This is going to be longer than usual, but please bare with me: Paradox of Progress We are the children of technology. We take for granted such impossible feats as transporting 300 people from Enugu to Lagos in less than 90 minutes. After all, we live in the space age - a time of unparalleled success. Yet, in spite of our technological progress, social problems and personal difficulties seem more prevalent and prominent than ever before. This paradox is proved by the following examples: Even though technology has provided us with countless time-saving devices, most of us still complain about not having enough time. Despite our alleged efficiency as compared to almost every other period in history, we seem to have less time for ourselves and far less for each other. Even though we live in extraordinary affluence, taking for granted things that were once considered luxuries - color televisions and air conditioning; spending vast amount of money on expensive automobiles, stereo systems and smart phones, a sense of economic decline is widespread. Our economic systems commitment to growth coupled with the effects of mass media advertising has created an insatiable thirst for consumption. Even though agricultural productivity has been sped up and increased by the improvements in farm machinery, fertilizers and genetic modification, but yet, hunger and mal-nutrition continue to be problems. Even though stunning advances has been made in medicine in the form of cure and control of dangerous contagious diseases, transplant of most organs, and re-attachment of severed limbs, several newly recognised diseases and issues has cropped up. The technological advances of the 20th and 21st century though impressive, have not been perceptibly improved our collective health and happiness. Here is a possible explanation: In Escape from Freedom, Fromm explains that until a couple of decades ago, peoples lives tended to be clearly laid out for them. Our forefathers knew that they were going to adhere to the same religion their parents practised, pledge allegiance to the same political authority and plow the same farmland their parents worked. Some had their spouses picked out for them. They had few major decisions to make about their life-style and virtually on alternative pathways. But with the advent of colonial masters, slave trade, western education, independence and subsequent adoption of democracy, the yoke of economic, political and religious bondage was thrown off(somewhat). Today, we face a vast array of decisions about how to lead our lives. We must choose a career from a bewildering galaxy of options and hope to find it rewarding. The host of decisions extends even to the details of everyday life: what kind of clothes, phones, shoes, make up, data subscription, gadgets we want and even the decision of who our boyfriends/girlfriends would be and how long the relationship will last. We have more personal freedom than the other generations. But while our personal freedom has been growing, our old sources of emotional sustenance and security have diminished in effectiveness. The residential stability of the old static villages that had permitted solid friendship networks to develop over generations are on more. The family is no longer the source of security it was and has become a relic of the past. Today, our tendency to pick up and move repeatedly leads us to live in ever-shifting communities. Divorce and mobility has made even the nuclear family to be a less dependable source of emotional support. I believe the same is the case in our political history. We hear our grandfathers recall how well-organised and efficient the government and corporations were during the colonial period. We hear how they applaud the military in government those years ago for doing a better job than the civilian Heads of State. It is thus mind-boggling to compare those mental images with the current political state of the country. It should be expected that things would have been much better now that the nation had moved into democracy and political freedom. It seems that rather than embrace our increased freedom, many of us find it so aversive that we try to escape from it. It suggest that the progress we value so much has undermined our sense of security, scramble our value systems and confronted us with difficult new problems of adjustments. Hence, the basic challenge of life becomes the search for a sense of direction. Songs on Point: Long Way to Go by Cassie Long Way Home by Yanni Frio by Ricky Martin
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 06:29:11 +0000
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