Violently Promoting Development of Civilization
Christ Jesus said that there are no good men but only God is good.
But why cannot men be good? It is because they love something other than being good more than being good. Put simply men love being bad and evil more than being good.
But why do men love being bad and evil?
First of all, men love themselves more than others. They don't mind being bad and evil to others to suppress, harm, or control them. They can justify their act of being bad and evil to others. It is to make themselves happy. Conversely, if men were good, they would not sacrifice others to make themselves happy.
Therefore, as men love themselves more than others, Christ Jesus said that there are no good men.
People overlook others being happy as long as they are happier than others. But at the core of their minds, men love themselves more than others.
So, even at a primitive level of civilization, those who have power would suppress development of civilization in the society they govern. While in the current situation, they control others and keep their power without threats, if civilization is further advanced, their hegemony might become unstable. Those who acquire new technology and economic power might try to challenge them and overturn their rule. So, those who had power in any society in the past did not necessarily encourage innovation and advancement. They encouraged and promoted innovation only when they were confident that their dominance could be secured if their civilization further advanced.
This tendency had been stronger in Asia where the system had been traditionally repressive or binding as their societies were mostly based on collective agriculture. Also in the Islamic regions, leaders were afraid such advancement might cause great instability in the Islamic society.
However, in Western Europe, after the hegemony of the Vatican got weakened around 1500, competition among nations got intensified without the unified authority or the great political and religious intermediate. Monarchs and kings had to encourage development of their society to survive, paving the way for great advancement of material civilization in Western Europe in the modern era. And the world of today where development of science and technology are greatly encouraged is in this extension of the movement of Western Europe after 1500.
Therefore, today's civilization is not supported and driven by good people. But its development is encouraged by the elites and leaders on societies and nations who are afraid of being lost, conquered, and enslaved, and this sense is shared by all the members in the societies and nations.
In other words, people in the world are essentially violently promoting development of civilization while in older days monarchs and rulers of nations, generally speaking, violently controlled or suppressed development of civilization to secure their interest.
So, if you see great, various, and advanced products of today's civilization, you cannot have confidence that your future or the future of mankind is promising and rosy. It is because men are still bad and evil while material civilization has reached this impressive high level.
Our civilization is not progressing in a manner to make people good. We have to stop and reflect.
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Luk 12:27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.