During the last thousands of years, from time immemorial, humans have been “running in circles,” thinking that the mirage before them is real and endlessly chasing shadows. Even though humans do not know why they have come into the world or where they will go after the process of life ends, they still imagine that they have a purpose in life and some target to be met and achieved.
Humans have assumed that they are superior to animals, birds, and other creatures, because, according to them, these beings have no sense of purpose and merely occupy themselves with searching for food, physical pleasure, and procreation. In comparing themselves with other creatures, humans hold the view that they alone are capable of attaining and enhancing knowledge and pursuing intellectual growth, while animals and other beings supposedly lack such capacity.
Of course, there have been several historical instances proving that animals and other creatures possess attributes that humans may not have. Yet the superiority complex of humans over other living beings persists.
Enormous scientific and technological achievements have been recorded by humans in the past, and this trend continues. However, what is conspicuous is that such progress in technology has not been matched by progress in humanity’s overall attitude to life or adherence to value systems. Human conduct is still dominated by negativities such as greed, jealousy, prejudice, proneness to violence, and self-centeredness.
In short, the progress achieved in technological development and material advancement has not been reflected in an improved value system over the last thousands of years. The present behavioral patterns of humans, compared to those of several thousand years ago, do not seem significantly different. One may reasonably conclude that progress in human civilization with regard to values has been nearly zero.
Over the last several centuries, the history of the world has been dominated by violence, conflict, and war, driven by greed for territory, power, and fanatical prejudice. The reasons for conflicts and wars in the past are no different from those that fuel wars today.
The First and Second World Wars were clear examples reflecting the baser attitudes of so-called leaders, when millions of people lost their lives in conflicts for no worthwhile reason. Obviously, the world has not learned lessons from those bitter events, and similar conditions continue even today with no end in sight.
Many other conflicts across the world likewise indicate that humans have not fundamentally changed, with hatred, conflict, and war continuing to shape global events.
Apart from political leadership, the history of individual human behavior also shows little difference. Human activities are often marked by unethical and self-centered attitudes toward day-to-day events, dominated by deceit and falsehood in the pursuit of greed. By and large, human thought processes have remained the same, though there are a few isolated exceptions that do not alter the overall trend.
There have indeed been calls from some erudite scholars and people of goodwill who urge humanity to think beyond the present content of life. They have pointed out the futility of war and conflict and advocated lives rooted in love and compassion. However, such calls from noble-minded individuals have largely been ignored, remaining cries in the wilderness, with the majority of people paying only lip service to ideals of peace and harmony.
Technological achievements provide only a false sense of civilizational progress. Any claim of human advancement based solely on technology amounts to a claim made in a vacuum. While humans have brought about significant technological change, this has been an external phenomenon—material rather than an evolution of the inner mind.
An ancient reflection illustrates this unchanged mindset: day after day, countless living beings die, yet those who remain behave as though they themselves are immortal. For thousands of years, when men and women die—whether by natural or unnatural causes—those around them grieve for a few days and then return to their routines, with little impact on their worldview or their supposed purpose in life. Even the inevitability of death has not led large sections of humanity to introspect or develop a value system capable of fostering peace and detachment.
All said and done, it is now evident that the human thought process has not undergone significant change for the better over the last thousands of years. Progress in the essential aspects of human civilization is nothing to be proud of. When attitudes to life have remained largely unchanged for so long, it may be naïve to hope that they will improve dramatically in the future.
Men may come and men may go, but human civilization appears destined to continue along the same path, with negativities predominating, as has been the case since time immemorial.
