It’s been an age-old dream of mankind to find, or create, the perfect society. The word Utopia, used by Thomas Moore for his book of the same name, has become a part of our language for the ideal society. The myths of Shangri-la and Atlantis, wherein all the inhabitants live, or have lived, in harmony have filled us with the dream. Ironically, some of the most horrific events in the history of our race have been committed in the name of the search for Utopia. The search has always begun with a false premise. Perhaps, we reason, if we just find the right set of laws and the perfect economic system, or eradicate the genetic flaws in humanity, we’ll finally find peace and reach our true potential. In fact two of the greatest myths in modern thinking have been responsible for untold suffering and misery in the last century. One is that economics can change our nature, the other is that race can. Both ignore the fact that human nature is common to all who have ever lived. We all draw from the well that is humanity. Utopia is a nice dream…but it will never happen while human beings have human nature.
We human beings are a fundamentally flawed species. Wherever we go we take our built-in flaws. If you’ve ever felt jealousy, envy, lust, greed, hate, revenge or any other of the darker qualities common to mankind you would take those things with you no matter where you chose to go. Sooner or later those darker qualities would show themselves again and Utopia would cease to be Utopia. There will never be an ideal society run by man unless, or until, the fundamental nature of human beings is changed.
Some philosophies and religions teach that we’re OK just the way we are. Those that do so flatly ignore the facts of history and live in denial. Some teach that the nature of our race will change if enough individuals do. We will all be ‘uplifted’ when the number of people who have become enlightened reaches a ‘critical mass’. Those that claim this kind of enlightenment say that they perceive the world differently...otherwise they don’t appear any different from anyone else. The number of individuals becoming personally enlightened would have to outpace the birth rate if their claim were true. In what is one of the greatest ironies in the world of religion, the folks that seek ‘enlightenment’ for themselves often ignore the suffering of other human beings. One need look no farther than the countries where those beliefs thrive to see the effects of their ‘enlightenment’. These people practice their own self-centered, versions of ‘spirituality’. Any enlightenment they claim to achieve doesn’t seem to produce any real change. They certainly haven’t made the world a better place to live in.
The reality is that races don’t become enlightened, only individuals do. The only ‘real’ enlightenment is exercising the will that is guided by wisdom. (In short, true enlightenment is in actually doing what is right…) Every human being has the potential to do that. That’s just as much a part of us as our baser nature. Real enlightenment can’t be achieved by hiding on some mountaintop meditating. It can’t be done for us by someone else. Even with real enlightenment our nature doesn’t change…it’s only controlled. Cease to exercise the will guided by wisdom and anyone can slip back.
Think of the scenes you’ve seen of third world villages for example. Those that are the most memorable have had trash and raw sewage in the streets. The people in them are often sickly as a result of disease caused by living among garbage. You may think, “If only these people could be moved to a place where it’s clean, they would be disease free”. Did you ever wonder who put the trash and raw sewage in the middle of the street? If the people of the village were moved they’d soon be turning the new place into an open sewage pit too. Even if they are educated to understand the laws of sanitation and quarantine the people must still exercise their wills to observe those laws. If they don’t…they revert back into the condition from whence they came. That is the history of our race…
Knowledge and technology accumulate with every generation and are passed on to the next generation, but wisdom always begins at square one. The birth of every human being is a starting over at the beginning. That’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because with every newborn child there’s a chance to start over and do it right. It’s a curse because every newborn child must start where every human being who has ever lived started.
We are not OK just the way we are. That’s obvious to anyone who takes an honest look at our race. We need divine guidance and divine help. We need divine intervention. We need to obey God and His laws. Where some other religions and philosophies would have us focus only on ourselves, Judeo Christian values make us focus on both growing ourselves and in aiding our fellow man to do so. We are to always struggle with what is right and wrong. We are never to forget that God is in control and that we are all His children.
The promise of Judaism and Christianity is that a Messiah will come and save us from ourselves. Eventually our very nature will be changed. Even the nature of predatory animals will change. “The lion will lie down with the lamb…” That is the promise of scripture…that is the hope of our faith. We will be rescued from ourselves.
In the meantime, we are to do all we can to obey the laws of God, to grow and aid our fellow man. A true religion doesn’t tell us that we’re OK. A true religion causes us to focus on our Creator and His will for us. It is God’s will that we ultimately inherit a Utopia beyond our dreams. We will only do so by our willingness to put God first in our lives…and by His grace.
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