Define Civilization

a reply to: Kenzo

This is my definition of civilization...

Group of people who cooperate towards creating/sustaining a shared community thru diversification of skills and tasks in order to provide needed and desired goods and services.

a reply to: Kenzo

Yes, there is worldwide evidence of at least one Great Flood. The basic idea of Noah building the Ark ship is that humanity continued despite planetary megadeath. These great and terrible things happen throughout history, and humanity always survives. It is cyclical. At this very moment in time, there are many, many people using many, many ways to maintain and/or improve survival for as many as do cooperate. This is very good.

Personally, I think that those with a sour outlook on all of this are a liability.
#KnowYourRole

a reply to: new_here


That`s really nice , i like that.

That kind of cooperation was more common maybe in past ?

I feel life was simpler , if i remember right.....thought i was confused also as kid so..

originally posted by: Kenzo
a reply to: olaru12



Ok , partying is part of youth

Maybe the word spark was wrong, not sure what i was trying...

Perhaps "malaise" is a more descriptive term. I don't feel it as I try hard to keep interested in all sorts of things and a passion for the outdoors.
There is so much the world has to offer...just being alive and cognizant is exciting and mysterious. Sorry you don't feel it...

a reply to: Kenzo

That was a really nice one from new_here.

And you got me thinking: what do I love about the Western Civilisation?
That's really difficult, because everything feels at the moment more like an idea, how it should be, what I could love.
But I love that we have rights.
Civis Romanus sum.

Our institutions are after all products of that civilisation.
That's what makes it funny.

Anyhoo rights are what separates the Free World from the rest.
So my opinion is atm civilisation = rights / laws

a reply to: olaru12


Yeeh could be malaise , specially last 3 years with this covid craziness in society . Sound like you have good things going , for both mental and physical side

I was having a discussion recently with someone -- similar to this.

Why do some groups of people evolve -- and others remain almost in the stone age?

It's not necessarily from lack of contact.

One of my favorite pictues:

a reply to: Kenzo


Ummm...beings belonging to a herd...living in extremely close proximity to one another...whose very existence relies on other members of the same species to provide all of the basic necessities for survival...

The pampered leadership factions often declare themselves either more highly evolved or enlightened than their genetically like fellows who perform servile functions...

These groupings collectively defined as city states...continually war with one another for territory and natural resources...totally belying any claims to superiority...

Such..."civilizations"...predominantly seek the cold embrace of extinction...

To date...there are no examples of any such moving beyond a type 0 beyond the speculative...





YouSir

a reply to: Peeple

Yes rights and laws mucho importante! We have still more right than in Russia or China i think .


Thought the covid measures showed they can and will do what even they want , and now they are trying to build even more draconian pandemic rule in WHO if you have followed ....meaning that the WHO and entitys behind it could force nations to future pandemic measures, nations that have signed the paper or will sign later.

So we are heading to wrong direction , less freedom and more insanity, medical draconian way ....at least that is my current picture of this.

Then there is the climate nuts , using exuces to change many things to worse.

Ireland just signed new act law that is wrong direction in free speech ..
It just seems like rationality is not as common it was earlyer, and ideology is replacing it.

a reply to: Kenzo

The idea of civilization has never been able to properly fit in with reality.

All the synonyms are pie in the sky utopic ideals of unity and togetherness. A form of cohesion emphatically ruled out by competition and stratification. The synonyms and antonyms are a reflection of the myopic opinion of someone.

the stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced.

So you have some persons idea on what attributes constitute the highest level of advancement when making those lists.

Like what's the definition of enlightened:

having or showing a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook.

Antonyms of enlightened:

Ignorant, stupid, confounded, confused, In the dark, Misled, perplexed, uneducated, and uninformed.

Like "civilization" peoples ideas of "enlightened" tend to be more described by the antonyms. The actions of civilized like the actions of the enlightened.

It's the downfall of abstractions. To become a platitude and encourage the opposite.

a reply to: YouSir


Human thinking = major malfuntion

It´s been bumpy road, and at some point the car will just break . and then the same just start again . I feel like i seen this movie lol .

This is now in the very point of the story i would hope Neo would jump in and stop this circle , make deal with the architect and evebody would have fun , at least for a while, probably not forever.

a reply to: Degradation33

Interesting

I think i was , or were thinking even before now that we live in constant chaos , but the constand psyop net around us has created this mind level utopic construction of society that gives false picture of reality, whispering to ears propaganda , lies ...


I dont know, it`s late i need to sleep zzzzzzzzzz

a reply to: Annee

Nice image Annee , desert has something calming effect to mind ...


