Modernity
Modernity is a text document stored in the THIRIEL terminal.
Contents
On Modernity
From the Book of Annotated Internet Comments, by Eustathius (2):
If modernity is so great, why is everyone so fundamentally disappointed with the world? Why do we sigh with pleasure at the sight of old houses, but feel nothing but depressed and alienated by skyscrapers? Why do we yearn for lush forests and wide plains, not narrow canyons between buildings? 5358f we love all this technology so much, why is our idea of happiness to get away from it? Could it be that progress is just a story we tell ourselves to justify why we allow ourselves to be dominated by inhumanity, and older forms of living have something to offer?
It seems that many of us share this desire to immerse ourselves in Nature. Though we are ourselves entirely technological beings, we enjoy and value the Earth's diverse and unpredictable biosphere. But does that mean that progress is just a narrative, as this ancient commenter suggests, or does it mean that technological progression and a love of the natural world are not in fact mutually exclusive?
Comments
| (Failed to load profile): And yet if this person was left on his own somewhere in the wilderness he would feel nothing but terror. The appreciation of Nature is rooted in the experience of civilization; of safety. |
| Athena: True, but he's still right. So much of what our ancestors created in their last years was alienating to the majority of people. |
| (Failed to load profile): Then the question isn't one of modernity, but of control. |