It seems the great value in the most ordinary things routinely escapes us: fresh air, sunny skies, free time, disposable income, friends, health and words. We ought to take care about our words, because just as the smile can bring on the associated mood as well as vice versa, so too our words are capable of fashioning our worldview.
Socrates said, “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” And Confucius contended, “If you want to change the world, you must first begin calling things by their real names.” The ideas here are not really novel; they resonate through centuries and millennia (obviously).
“Civilization” is a worthy word. What is civilization? We all have a general impression of what it means. But when we go to define it precisely we find ourselves tongue-tied. Why?
Our minds are not in the habit of ruminating on such philosophical matters. We think about a TV show, a joke, our next vacation, an ailment or injury of some sort, a recent encounter with rudeness or bureaucracy, an item we intend to purchase, a song, a movie, our personal finances, the welfare of a close friend or relative, a delightful food, some scholastic or occupational goal, or that protracted drive home after work. And the result is that our attention to such an important concept as civilization is no attention at all.
Civilization might be easily understood by following the method that we use to define “light” and “darkness”. Each is, of course, the absence of the other. And just as surely, civilization is the opposite of barbarism!
And now, relevantly, what is barbarism? It is an act or set of behaviors where oppression is conspicuous, extreme, and especially where it is routine.
What is “oppression”? Oppression is a “smothering out,” which is to say it is fundamentally at odds with a human individual’s free and unperturbed expression and fulfillment. One is said to be oppressed when he or she suffers a substantial limitation of movement, expression, opportunity, or realization of happiness, and where that limitation is consequent to a legal, authoritative or instrumental action or policy.
Back to the semantic in civilization. Barbarism is its polar opposite. So, to advance our understanding of the integrants of civilization, we venture into the integrants of barbarism, as civilizational virtue may then become more apparent. Barbarism consists in the vulgar maltreatment of human beings. What do we mean, exactly? What are the words “vulgar maltreatment” to convey? It is to speak or behave in such a way as to grossly insult the dignity of a person or persons. And “grossly” here is essential to the definition. A person may call another an a—h— not referencing the literal anus of a donkey-like creature, but something more ostensibly disrespectful. But verbal disrespect is not barbarism. Obscenely cruel and insensate values are barbarous, and this is in impositions and physical cruelties. And it is important to point out here that barbarism maltreats its victims because of what it is, not because of anything inherent in the sufferer! Barbarism does not get its definition from the nature or peculiars of the victim(s).
Barbarism typically starts out in political ideas and fora and social agendas cloaked as something noble and substantially reasonable. Of course we want more employment here at home! Of course we want our nation to do better and better! Of course we want to defend the value and sanctity of the family! Of course we will not shy away from defending our brethren! Of course we need to respond very determinedly to the scofflaw and the criminal! Isn’t that part of being a caring and civilized human being?
In all this, we fancy that we’re defenders of right. But our advocacy goes to methods not civilized at all, but methods barbaric. Our civilization may hold in its highest law the principle that a person is always “innocent until proved guilty,” but then summarily abandon that principle when immediate battle strategy finds it “necessary” to do so. And individuals may claim themselves righteous defenders of human “life” and in the same breath advocate the deliberate and vindictive destruction of life.
Interestingly, barbarism is quite often, ironically, the resort of the very most single-mindedly scrupulous. (Note that no mention of wisdom appears here.) And the modern exemplar of this is the wanton terrorist. He begins as a defender of Godly right and might – indeed unwavering and unquestioning of “divine” rectitude – and ends as a piteous dastard.
But alas, we are not so different as we imagine from the dastardly terrorist. An ancient and insightful religious prophet edifies, “You will know them by their fruit.” And we do not intend any impartial assessing of what we carry in our basket of value pickings. And thus most Americans have little appreciation of the real essence of civilization. We kill when it seems available to us. We torture when it is expedient to do so. We oppress and frame that oppression as “justice” or “military necessity” or as following “the will of the people.” And when we are fearful, when we are at our narrowest and most unfeeling, we too condone marked departures from scruple and decency. Some recent public opinion polls (2004 to 2014) show over 40 percent of Americans approve of deliberate torture in at least some instances. This statistic is worrisome in the extreme! How are we to make civilization last when we have no understanding of it, and we play the game of civilization only inasmuch as it keeps us very personally, and with singular strategic intent, out of jail and out of trouble. Our “civilization” is mere moment-to-moment acquiescence to the laws, and importantly, not to scruple!
Torture, killing and violence are anathema to civilizational probity. Yet moderns daily countenance such blind, unworthy values, at least in the United States of America.
American civilization is thus built on unreliable sand. I have not caused it; I have merely observed and reported on it.
We’re in a hell of a lot of trouble!