"To evolve , or not to evolve , that is the question."
Will Shakespeer

Etymology ((Greek) ετυμος etymos = real/true + λογος logos = word) : the origin/derivation of a word, and the overall study of that process.

(Greek) πολις polis = city, city-state
→ political : adjective describing how the city is governed/operates

(Greek) βαρβαρος barbaros = barbarous; a barbarian. Onomatopoeic word imitating the uncouth sounds uttered by people who didn't speak Greek (it sounds like all they say is "bar bar bar..."). Later when the Romans showed the Greeks who their daddy was, it was conceded that a Barbarian spoke any language aside from Greek OR Latin. But then all the educated Romans learned Greek as a 2nd language anyway).

Greek is the name of the first Hellenic tribe that the Romans encountered (in southern Italy = Magna-Graecia).
Ελληνικος Hellenicos = Hellenic is the demonym by which the Greeks called themselves and their macro-culture.
Not strictly a genetic descriptor: there are footnotes in ancient Greek authors where they talk about certain Greek city states where they say "(these people) before they became Greek...", which is to say: to learn to speak the Greek language, and to live in houses & city-states and assume Greek culture.

(Latin) civis = a citizen of some political entity (a city or city-state)
civicus = adjective describing things related to cives citizens.
→ civic : ones behaviour or duty as a citizen.
civilis = adjective again describing things related to cives citizens.
→ civil : how a citizen acts. ("them durn furriners! don't know how to behave like WE do in this-here city!") Note that civil behaviour could be good, bad, or horrifying by our standards, but the "When in Rome, do like the Romans do." What was expected or commonplace behaviour at that time/place.

socia = sharer, partner, companion, associate, spouse, ally
socialis = adjective: related to sociae
societas = association, partnership, society

culta = tilled land
cultura = cultivation, raising (crops), care, culture
(agri-cultura = field-cultivation, farming)
Note: this culta (farming related) is distinct from cultus = worship, reverence.

--------------------------

Those were some of the original terms, and rough ideas of what they originally meant.

Fast forward to the Age of Exploration (starting around 1450), the Era of Colonialization (1500-...) and the Age of Enlightenment (1600-1800).

The educated folks of Europe necessarily learned Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek). Fun fact: Harvard did not get rid of their requirement to pass Latin & Greek entrance exams until around 1904.

Europeans through exploration were confronted with "much to think about and explain". At this time, the Scientific method came into vogue. In attempting to describe and study the many new Peoples they encountered, and how these hitherto unknown people lived, European scientists invented whole fields of study such as Anthropology (the study of people) and Sociology (the study of societies). The scientific terminology is almost entirely derived from Latin and Greek... but in doing so, the latin and greek terms were repeatedly subjected to extensions of meanings.

Bacteria growing in a Petri dish is a culture, because the crop of bacteria are raised kind of like one would raise a field of wheat.

The culture of some distant tribe, is how those people are raised, and what their resulting behaviours are.

The scientists who derived the "modern" meanings of these scientific terms, 100-300 years ago, at the height of the Enlightenment, were horribly ethnocentric, patriarchal, and downright racist. They drank their own koolaid, and believed that they were the apex of human progress and development, and tended to be extremely judgemental about the relative merits of different Societies.

A Civilization is a Society (a cultural group) that is typified by the construction of and living in Cities. (There can be farmers as outliers of the Civilization, but "everybody knows that all the cool kids live in cities" or that one can encounter uncouth rustics out in the provinces ("how provincial of you!")).

People (scientists) who KNEW that their way of life (European-ish) was the Apex of Human Progress, measured the rest of the world, and decided that all cultures which did not build cities must be Uncivilized (literally), but then also that they must therefore be Barbarians, Savages, and *gasp* ... Primitive.

And those cultures which DID build cities: they might be "civilized" in quotes, but if they didn't have steam-power, printing, and murder whales to light their whale-oil-lamps, then clearly they were less-developed, backward, lesser... definitely in need of being ruled by more advanced beings like themselves.

I'll leave the further consequences of these socio-linguistic developments to the reader's imagination.

--------------------------
Edit: addendum:

Regarding the people who derived the modern meanings of terms like "Civilization": the validity of their "science" was blighted by an inability to separate their analysis from their own ethnocentric value-systems.

and as is well known:

Uncivilized people murder each other with pointed sticks and clubs.
Civilized people murder each other with factory produced machine-guns and engineered bio-weapons.

edit on 3-5-2023 by trombleforth because: summary