Progress in science and
technology has been extraordinary. The human mind has created miracles that boggle
the imagination.
Can we make the same claim for the
human heart? Have men and women become more considerate, kinder and more tolerant?
Let us glance at some random events that happened 300 years apart — in 1717 and
in 2017.
Anno Domini 1717: on the
American continent, the first black slaves arrive. Also large numbers of Scots-Irish
immigrants due to the famine at home. Horse racing, the major sport in the
Southern colonies, calls attention to America’s prime values — individualism,
competitiveness and materialism. Travel is cumbersome and slow. It takes weeks
to get from Boston to Atlanta, while the New
Horizons probe takes just 8 hours and 35 minutes to zip past the moon.
In Europe the thirteen-year War of the Spanish Succession has finally
ended. After a reign of 72 years, Louis XIV, the Sun King, is dead, leaving his
people destitute. The glory of the French court rapidly fades. In the Tuileries,
King Louis XV, Louis’ grandson, a seven-year old boy with pink cheeks and curly
long hair, receives the Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great.
Peter the Great, 6’ 7” tall, has
lifted his backward and ignorant Russia to extraordinary prominence. He instituted
education, brought in European craftsmen, scientists, builders and teachers. He
created an extraordinary fleet, an invincible army, and subdued Charles XII of
Sweden, the greatest warrior of his era.
On his trip to Paris, the always
curious and eager-to-learn Tsar explores the pre-Napoleonic, narrow passageways
of the city jammed with people, vendors, beggars, singers, pickpockets, quack
doctors and carriages. Human excrements are freely dumped from the windows above
and mingle with the odors of horse manure. For a neater appearance, the streets
are covered daily with fresh straw, which at night is swept off into the river
Seine. During the day, Parisian women use the river to wash their clothes. The
streets swarm with prostitutes; but visitors, who don’t want to risk their
health or their lives, stay away from them.
Paris is the best-lit city in
Europe thanks to some 6,500 candle-lamps that are refilled each day. Around
midnight, however, one by one they flicker and die, plunging the city into
darkness. Anyone who values his or her life is behind locked doors.
We fast-forward to the year
2017: In the USA a highly controversial president is inaugurated. In Bangladesh
a law to end child marriage and to force underage girls to marry their rapists is
about to be passed. Our pets are mercifully granted death if severely injured
or sick. But in most states of the US no such mercy is granted to people no
matter how much they suffer. Scientists keep warning us about overpopulation
and the depletion of our resources; nonetheless, our lawmakers oppose a woman’s
right to have an abortion. A hate-motivated arsonist burns down a mosque in
Bellevue, WA, leaving its Muslim community without a place to pray. But not for
long. A close-by church offers them a large space free of charge.
There is no doubt, science and
technology have progressed enormously. Can we say the same about the human heart
— has it expanded in wisdom and understanding? Searching for evidence among my
friends, I’d say yes, and yes again!
But other evidence belies my
findings — little girls forced to marry their rapists; women denied the right over
their body; arsonists motivated by hate; thieves waiting for darkness and killers
for opportunity. And who knows the motives of lawmakers — power, wisdom, goodness,
or celebrity?
Now as then, the world has harbored
people of every description — some heroic, some wise and co-operative, some talented,
generous, and good. And yet, there are plenty of others who are not. For in the
last analysis, yesterday, as well as today and tomorrow, it is always up to the
individual to strive for a better self.
