Reflections - the problems of modern society (ritual, soul, elder)

[Laila]

I went to a management conference today and we had a speaker on the topic of emotional intelligence. He started by reading a poem written by Dr. Bob Moorehead.

Here is a short extract;
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
We spend more, but have less;
We buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We've done larger things, but not better things;
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;

I enjoyed this poem I think it summaries some of the problems of modern society today.

What do you think?
Do you have any poems/reflections you would like to share?

[lizskid]

Thanks for that, I am saving it! How true, I think I can use that in many life applications!

[Faint]

Since you asked, here's what I think...

Originally Posted by Laila

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;

The latter of each stanza is inaccurate. People are more tolerant than they were in past societies (if only because of increased law enforcement and comfort. Plus the modern human's viewpoints are far more diverse than primative peoples.

Originally Posted by Laila

We spend more, but have less;

We do spend more, and we have more (as material possessions go). What do we have less of?

Originally Posted by Laila

We have... less sense...less judgment;

Compared to who or what time period exactly?

Originally Posted by Laila

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

Or is it that we simply value different things?

Originally Posted by Laila

We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.

Again, compared to who and when?

Originally Posted by Laila

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;

Please define "a life".

Originally Posted by Laila

we've added years to life, not life to years.

(see above)

Originally Posted by Laila

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;

We are still far from "conquering" outer space. Yet in both space exporation and the human-based sciences we have made tremendous progress. Since our ancestors of previous centuries.

Originally Posted by Laila

We've done larger things, but not better things;

Better than what exactly?

Originally Posted by Laila

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;

Please explain how a soul (assuming its existence) is polluted and how this pollution was not being done by previous generations.

Originally Posted by Laila

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;

At least we've split something though, right?

Originally Posted by Laila

What do you think?

I think that poem was written by someone at Trinity Broadcasting.

[Flappycat]

Well, we have higher population densities. This has always come with a set of problems, and they are not new to the world.

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Laila

I went to a management conference today and we had a speaker on the topic of emotional intelligence. He started by reading a poem written by Dr. Bob Moorehead.

Here is a short extract;
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
We spend more, but have less;
We buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We've done larger things, but not better things;
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;

I enjoyed this poem I think it summaries some of the problems of modern society today.

What do you think?

We haven't cleaned the air, but other than that, I pretty much agree with this "poem." (Even tho I agree with it, I find it rather dogmatic to be called a poem.)

Got into an argument a while back with two old friends about "progress." My point was that despite all of our technological advances we are more alienated from each other than ever and therefore, there is no "progress." And my friends, they're scientists (as I used to be) could only see the things that could be measured, so to them it was obvious that we have made "progress." If you look at the poem, all the things we've managed to do are quantitative/objective, and all the things we're failing to do are qualitative/subjective. So we can't even agree on what is "real."

[Sunstone]

There are many legitimate criticisms that one can make of modern life, but in making them it helps to remember that there almost certainly has never been a time in the history of humanity when people were unambiguously better or better off than they are today.

At worse, there have been times when people didn't have to face some of the threats that they do today. For instance: most of human history was without the threat of nuclear warfare. But then again, most of human history saw the threats of famine, plague, and short life spans even in the most advanced nations.

Human nature has ever been the same, however. The pettiness, etc. etc. that exists today has always existed. I doubt there was ever a time in history when the majority of people were any more genuinely spiritual than they are today.

[Tigress]

Originally Posted by Laila

I went to a management conference today and we had a speaker on the topic of emotional intelligence. He started by reading a poem written by Dr. Bob Moorehead.

Here is a short extract;
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;

While we may have taller buildings, as well as wider freeways, I disagree with the latter presumption in both. If you'd like an explanation as to why, please refer to your history books, including to religious scripture(s).

We spend more, but have less;
We buy more, but enjoy it less.

Both of these are subjective, though I am inclined to agree somewhat with the latter. I think that in being able to buy more, and thus indulge ourselves more, we have in turn allowed ourselves to take much more for granted.

We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;

Again, these are subjective. Overall, we have more knowledge in certain areas, but less in others, and the same goes for sense, as well as judgment.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

Subjective, as 'values' are subjective.

We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often.

Generally, humans have always done these things.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
we've added years to life, not life to years.

I must agree here.--Overall, I feel that our face-paced modern life has allowed us much less time or opportunity to simply enjoy living, or to just enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Subjective, I suppose, but I look at history, as well as some of the Anabaptist sects, and I cannot help but see things in those terms.--Additionally, while we've indeed given ourselves a chance to live longer, we've also greatly discarded the elderly, branding them 'useless,' and have thus provided them with less opportunity(ies).

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;

'Inner' space?

We've done larger things, but not better things;

Subjective.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;

The first part is false. If anything, we've done polluted it more over the years. Though I'm thinking in the years since largely abandoning the horse and buggy, and what have you. But, I digress. The latter is subjective.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice;

While there is still much prejudice to be done away with, I'd like to think that it's gotten better over the years, and not worse.

[Sunstone]

It's very odd, isn't it, that you can teach knowledge but not wisdom?

No generation is, on the whole, any wiser than the generations before or after it. Yet, a generation might be more knowledgeable than the ones before it.