The modern world

In the life of a teacher you get some interesting questions at times. Things out of left field, so i had to stammer some-what when a student from Afghanistan who's sitting in on some of my classes asked me post-lecture "what is modernity?"

Now i'd used the term a few times already in the lecture, and rolled out some phrases about the enlightenment, western ethnocentricism to define westernism as modernism, and the rise of rationalism. But as I walked away, it made me wonder what does really define the modern world. What is it that truly separates traditional civilization from the modern, western, developed world ?

The answer i think is : Individualism.

This is perhaps a history unwritten, but a vital one. As Aristotle noted way back 300 years before christ, man is a political animal, one who needs and places society before and as a requirement for his own individual basis and identity.

Yet our two greatest civilizational developments, the savior of mankind's soul (Religion) and mankind's body (the welfare state) came through the assertion of the social over the individual. But in the worst societies around the world, it is the demand of the social over the individual that is used to justify the excesses of genocide, human rights abuse, poor governance etc.

Of course this represents a fundamental shift, the well being of the individual vs the wellbeing and the society. But even fundamentalist Islamist's in their concern for social morality still idealise the sacrifice of the individual (ie suicide bombers) despite their desire for a pre-modern interpretation of the world.

It seems to me wherever mankind achieves the benefit of its species(rather than merely intends), it comes through the advancement of individual rights. Liberalism in seeking individual rights, democracy in seeking individual participation in government, capitalism in utilizing the self-interest of individuals, has created wealth, opportunity and prosperity beyond our imagination.

And yet the rot of individualism lies at the core of modern problems. Those who see the world as without value, those who abuse their bodies, minds and lives because "whats the point, the continual divide between those who so stridently attach to the old values and those who want to seek out on the path to something new.

This is the modern problem, but precisely what defines us. It is a story un-written. One where our laws recognise and defend our individual right to protection, that creates structures to protect ourselves from the actions and flows of our fellow man.
And yet, without societies embracing tradition, the only basis for our values and meaning are now defined within ourselves. A challenge so many of our society are entirely unwilling to undertake.

Individualism may offer us freedom, but however much we may value it, do we actually want it ?