Today’s world is called a civilized world and the man openly claims with pride that he is civilized. Corporeal progress, the cultural advancement of man, the desire to reach the moon, and the astonishing progress in campaigns for the conquest of the universe. To see all this, this Urdu verse of great poet Allama Iqbal comes to mind.
Urooj-e-Adam-e-Khaki Say Anjum Sihmay Jatay Hain
Ke ye Toota Howa Tara Mah-e-Kamil Na Ban Jaye
Of course, all these mind-boggling material and cultural developments of today’s man are a sign that he is so different from the simple man of flint and the Stone Age if we, with the help of the time machine, make them both stand side by side, it will clearly show that they both are completely different from each other and even not made of the same clay and essence.
This clear difference in the appearance of today’s man from the past and the primitive man is in fact the perfection of cultural evolution. In the thinking of man, God has kept the ability to change from time to time. Sociologists say that man likes to live in a society because his nature prefers communion (Plato’s socialism) instead of horror and isolation. So he went from individualism to family, from family to society, and as a result, built cities and countries. In nature and essence, the requirement of civilization is cultural evolution. Man has reached space from flint today because of his nature and this is called civilization.
This discussion proves that today’s man is civilized and with a little thought it becomes clear how man has become the bridegroom of today’s advanced stage of cultural evolution. But in addition to being civilized, today’s man is also cultured? This is an important question.
Before answering this question, we need to know what is civilization? To understand in simple words without going into terminological and difficult definitions, we have to understand the simple difference between civilization and being cultured. In common parlance, civilization refers to outward and visible development and decoration, while being cultured belongs to esoteric and spiritual qualities, i.e. ethics and morals.
This difference can also be understood from the difference between education and training. For example, education enhances human understanding and consciousness, education gives a person so much knowledge that he can understand what is good and what is bad. Also, what is evil and what is the meaning of good and what are the ambits of both? Which work falls into the realm of good and which comes into a particular realm will be interpreted as evil. Explaining this difference is a function of education, while training is something beyond that. Where the frontier of education end, the frontier of training begins. It is a matter of training to put into action the information that education has provided to man.
It means that education and training have the same difference which the civilization and being cultured have. The difference in appearance and inwardness. By reaching the stage of evolution and progress in civilization, man has reached the peak of his existence today, but has he also reached the peak of ethics and morals? Looking shocked? If we examine the collective life of mankind through the lens of the question of civilization, then it becomes clear that of course, the man is touching the peak of progress and development but as for is the character, ethics, and refinement are concerned, he is still standing it the place where he was in the Stone Age.
One of the meanings of civilization is the way of life. It also has an outward and an inward shape. If you look at civilization from the point of view of appearance, yesterday man was in bad appearance, while today man is wearing the best clothes. But when you compare the inner changes then there is no big difference between the two.
Are the wars over in today’s world? Have today’s humans stopped preying on each other like the barbarians and savages of the past? Has the killing of human beings stopped? Does the practice of enslaving human beings and putting shackles around their necks still exist today as in the past, or has man really become civilized and stopped putting the shackles of slavery on the feet of others?
You may be wondering who enslaves human beings like in the past? Yes, man still enslaves others like the uncivilized man of the past in spite of the claims of civilization and he has not stopped the process of enslavement even today. The procedure has just changed. Before the individual was being enslaved, now entire nations are being enslaved. Aren’t these elements like the IMF, the World Bank, and the world powers doing the same thing on the basis of their power and wealth?
If yesterday’s man was uncivilized by hunting his fellowman with stones, arrows, spears, and swords, today’s man does all this by using dangerous missiles, drone technology, atomic bombs, conventional and non-conventional weapons. So how can a man be called civilized who does all this? If those who used to killed hundreds of thousands with arrows and swords were uncivilized, then what will be called those who shed the blood of millions of human beings in two world wars? The man of the past who used to enslave individuals was indeed rude, but those who enslave the whole nation and countries can be called civilized? No not at all. The fact is that the claims of civilization are all wrong, man has become an advanced and progressed animal today, but he is still far away from the ladder of civilization. The fact is that today’s man is a modern uncivilized man.
