Cooperation is the Mark of Civilization: You Can’t Do it Alone
There was an interesting scene in the excellent Chinese sci-fi movie “Wandering Earth 2”. In a speech, one of the key ministers gives to the entire United Earth Government right before the impending disaster.
He shows a picture of a healed human bone.
“What you are seeing now is a fossil from 15,000 years ago. It’s a human femur that recovered from a fracture. It marks the dawn of human civilization. 15,000 years ago, a fractured bone was often fatal as it deprived you of your ability to find food or seek shelter. All you could do was wait for a predator to eat you up.
However this particular femur healed. It means that after the injury someone took care of their wounds, someone provided water and food, Someone protected this person from the predators.
This kind of support, solidarity is how we survived to this day and made our civilization last.
Will we make the same decision our ancestors made 15,000 years ago?”
This is the grand question. Climate change, pandemic, risk of global war, the destruction of flora and fauna & our environment in pursuit of selfish gains. Humanity sometimes seems like it’s on the path of hedonistic self-destruction. Like the world is falling apart and no one is doing anything about it.
But I choose to think that our better angels will overcome our devils. When I see my daughter, I can’t help but think she embodies all the best qualities of her two parents. I’m hopeful because this upcoming generation in general seems to be better, kinder and smarter than we are.
I also know that humans have an ability to come together when faced with a crisis. We’ve proven it over the entire lifetime of our species. This will become clearer as we face ever present threats coming in our lifetime.
We are fast approaching our global broken femur moment. I hope humanity acts accordingly and steps up.
I end this with a great quote from the movie: “Remember, A civilization without people is meaningless. I believe the courage of mankind transcends time. It transcends past, present and future.”