The Great Escape

With all the concern over the year 2012 approaching (thank you Mayans), and the ever growing social and political problems that have risen to the surface in recent years, I have decided that today I will attempt to reflect and prognosticate a bit.

Social Evolution-1. the gradual development of society and social forms, institutions, etc., usually through a series of peaceful stages.

Decadence-1. the act or process of falling into an inferior condition or state; deterioration; decay. 2. moral degeneration or decay; turpitude.
3. unrestrained or excessive self-indulgence.

Revolution-1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.
2. Sociology. a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, esp. one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.

I love to begin with definitions. They always provide a clearer understanding of where to begin. So, to begin by assigning proper order to the definitions though, really, it is a matter of opinion (a chicken or egg proposition).

Social evolution occurs just as biological evolution, though on a more rapid basis. It is the idea and implementation of progress in a society. As ideas change, as the knowledge of a society changes, as its morals change, so too does a society. As stated in the definition, these changes are often peaceful, but there is the occassional violent upheaval- a coup. Not mentioned often enough is the role that art plays in such evolution. Art is always a good indicator of the status of a society. It seems that even before the society changes, the art movement has changed.

But today we are in a state of decadence, of decay, of idleness. Often can be heard someone asking, "where do we go from here?" It is easy enough to say that we have accomplished about all that can be done in the way of technology, all we seem to do now is to make it faster and more available to the masses, which in turn increases knowledge and idleness. It is argued that our sense of entitlement and self-indulgance is what lead us to this current economic crisis to begin with (just a sign of a decadent society). Sure, there are new art movements, new music trends, but if you look at them (listen to them), if you study them you can only come to the conclusion that they are only mixtures of past ideas and movements- What goes around comes back around again. We are recycling old ideas because we have found none that work effectively enough for us. And so we wait for the next step in social evolution.

Unfortunately, we have reached a rung (seemingly) in this round of social evolution in which the path we have chosen seems to have reached its limit. It is the farthest we can travel for the road we're on. The only way to fix it, to allow a society to continue on is revolution. I am NOT promoting violence, that is not my aim. My aim is, however, to point out where things are, in my view, heading- its like watching a horse run towards a cliff. It will come swiftly, and have the force of a volcanic eruption, because while we have been idle in decadence, the pressure has been mounting. One day a man/woman will wake up and say to himself, "this is ridiculous. I need to do something." and then it will begin. It will spread like a tsunami, and burn like the wildfires of California. Perhaps it has already begun.

Well, I have not met my expectations with this piece, but the thought process is more fluid than before, and more to my liking. But if it reads like diahrrea of the mouth, I apologize.