The Times we live in

It is fascinating to think that several ideas considered outrageous or outright illegal in our times, were very much accepted in social norms a few decades ago. It is even more fascinating to use this observation to extrapolate all that may change in the future. The unknowns of today may just make for interesting history textbook pages and Wikipedia reads tomorrow.

Is everything, and I mean everything, just a function – or byproduct of the times we live in? Is there any absolute morality?

In ancient Rome, known for being a society with political frameworks strikingly similar to today’s democracies, large orgies were routinely part of social gatherings, and even religious ceremonies. In  ancient Greece– a society credited with giving us many of the foundations of existential philosophy, theater, literature and the arts, it was not uncommon for male members of the gentry and even general public, to indulge in sex with minors – mostly young boys. (Interestingly, one of the interpretations of the anti-homosexual passages in the Bible is that it refers to this Grecian practice – as it was well known at that time). Intense psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs were peddled as everyday herbs and flowers in Indian and Oriental cultures, until a few centuries ago.

The list is endless. People were beheaded for postulating that the earth is round, and not a flat plate held on the back of a tortoise. Slavery – the ownership of human beings – depressing to even begin considering, was common worldwide. The Bible even has passages outlining the ideal prescribed conduct of a slave owner, and that of an obedient slave. People with retardation and personality disorders were believed to be possessed. Unwed pregnant women were burnt and crucified as witches, a few centuries ago. In more recent times, the Holocaust happened seventy years ago because one race believed they had the right to annihilate another.

It is not all horrifying and macabre though.

Native American cultures have long honored same sex marriages, celebrating homosexuals as gifted individuals. They were honored with special places in society.  In in the Indian sub-continent, the Mughal emperor Akbar had special chambers devoted to free-spirited debating. All intellectuals were invited, and there was absolute freedom of speech – politics, religious ordains and social structures were debated intensely without any reservations – in the presence of the emperor and his gentry. It is believed that these discussions helped shape public policy and resulted in religious harmony in one of the few successful multi-ethnic empires in the pre-modern age. It is ironic to note that this freedom does not exist in many parts of the world even today. The fledgling laws of fair trade are not new to the twentieth century – they were in full practice during the ancient Egyptian and Grecian civilizations. These economic concepts have struggled to gather favor among the first world countries today.

The future will see changes too – probably at an accelerated pace, as information spreads faster and intellectual disparities are reduced across the world. It is possible to conceive a very different set of rules in the future. Relaxation in laws that govern the consumption of drugs. Same-sex marriage will be legalized, and all this opposition to the practice will be spoken of in the same way slavery is addressed today – as a dark shadow in the history of man’s capacity to embrace his brother. A slow demise of organized religion as we know it, in the light of newer scientific discoveries that hammer away at the existential unknowns we end up attributing to divinity today. No, it is certainly conceivable. Again, the past serves up an example – the ancient Egyptian civilization peaked at around 3150 B.C, and continued up until 30 B.C when the Greeks conquered and ended an entire empire. For more than three millennia, a culture was held together by a now-forgotten religion. That is longer than all our monotheistic religions of today. By at least thousand years. How many of the Egyptian Gods do we know now?

I even envision a day when world leaders slowly wake up to the fact that countries are just imaginary lines on maps that divide people. The DMZ – the most heavily militarized border in the world, between North Korea and South Korea, separates families and people who share the same ancestors until two generations ago. Will it unite Koreans one day? Tibet houses the earliest origins of the culture and religion that forms the fabric of life in most of eastern Asia. Will the conflict with China see an end? Will India and Pakistan, in a few hundred years, wake up to see that the LoC is just another way to divide a country that fought against imperial colonization as one entity? Racial differences will be seen as a byproduct of cross continental migrations and subsequent evolution to best acclimatize to climactic conditions. 

Laws, rules, culture, and customs are all subordinate to the times we live in. Who is to say what is right then, or what is wrong?