The Intellectual Revolution’s Impact Throughout History

Without question, the intellectual revolution through which mankind has grown has had the greatest impact on our civilization. This is because we have convinced ourselves through it of our being so divinely imbued with reason and rationale that we are not only able but entitled to ignore the lessons of history in acting on behalf of our future. The so-called “brain gain” that has characterized the rise of computer technology and information dissemination has, in fact, amounted to little more than a “brain drain” in engendering a sense of ignorant complacency on the part of all those who mindlessly sit in front of computers for hours after hours, believing that through the mere assimilation of information, decisions can be made without regard for any historical precedent or any sense of context and measure.

One of the finest examples of the way historical ignorance has disturbed our social fabric is the troubling degree to which we assume knowledge simply because we have a great deal of it at our disposal. Most people believe that the process of hydraulic fracturing is inherently dangerous and in need of hindrance. As per Osborn, Vengosh, Warner, and Jackson (2013), however: “accompanying the benefits of such extraction are public concerns about drinking-water contamination from drilling and hydraulic fracturing that are ubiquitous but lack a strong scientific foundation.” As such, all those claiming that hydraulic fracturing is an evil are entirely wrong; they have simply assumed that their access to knowledge entitles them to fabricate reality to the detriment of all those who would benefit from the increased acquisition of natural crude oil.

Another example of this paradoxical state of ignorance that now threatens human civilization was on display recently at the Winter Olympic Games. CNN’s Russia Bureau Chief was suddenly asked to appear before the Russian Foreign Minister because the Russian Federation had taken offense to an article written by CNN leading up to the Winter Games. The article detailed some of the “world’s ugliest monuments,” highlighting a Belarusian monument, in particular. It happens that this Belarus-based monument commemorates the death of thousands of Byelorussians who gave their lives in winning World War II (Associated Press, 2013). Of course, most Americans believe that World War II was won with American blood and that the United States made tremendous sacrifices in defeating Hitler. In reality, the United States was not the savior of all humanity, as it contributed fewer resources to World War II than any other Allied power. In fact, Russia was responsible for defeating Hitler and U.S. forces only arrived in time to aid the Russian advance into Hitler’s ranks. When all this is considered, it becomes disturbing to imagine all the troubles that we will soon encounter as a result of historical ignorance.

Ultimately, our civilization should be as educated as any civilization that has ever roamed the Earth. We have at our disposal a set of electronic resources that have never been known to our planet. These resources constitute a revolution in information delivery, and we could take advantage of our tremendous access to these wells of knowledge, information and power. Unfortunately, we have used these vehicles to instead exacerbate the historical ignorance and disrespect that has proliferated in tandem with the rise of electronic processing. In developing this historical ignorance, we have become arrogant in failing to appropriately process the knowledge that is so finely distilled for us by computers and their operators, including us. As such, an intellectual revolution has transformed our civilization, but perhaps not for the better. Today, we believe ourselves to be far wiser than we are and if we continue to ignore the historical basis for our existence, we are destined to repeat the mistakes that were made in constructing it.

References

Associated Press (2014). How Russia hits back at slights over WWII victory. New York Times.

Osborn, S.G., Vengosh, A., Warner, N. R. & Jackson, R.B. (2013). Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Vol. 8, 20.