“No one in his senses would choose to have been born in a previous age.” Do you agree?
What does the statement, “No one in his senses would choose to have been born in a previous age”, imply? It implies that the previous age was dull in comparison with the present age and that the thrill and excitement of living in the present age would not have been there in the previous age. By the present age, we mean the twentieth century, especially the second half of the century. What has made this period so thrilling and exciting? What did the previous age lack in comparison with the present?
Till the Industrial Revolution, the previous age must have been pretty drab and dull. Our forefathers did not have the benefits of fast-moving vehicles like airplanes, cars, or trains. The benefit of electricity and its uses was also not there. People brave and adventurous as they were – moved from place to place by bullock carts and sailing boats; for light, they had to depend on lamps and candles. Their knowledge about the world was limited.
But since the second half of the nineteenth century, there has been an explosion of scientific knowledge; there has also been an explosion in technical education, which A. N. Whitehead describes as “the greatest invention of the nineteenth century – the invention of the method of invention”. Interaction between science and technology has greatly accelerated the pace of technological development. The scientist has furnished the technologist with basic information and experimental proofs and the technologist has come up with new techniques and precision instruments such as the computer.
There has in other words been a technological revolution. Since the Second World War, the progressive miniaturization of components such as transistors and of electrical circuits has revolutionized communications. It has facilitated the design of compact computers and the expansion of cybernetics and automation. Miniaturization has made possible not only intercontinental ballistic missiles but also the space programs of the superpowers which provide satellites for the transmission of radio and television signals and for surveying the earth’s resources.
There have been developments in other important spheres too. Biotechnology, the manipulation of man’s own body, has made spectacular advances. The pharmaceutical industry provides an array of drugs to combat dreadful diseases. By saving a life, medicine has paved the way for the population explosion but has also abated it where possible by contraceptive chemistry. There has been great progress in medical knowledge and in the adoption of methods for the cure and prevention of diseases.
Science and technology have thus vastly increased man’s powers. All these inventions give us a lot of thrill and make our life on this planet quite exciting. Who knows whether we will not be able to make occasional flights to Mars and similar other planets? But the thrill and excitement vanish when we think of the misuse to which science and technology can be put. A Third World War can wipe off human civilization from the face of the earth. In other words, the progress man has achieved in material terms also spells his doom.
The question may well be asked: Have we any reason to be jubilant over our space flights and revolutionary communication systems with the Damocles’ sword of nuclear war hanging over our head? The answer is ‘no’. So, to be alive in the present age, to be born in this age, is not to be linked with good luck or fortune.
The man who would choose to have been born at a previous age can be said to be in his senses because he would have certainties to go by and spiritual values to ennoble him. In the present age, he would have only material comforts under the shadow of an uncertain future. Perhaps his life in the present age will be exciting for him if he can make wise use of his scientific and technological knowledge and at the same time make the world a better place to live in. The saving aspect of this age is that Fascism and Communism are being replaced by liberal, democratic ideals and that there is much talk, and a good deal of action too, taking the world to a new federal order in which peace and harmony will prevail. If at all the present age has to be preferred to the previous age, it is for the exciting idea of new world order and for the translation of this idea into a reality.
