Unprecedented Advancement and Ethical Crises

The World had been developing since the start, but some eras are more rapidly evolving than others. For example, Industrial Revolution is the farthest incident we can go that we can understand with the scope of today because of the working conditions, crowds living in cities, unimaginable immigration to bigger living spaces, creation of ideologies, mass consumption and production, mass population and the establishment of the metropolitans. For the first time in history, nature lost a battle against mankind, but the war is still going on today and nature is very close to capitulate against humanity. This is where the problem begins because if nature loses, we might have to look for another living space. We try to make nature our hinterland, but our ambition is misplaced. If we win this war, we will be defeated ultimately.

The tension between human progress and natural destruction is not a new observation, but it is one that has grown more urgent with every passing generation. What distinguishes our current moment from all previous eras is not merely the scale of transformation, but the velocity of it, a velocity so extreme that neither our moral philosophy nor our political institutions have been able to keep pace. In the 19th century Karl Marx mentioned an alienation phase and he lived through the Industrial Revolution. This statement was true as we still see the remnants of it today, and today it is more severe and ferocious. We do not recognize our work and treat our products as if we are performing a ritual. The thing that consumes most of our time is our jobs today. This new system operates exactly like a religion. Its dogmas are dictated by corporations, its bureaucrats and CEOs act as the new high priests, and the ultimate salvation of humanity is now measured solely by profit margins. We treat our daily labor not as a meaningful craft, but as a mindless ritual to appease this new deity; Corporates. We can determine this: The office has become the modern temple. This is what Marx warned us about; we lost our genuine connections and intrinsic values. So, we can interpret this from the situation we observe as Nietzche said; The God is dead. But why? It’s because emotions are dead. We forgot or do not care how to be human and focused on success and ambition. In this dark road we do not know anybody, do not recognize anybody, and do not let these NPCs intervene between our goals and us. People and politicians do not really know about Machiavelli that much let alone understanding him, but they really try to imitate him by using his popular words like “The ends justify the means” as their shield in order to reach their final destination but nobody realizes Immanuel Kant was right too. Intentions matter as much as results and a reasonable human being must consider all. Yet, this consideration of intentions is precisely what modern institutions actively discourage. We live under the profound hypocrisy of modern society and its structures. From the corporate ladder to the digital media, our institutions preach collaboration, ethical responsibility, and community, but they exclusively reward individualism and ruthless efficiency. We are facing a schizophrenic system that demands Kantian morals while doing our job but on the other hand requires Machiavellian tactics for survival. This resembles Max Weber’s Iron Cage metaphor a lot. Weber says that humans are imprisoned in an iron cage while pursuing success and ambition, and this cell is mechanic, meaning we created this cell with our bare hands. We became “Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart” as Weber stated. But what to do to absolve ourselves?

Velocity is a drug and it is the ultimate drug, and we are all drug addicts. Humanity’s whole search was about immortality. Death is our enemy and the enemy always wins but we must fight with it whatsoever. Our technological improvements’ first objective was prolonging the final confrontation with death. Life expectancy is at all-time high right now, but we do not know what to do with the life we got. This emotional nothingness has given us a modern epidemic-like situation. We got obsessed with our obsessions, our own uniqueness. Everybody likes the thought of being the main character. The inevitable consequence of this collective narcissism made us forget how it is like to breathe, stop, and enjoy the moment for a while. What we need to do is ignore all the notifications from lucky ones, stop hurrying and plan everything step by step. We need to act dignified, not fast or not slow, but at a very definite pace.

In the end, the ultimate act of rebellion in a world obsessed with velocity and endless production is simply to stop. We must realize that the war against nature we started during the Industrial Revolution has ultimately become a war against our own human nature. We do not need a new living space or another planet to escape to; we need to reclaim the empty or occupied spaces we have abandoned. We need to dominate our inner voices and break free from the religion of speed. Adaptation is the true measure of humanity’s maturity. If we can handle the social and economic disruption, maybe we can eliminate the world leaders and CEOs urge to conquer and obtain everything for themselves. 

REFERENCES

• Kant, I. (1998). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals (M. Gregor, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1785).

• Machiavelli, N. (2003). The prince (G. Bull, Trans.). Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1532).

• Marx, K. (1932). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. Progress Publishers.

• Nietzsche, F. (2001). The gay science (J. Nauckhoff, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1882).

• Weber, M. (2001). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (T. Parsons, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1905).