HUMANITY'S DRIVING POWER
Institute:Images is subject to copyright/Sweden/Street Scene© Photo : Robert Rggus G
The development of humanity has largely been shaped by its great stories. Those that affect our driving forces. But how are these stories shaped in a life where climate and environment play an increasingly important role? There are good reasons to claim that humanity is in a completely new historical situation. Never before has man been about to seriously damage the basic conditions for his own existence on Earth. She has always had an impact on the environment, but never to the same extent as now. There is therefore reason to realize the character of the special situation that has arisen.
In our part of the world, the notion that the conditions of our existence were determined by God has long dominated. Sometime during the 18th century, another view emerged, the one we associate with the Enlightenment. Now man was seen as the one who determines the conditions of existence on Earth. This view spread from Europe, but under great opposition in some countries. However, the new view of life contained a tragic misconception. It was not realized that Nature set definite limits to what man can do. Today, such an insight is emerging, but slowly and so far only within parts of the population. This means that history can be described in three steps: 1) The conditions of existence are perceived to be determined by God, 2) Man is considered to be able to shape the conditions of existence, and 3) Man finally realizes that Nature sets definite limits for existence on Earth. The point of this reasoning is a basic idea that people tried to understand their situation in life with the help of different stories.
The concept of storytelling became widely known during the 18th century. Stories can in turn form the basis of various religious and political ideologies. As we shall see, today there are both old and new stories that compete with each other for the precedence of interpretation. The ability to avert the global climate and environmental threats depends on which interpretation of the conditions of existence will dominate in the future. And now that we also have a pandemic spread all over the world, this very concept will become a mainstay, which will be diluted with new stories and interpretations. It can be difficult to determine what is truth or falsehood, in the so-called postmodernism, an authenticity of the human race, some history, speculation and even facts about human drive and behavior, have a good day //// Robert Rggus G
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