A course of human evolution, starting from the Stone Age when our predecessors were living in caves, up to the Digital Age in our day, when we literary live online, has taken its full round. Similar to human life, civilizations have also a life-cycle. An old is replaced with a new, which, in turn, suggest a different world-view. This paper presents an issue that the modern world is not contempt with modern world's view. I will thereby discuss why the modern world attempts to redeem the early world view, or, to put it simply, why civilized world wants to go back to the uncivilized world practices. Three practices will be compared with the olden days: male status today versus female status before, individualism versus communalism, and law today versus custom before.
The four civilizations of our century include Western civilization, Islamic society, Hindu society, and the Far East. It is possible, however, that there is a clash of civilizations. By far, civilization and culture have become inseparable elements. Yet their descriptive meaning differs. Civilization has shaped agriculture, technology, and established order and institutions, while culture has dealt with traditions, values, and religion that is common to all its members. Representatives of our early civilization cultivated land, bred animals, engaged in trade, built the first cities and created their own writing and class systems. Step by step, they transformed the Old civilization into the Modern civilization, by expanding it. Humans created and advanced in their economic, political, and industrial systems to benefit from them. It means that uncivilized people adapted to the civilized world. To spread civilization, our ancestors often used force and, many a time, organized religion. Moreover, since its first introduction, religion got a new attitude in the Modern civilization, with a personal and sexual freedom flourishing. Religion has always been a powerful force in society and it stayed this way up to present-day time. Early and modern societies have cultivated different kinds of religions and faith to enhance stability in their communities. Present-day religion regulates those cults and sects that propose dangerous religions to its believers. With the increasing demand for religion, we have come to see new forms of it in opposition to traditional ones. Especially, believers advancing from religion to spirituality in today’s consumer society.
A modern practice, compared with the olden days, includes: male status today versus female status before - an issue with fundamental changes. We see that the role of woman in Western society has radically changed. On the other hand, in certain parts of the world males still possess lots of privileges than females never had. The subordination of women is still present in contemporary world. For instance, still in our day, women and men work in different occupations. While the population of men and women around the world is aging, it has certain resemblances. According to Women in America, women and men engage later in marriage, and fewer women get married now than before. Also more women never have a child, or they give birth to their first child at a much older age. From this, single-mother households exist more often and have lower earnings, compared with single-father households. If we look at poverty these days, it is associated more with women than men. A topical issue is equality between women and men. Today we see that more women receive a graduate education, which is a progress over men. Although women earn the majority of degrees, men are still ahead of women in science and technology. A contemporary issue is lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identities that were not commonly addressed before.
A course of civilization has acquired its negative effects as well. First, it restricted people, in some ways, and imposes laws. Second, it exploited and damaged the environment. Third, wealth has become a luxury of the rich. And fourth, the early communities formed around tribes, ceased to live in their communal system and were subordinated to hierarchy. Individualism today versus communalism before, according to Schwartz et al., shows that communalism was present in different parts of the world and among various cultures. Members of communalism valued the importance of social relationships, as opposed to individual gains and priorities. Only the needs of the family, or a group they belonged to, were priority. On the other hand, with decline of community, the individual became highly praised in White American culture. Law today versus custom before defines the principles, according to which people live in present-day societies. Customary behavior is associated with traditional, moral and religious behavior. Still in many parts around the world, the crimes are on rise and the laws turn out to be ineffective. A number of laws that govern present-day societies are imperfect. Recent studies show that women usually are at higher risk for victimization. Also the number of imprisoned women has risen significantly. More often what is considered a good legal behavior cannot be the measure of moral behavior.
In the paper, I examined the modern world view versus the traditional world view. The traditional world view embodies the way how humans looked at the world since the very beginning and how it shaped their early societies. The modern world view represents the way people in Europe were looking at the world since the “Enlightenment”. Both fundamental world views addressed practices of civilized world versus uncivilized world. The author supports an issue that the modern world is not contempt with modern world's view. Three practices, thereby, were compared: male status today versus female status before, individualism versus communalism, and law today versus custom before. Author discussed the course, during which the Old civilization was transformed into the Modern civilization, i.e., uncivilized people adapted to the civilized world. Humans advanced in their economic, political, and industrial systems to a great extent. Step by step, civilization and culture became two inseparable elements. Male status versus female status has undergone fundamental changes. A course of civilization got its negative effects, too, such as restrictions to the freedom of people, exploitation of the environment, acquiring of wealth, and a failure of communal system and the birth of hierarchy. Communalism before valued the importance of social relationships, as opposed to individualism today that cultivates individual gains and priorities. Law today versus custom before defines customary behavior that is associated with traditional, moral and religious behavior. However, a good legal behavior cannot be the measure of moral behavior.
References
Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being. U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics; Administration and Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget, March 2011.
Schwartz et al. Communalism, Familism, and Filial Piety: Are They Birds of a Collectivist Feather? American Psychological Association, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 4, 548–560.
Aggression, Order and International Society: moral and legal limitations of the International Criminal Court. PDF file.
