180. Our Own Civilization. C E M Joad Essay Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

180

Our Own Civilization. C E M Joad Essay Reintroduced

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 1 By Stefan Keller-KellePics. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Our own civilization is not a very bad one. It is a flourishing civilization. British philosopher C. E. M. Joad discusses its merits and defects in his vivid and systematic analysis in his essay Our Own Civilization which is part of his famous book The Story of Civilization. He discusses our civilization’s encouraging as well as discouraging aspects. 

Cranes trains and typewriters were invented to do the works of arms, legs and brains.

Man invented machines to help him in his works. He expected to spend the excess time liberated through the engagement of machines on developing his civilization. But strangely the machines became his masters and now he is a slave to them. Modern man is far dependent on machines. He cannot now just live without them. Cranes trains and typewriters were invented to do the works of arms legs and brains. ‘Man seems very inventive and is not at all lazy.’ In fact man is the most restless and energetic of all living creatures. His intention in inventing machines was to spend the excess leisure time generated through machines on developing beneficial things for the world. 

Order and safety are as necessary to our civilization as the air we breathe is to our existence.

Our own civilization has many merits as well as a few defects. The order and safety it offers, the health conditions it provides, its habit of spreading, and the unity of the world it encourages are the merits. In the old world people decided things through fighting. But now we can go to the police station or a court of law for the redressal of our grievances and settling of things. ‘Thus in disputes between man and man, right has taken the place of might.’ Law guarantees order and safety in our society. Order and safety are things without which civilization would be impossible. They are as necessary to our civilization as the air we breathe is to our existence. We have now grown such used to them that we do not notice them anymore than we notice the air we breathe. 

Modern civilization succeeded in lowering death rate and elevating life span.

Modern European civilization also guarantees health to all. In the past diseases and death were common and people died in large numbers in every society. Modern civilization has succeeded in lowering the death rate among human beings and elevating their life span. Unless we have good health we cannot enjoy or achieve anything. Thanks to modern civilization men and women not only enjoy better health but live longer also now. 

Ancient civilizations were like oases in a surrounding desert of savagery. Soon or later the desert closed in.

What most differentiates modern civilization from earlier civilizations is its ability to spread. Earlier civilizations were contained within the boundaries of their local mountains or water bodies and spread nowhere. They were secluded and so, suffered brutal attacks from barbarians with no civilization at all. This was the fate of Babylon and Assyria and it happened over and over again in India and China. ‘It brought about the end of Greece and the fall of Rome.’ Ancient civilizations were like oases in a surrounding desert of savagery. Soon or later the desert closed in and the oasis was no more. But today it is the oasis that is spreading and the desert that is withdrawing. Today, civilization is surrounding and closing in on savagery. Modern civilization is spreading over Europe America and Australia, Asia and Africa. Joad is confident in saying that because of its ability to spread our civilization will exist. 

Even modern man’s meals are made up of things brought from different parts of the world.

Another encouraging aspect of modern civilization is it guarantees the unity of the world. Even modern man’s meals are made up of things brought from different parts of the world. Oranges from Brazil, dates from Africa, rice from India, tea from China and sugar from Cuba or other distant country of the world reach the modern European’s dining table. ‘Not even the great caliphs of Arabia, the eastern kings, not even Solomon in all his glory, could enjoy such a variety of eating pleasures from so many different and distant lands.’ So far as buying and selling is concerned the world is a unity already. 

Civilized means thinking freely, living rightly, and maintaining equal justice between man and man.

Machines save time and energy for us. ‘On the whole it must be admitted that we do very little.’ Almost all major and dangerous works are executed by the machines. With the time and energy they thus save for us we should try to become more civilized. Machines are not civilization but an aid to civilization. Civilized means making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, living rightly, and maintaining equal justice between man and man. Our civilization is already great. But by making more beautiful things, by finding out more about the universe, by avoiding quarrels between nations, and by discovering how to prevent poverty, we can make our civilization the greatest. 

When we say our civilization is great it does not mean our civilization has not defects.

When we say our civilization is great it does not mean our civilization is devoid of defects. War and the threat from machines are its main drawbacks. Inequality and injustice in the distribution of wealth is another defect. The rich rules even democratic states. While some live in luxury most do not have enough to eat and drink and wear. In the great cities of the world millions of people live in unclean surroundings, in overcrowded congested rooms. ‘They live like this not for fun, but because they are too poor to afford another room.’ 

After an apocalyptic destruction, everything will have to be begun from the beginning.

The danger from war is another defect of our civilization. A Swiss historian, Jean Jacques Bebel, has recorded that ‘in the past five thousand years’ written history of the world, just thirty nine years were free of any kind of wars anywhere’. Since man learned how to split the atom he has been making atom bombs which would one day destroy the whole world. Dropping atom bombs on civilizations would be the most inhuman act man could do. Civilizations could be wiped out without a trace from the face of the earth. Someone once remarked that ‘in the next war men would be fighting with atom bombs but in the war next they will be fighting with bows and arrows and stones’. After an apocalyptic destruction, everything will have to be begun from the beginning. 

A time may come when machines rule us like we rule animals.

The threat to mankind and its civilization from machines is yet another defect of our civilization. Machines were meant to liberate man from heavy works. They were designed to serve him as servants but now they have become his masters. ‘And the machines are very stern masters.’ Most of man’s time is now consumed by them. The machines need on exact times coal to feed, petrol to drink and oil to wash in. They should be maintained at the right temperatures too. If they are not given these in time they refuse to work, burst and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all around. Joad predicts that a time may come when machines rule us like we rule animals. 

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF C. E. M. JOAD.

A socialist suspicious of Marxism and against too much industrialization.

Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad 1891-1953 was an English philosopher and BBC broadcaster. His two books Guide to Modern Thought 1933 and Guide to Philosophy 1936 made him a prominent figure in philosophy. George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells were the two inspirations in his life. He was suspicious of Marxism as a philosophy even though he remained a socialist. Joad was against too much industrial exploitation of the English countryside and can be considered as one of the early naturists of England. 

Equal status as George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell as philosopher.

Joad was born in Durham and studied at Oxford Preparatory School, Blundell's School, Devon and Balliol College, Oxford. He entered the civil service in 1914. In 1915 he married but separated in 1921 having had three children. In 1930, he became the Head of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Joad enjoyed equal status as George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell in England as an intellectual and a philosopher. He died on 9 April 1953 at his home in London. 

Noted books written by C. E. M. Joad.

The most noted among C. E. M. Joad’s works are:

Mind and Matter 1925, The Future of Life 1928, Matter, Life and Value 1929, The Story of Civilization 1931, Essays in Common-Sense Philosophy 1933, Return to Philosophy 1935, Guide to Philosophy 1936, The Story of Indian Civilization 1936, Why War? 1939, For Civilization 1940, Journey Through the War Mind 1940, About Education 1945, Conditions of Survival 1946, Fewer and Better 1946, How Our Minds Work 1946, On No Longer Being A Rationalist 1946, A Year More or Less 1948, Decadence 1948, Turning-Points 1948, The Principles of Parliamentary Democracy 1949, The Pleasure of Being Oneself 1951, The Recovery of Belief 1952, Shaw and Society 1953. There were also many other books, essays and articles.

Article Title Image 2 By Stefan Keller-KellePics. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Written in: December 1994 

First published on: 08 December 2019
 

Tags:
 
Ancient Civilizations, Barbarians, British philosophers, CEM Joad, Eating Pleasures, Free Student Notes, Machine Masters, European Civilization, Order And Safety, Story Of Civilization, World Unity, 

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

00. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

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Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.