European Moment: No Noble Time

There has been no noble time for us as humans. I once thought that we must have had a more noble time than this; we must have had a time where we were concerned with the other as a common human, but I cease to believe that anymore. There is no proof. There is no record of such a mass consciousness which regards one another with common respect and consideration. If a time could have occurred, which could be but is not now either, it must have been during the Enlightenment. During that time of understanding where people yearned to be considered humanly and fought to be respected could have been such a time, but it was not. So much change occurred during that time period that it was a possibility, if only slight. After witnessing so much death and suffering during the plague, one would hope that it would profoundly change the dynamics of our human relationships as a whole, but it does not. I liken it to the experience I have every month: I bleed and it is uncomfortable, messy, and alters the way I live my life, but when it ends, as it always does, I completely forget that it happens. I don't think about it at all. It is not until it comes again and I go through it all another time that I think about dealing with it. It must be some sort of psychological switch that women have, that they can go through this roughly twelve time a year and remain sane. I think history has this kind of magic too. People can be so terribly mistreated, but when it ends they can turn around and terribly mistreat someone else. Or maybe it is like the conservation of energy, a child of the scientific revolution. Energy is never lost it just changes forms. If we take the actions of France during their revolution: the people take hold of the Enlightenment's ideals of Humanism and human equality and they become more Democratic. But if we take power as energy, where does that dominating power go, it does not disappear it only transfers, so it transfers to the colonies which belong to the French. I am only using the French as an example, all of the European powers do this, even Belgium; you know it's ramped if Belgium playing along. How do you play fair if you are trying to win such a game? I don't think you can. If you could, that moment might have proven a good time to try: population was lower due to the plague, humanism was making humanity important, science was opening minds, and industrialism had the ability to de-dehumanize people in the workplace. Maybe I'm an unrealistic idealist. Whatever I am, I am ready for humans to evolve into a new species that is concerned and values our potential for love.

(wc 480)