The human mind is inherently flexible. With every generation comes a new stage in our develoment, a new system of rules that can be applied over the next, evolving the human condition to a point of greater understanding. It could be said that the same old entrenched rules apply, but with the new generations of thought and new evolutions of education, the old ways seem harder and harder to adhere to. I’m speaking specifically about how it seems fresher, more logical to assume to the newer perspectives of equality, brotherly love, general affection to all men.
Could we ever go back? Are we ever more than a hop-skip and a jump from complete barbarism, or have we reached epochs of understanding, of no return, or at least, can we expect to achieve that in the future? Although it may simply be the arrogance of my western upbringing dictacting, it seems the pinacle of humanity is to achieve levels of empathy towards those who we do not understand, namely, cultures, races and people. But as long as we defy our initial instincts of immediate judgment and rejection, are we not forcing our brain into new and untrodden ground of anti-instinctual living? With the malleability of the human mind, combined with the new research that considers that we might have input back into the genetic ‘digital river’, could we look at long-term and perhaps permanent changes to our nature?
Fourteen Twenty 