When Civilization Falls Apart

We're a civilized nation, aren't we? We have flush toilets and electricity and YouTube.

But that is a self-centered view of civilization.

According to National Geographic, every civilization has certain characteristics. "These include: (1) large population centers; (2) monumental architecture and unique art styles; (3) written language; (4) systems for administering territories; (5) a complex division of labor; and (6) the division of people into social classes." Numbers 1-3 are pretty easy to understand: we have New York City and San Francisco and Miami; the Capitol in D.C., the arch in St. Louis, and Arts and Crafts architecture; and we have written English, but I'll come back to that.

We have number 4 as well; our government of the people, by the people, and for the people qualifies as a system to administer territories, regardless of whether you agree the government does a good job. We have our federal government and also our state and local governments.

A complex division of labor: financiers and CEOs on one hand and garbage men on the other. If you live alone in the Arctic and do all jobs yourself, you may not qualify as a civilization.

Again with number 6, we may start an on-line brouhaha. Whether or not you agree with the existence of social classes, we have them. Come to think of it, if you are so against social classes that you want socialism to be the order of the day, then we would cease to be a civilization. Think Soviet Union. Social class is a good thing, as long as a lower social class is not seen as less than human!

But back to number 3. Written language.

Yes, we have a written language. By extension we can say that reading is also a characteristic of civilization. If no one reads what you wrote, did a tree fall in the forest?

Why are writing and reading so important? National Geographic says, "Written communication is another element that all civilizations share. Writing allows systems for trade, government, and thought to develop. Written language also allows civilizations to record their own history."

Writing allows me to tell you what happened. You, who weren't there and don't live anywhere near me. Spoken language, and cultures that rely on oral tradition, are only successful in a "local" area. But with the advent of writing (and printing and Internet blogs), we can share our ideas, history, and beliefs with people around the world. That's what writing is for.

Reading is something else again. Reading is an act of empathy. You put yourself in another's shoes. You see through another's eyes. I probably will never visit India, but I can read Rudyard Kipling and feel myself there. I can read Gandhi and get a better understanding of those social class issues we mentioned before.

As long as we build, we are civilized. As long as we have cities and the means to administrate them, we are civilized. As long as we have writers, we are civilized.

But it's not enough to have writers. We need to be a civilization of readers.

Or civilization falls apart.