While thinking about this blog I did a YouTube search for a TED talk about revolution. A TED talk should be the resource for me to solve the question of what a revolution is, right? These are supposed to be the brilliant minds of our age. During my search I came across this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I
During this lecture about a need for a revolution in education Sir Ken Robinson presents the idea of revolution in a very similar manner to Hannah Arendt. Both paint revolutions as a return to the basics of what it means to be human. For Arendt this meant undeniable freedoms such as assembly, unjustified restraint, and the ability to petition. For Robinson this meant returning education to an individualized approach. He proposes to make education more humanized. In this talk Robinson says, "We don't need evolution, we need revolution." Basically, when we cannot progress me must return to where we originated. For me this answers a lot of questions, but it the question still arises: why evolve we the final solution is to revolve?
Personally I believe that we need to evolve because we need to change. Without a consistent definition of person-hood the human body must constantly to adapt to what culture it faces. However, I believe that the body wants to naturally return to the state from which it came, or, the body wants to revolve. The difficulty lies in how we define the natural state of the body. For example, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the natural rights vary from assembly and speech (much like Arendt) to abstract ideas such as marriage and education. Even this 'universal' declaration cannot look past certain social constraints. I believe that if we as people evolve into a universal state then we will revolve back to the basics of survival, which isn't really an evolution at all.
The first thing that came to my mind after reading your post is an explanation, very simply defined (perhaps even oversimplified), but I think it serves as a good example as to the difference between evolving and revolving. Do you enjoy being out of doors, alone in the wilderness, or the hustle and bustle of the city? While this question is very simplistic, and only applies to people on an individual level. I do think that one can learn about which state of mind they are in by answering it. To me, one who enjoys the wild, natural state of the outdoors would be one who tends to be more on the "revolving" side - going back to the original state of man where life itself depended on the whether, geography, etc. One who enjoys the busy, fast paced city life may be more on the "evolving" side, straying away from man's natural tendencies and evolving into a more "civilized" creature.
ReplyDeleteI find myself somewhere in the middle, while I always welcome the chance to explore the outdoors and face the challenges that come with it, I also enjoy the education, technology, and comfort that developed as humans evolved. While I live in a constant state of evolution, I always have the desire to revolve back to the simplicity of being out doors, out of the reach of technology and civilization.
Wow what an awesome TED talk! One quote in particular I pulled out of it was, "Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent and not a singular conception of ability." The need for revolution to me means that what we as a society are doing currently, we are doing it wrong. On the other hand, evolution is something that is constantly occurring because of the belief that by reinventing ourselves or our electronics or our food or whatever else will make our lives better. Sir Ken Robinson, however, addresses this idea in that just because we are coming up with more advanced smart phones or ways to preserve food for 500 years does not mean that our lives are being enriched and we as humans are truly happy. Simplicity can be incredibly fulfilling and enjoyable, and Robinson is right that we should not all follow the same path, because we are humans, not robots.
ReplyDeleteAn intriguing thought I am grappling with after watching this TED talk is that of prioritization. I think that one important influence of the beginning of a revolution is that priorities have shifted. Robinson is calling for a revolution in education, because he feels the priorities are askew. Children should be out playing, using their imagination, not taking Chinese so they can be enrolled in an expensive private kindergarten class! I wonder if the reason society often pushes and pushes and pushes rather than embracing the simplicities in life, is because we are trying to find that point where we can go no further, where we have finally reached total knowledge. Although this is an intriguing idea, is finding that boundary worth all the stress it creates? I suppose that is for each of us to decide as we embark upon our paths for individual fulfillment.
I wanted to follow up from both this blog post and discussions in class on evolution. There are a few common misconceptions about the word. First, evolution is not gradual. It can be extremely rapid. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium . Second, evolution is not heading towards some goal. It includes random drift and evolving "backwards" or towards a previous genetic configuration. These first two points can be easily demonstrated with E. Coli in a nutrient broth. Third, evolution is not cultural. Clear evidence has not been provided that culture is tied to reproductive success except in some few special cases (such as the Swedish grandmother effect -- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874731/). One should look out for overgeneralization of scientific results. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly for 2014, the whole mechanism and tendency of natural selection (Darwinian theory) is now very unclear, due to advances in epigenetics. We now know that we can "evolve" on the time scale of minutes.
ReplyDeleteI think it is totally fine to use "evolution" in the sense of gradual change we like, or change for the better, as long as we understand that this is not how evolution in the scentific sense works.