repugnant and can be discarded through some sort of artifice such as the law. Rape for instance, and hand to mouth existence. With the time thus freed, it becomes possible to enhance the remaining interests of life, art for example.

So, does this description of natural life apply to human life in the late twentieth century? Yes, environmentalism is a very big issue and getting bigger with each passing day (environmentalism is most notable for its idealization of natural life), and in these egalitarian times all must assure their own survival. When did it happen? The first example of a return of nature to consciousness happened in Europe at the time of the romantic artists. About two to three hundred years ago. However, a life style is a slow thing to get started and slow also to come to an end, though ending will be faster than starting.

To be more precise, I think civilization actually ended during prohibition in the United States. I think that is the point at which a key community in the civilized world, the US, saw its leaders change from a majority favoring civilized values to one in which they subscribed to natural values. This is reflected in the arts. Up until that time melody and structure characterized popular music, after that time Jazz dominated with a progressive dismissal of melody and structure. In the same way popular writing that was characterized by a structured story line came to an end and writers began to emphasize subjectivity. Comparing Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald to Steinbeck and Dreiser will make clear my point.

Why was prohibition the catalyst? It led the ruling class to adopt an illegal life style, the habitation of illegal establishments, speakeasies, as they were known. This will have made clear to them the tradeoffs between civilization and uncivilized behavior. What are those tradeoffs? Civilization, as was pointed out earlier, provides a segment of the society with the free time to pursue culture and the ability to ignore the acquisition of the requirements of life, food and sex. The price is independence. If one relies on others to acquire for him the requirements of life, he becomes dependent on that source. We are all dependent on our governments. That will mean we have to abide by the rules they devise in order to satisfy our demands for goods and services. That means we have given up our freedom to abide by the rules we devise or no rules at all. Having made this trade, we cannot go back because we quickly become adapted to this style of life and lose our competence to survive in a natural or anarchic world. But, since the values of civilization are decaying all about us, we will be forced into this transition, whether or not we are capable.

As pointed out previously, prohibition provided an opportunity to live for short periods in anarchy. The speakeasy. Some found that they could survive very well in this environment, perhaps even more agreeably than in the civilized world. Others found it impossible and left to politic for its elimination. That was eventually accomplished when prohibition was repealed, but many already knew the truth and they told others. Once a critical mass of the ruling class began to live only provisionally accepting the rules of civilized society because they lacked the ability to escape from it, but dismissing the more burdensome requirements like going to church, saying grace, and dressing for dinner, the end became inevitable.

Of course civilization still exists in pockets, here and there, and is even widespread in Europe, but that is because of long-lasting institutions that take commensurately long to tear down. None the less the tearing down is in progress and will be accomplished before long. The method is called deconstruction. An apt title.

What would be required to return to civilization? The life style that obtained in the last century. A class structured society in which the majority of the ruling class attends church regularly and imposes its values on their families with formal meals including grace and acceptance of within-class marriage. It is impossible to imagine any such thing ever occurring again.