In the novel Blindness, Portuguese author Jose Saramago describes a world where a sudden epidemic of unexplainable blindness that struck an entire population led to sudden collapse of human civilization. Amidst the disorder of a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is reduced to blind savages only concerned about procuring enough food for survival, the lone woman who can still see witnesses how quickly human morals can fall apart, just as quickly as physical infrastructures and institutions. Yet, the stories of camaraderie among strangers in distress also speak to the power of human bonds in collectively overcoming difficulties.
The novel greatly emphasizes the idea that the best of human civilizations, sophisticated and stable as they can be, can quickly fall apart in the event of some unforeseen crisis. It is a theme that I touched upon in the blog posts in the immediate aftermath of Japan's 2011 earthquake. For the many people who are convinced that government authorities can quickly rise to the challenges of handling crises would be dismayed by real-world examples in which governments, with no bright ideas of what to do in events of unprecedented scale, simply fall apart and become part of the problem, rather than the solution-giver.
Saramago greatly amplify the problems of the general populace's passive over-reliance on authorities with the over-the-top plot of everyone losing eyesight. In the process, the question of what is proper human behavior in times of crisis becomes one that sticks out above all others. After all, as governments breakdown and have no possibility of reassembly in a short time, citizens are no longer constrained by social rules and legal order. With newfound "freedom" to act as they please (with whatever limited capacity possible with the obvious physical handicap), how people would treat each other becomes an interesting question.
The answer Saramago gave was mostly disheartening. Over dwindling reserves of food, individuals with most control and access over the remaining food supplies became de facto overlords, forcing others to do whatever they please in order to get a bit more rations. The result is outright robbery of valuables, rapes in exchange for food, and violence by the "have-nots" to push back against the increasingly excessive demands of those in control of food supplies. The escalating conflicts only lead to mutual destructions where some are killed and all available food supplies are destroyed.
The pessimistic outcomes of the civilizational collapse brings to mind why and how authorities came into being in the first place. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Prof. Diamond points out that full-time authority figures become necessary in tribes with more 200 people, as it was the natural instincts of humans to kill strangers with whom there is no familial or personal relationships. Because humans can only maintain personal relationships with some 200 people at once, any society bigger than that optimal figure will require an impartial presence of external authorities that can mediate conflicts without the need for violence.
When the said authority figure disappears all the sudden, then logically the society must reverse course and become smaller. Tribes bigger than 200 people must break up into smaller bands with less than 200, and move into separate territories where the risk of frequent contact is minimal so as to reduce the risk of direct conflicts. In Saramago's setting in Blindness, those "bands" had to become even smaller, as the number of people a person can recognize by touch, smell, and sound would be much less than the number they can recognize via eyesight.
But in a modern society where organized, mass-production agriculture has allowed for dense populations in urban areas, to break into small groups occupying mutually non-overlapping territories is not necessarily an easy task. Many daily conveniences that humans have become so dependent (and so used to) are only available because of urban areas' density population of potential users and consumers. With urban areas broken into dozens if not hundreds and thousands of noncommunicating bands of tiny populations, human life will change for the worse in matter of seconds.
Thought this way, the concept of ethics, narrowly defined as mutual support for other humans without explicit commands from some central authority figure, is the needed variable to ensure humans obtain the highly possible standards of living. Those blind to this very fact can only be coerced into ethical behaviors through the fear of being punished by authorities for wrongdoing. When authorities suddenly go away, the same people will quickly revert to the greatest savagery mankind can possibly undertake. The savagery can only avoided when people arm themselves with ethics on a daily basis.
The novel greatly emphasizes the idea that the best of human civilizations, sophisticated and stable as they can be, can quickly fall apart in the event of some unforeseen crisis. It is a theme that I touched upon in the blog posts in the immediate aftermath of Japan's 2011 earthquake. For the many people who are convinced that government authorities can quickly rise to the challenges of handling crises would be dismayed by real-world examples in which governments, with no bright ideas of what to do in events of unprecedented scale, simply fall apart and become part of the problem, rather than the solution-giver.
Saramago greatly amplify the problems of the general populace's passive over-reliance on authorities with the over-the-top plot of everyone losing eyesight. In the process, the question of what is proper human behavior in times of crisis becomes one that sticks out above all others. After all, as governments breakdown and have no possibility of reassembly in a short time, citizens are no longer constrained by social rules and legal order. With newfound "freedom" to act as they please (with whatever limited capacity possible with the obvious physical handicap), how people would treat each other becomes an interesting question.
The answer Saramago gave was mostly disheartening. Over dwindling reserves of food, individuals with most control and access over the remaining food supplies became de facto overlords, forcing others to do whatever they please in order to get a bit more rations. The result is outright robbery of valuables, rapes in exchange for food, and violence by the "have-nots" to push back against the increasingly excessive demands of those in control of food supplies. The escalating conflicts only lead to mutual destructions where some are killed and all available food supplies are destroyed.
The pessimistic outcomes of the civilizational collapse brings to mind why and how authorities came into being in the first place. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Prof. Diamond points out that full-time authority figures become necessary in tribes with more 200 people, as it was the natural instincts of humans to kill strangers with whom there is no familial or personal relationships. Because humans can only maintain personal relationships with some 200 people at once, any society bigger than that optimal figure will require an impartial presence of external authorities that can mediate conflicts without the need for violence.
When the said authority figure disappears all the sudden, then logically the society must reverse course and become smaller. Tribes bigger than 200 people must break up into smaller bands with less than 200, and move into separate territories where the risk of frequent contact is minimal so as to reduce the risk of direct conflicts. In Saramago's setting in Blindness, those "bands" had to become even smaller, as the number of people a person can recognize by touch, smell, and sound would be much less than the number they can recognize via eyesight.
But in a modern society where organized, mass-production agriculture has allowed for dense populations in urban areas, to break into small groups occupying mutually non-overlapping territories is not necessarily an easy task. Many daily conveniences that humans have become so dependent (and so used to) are only available because of urban areas' density population of potential users and consumers. With urban areas broken into dozens if not hundreds and thousands of noncommunicating bands of tiny populations, human life will change for the worse in matter of seconds.
Thought this way, the concept of ethics, narrowly defined as mutual support for other humans without explicit commands from some central authority figure, is the needed variable to ensure humans obtain the highly possible standards of living. Those blind to this very fact can only be coerced into ethical behaviors through the fear of being punished by authorities for wrongdoing. When authorities suddenly go away, the same people will quickly revert to the greatest savagery mankind can possibly undertake. The savagery can only avoided when people arm themselves with ethics on a daily basis.
Comments
Post a Comment