The struggle for the heart and soul of the human race is losing ground in the 21st century.
It is already a quarter of a century. 2025 is half-done, where do we stand? Are we better, happier, kinder? How do we improve on what has happened in the past? Does history teach us everything? Does history teach us nothing? We look right and left, up and down, what do we see?
Some profound sadness surfaces. We see fear, hatred, hunger, suffering, confusion, death and destruction. Does it not sound too familiar?
Drowning in a technological world from smartphones to artificial intelligence, we are unaware of the many human qualities, eroding bit by bit, day by day.
Technology has permeated every aspect of daily life with total focus. Seething silently in the corner, the world continues to suffer. Not Ukraine, not Gaza, it is insanity that permeates the world, above technology.
We repeatedly lament the mammoth organisation of the United Nations, now defunct in every sense. It has every intention to save the world from the scourge of wars, pledging to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights. Where is the dignity and worth of the individual, where are the equal rights of man? In its charter, the august body promised to establish conditions of respect and justice for all nations under international law. Were they in their right minds when they vowed that no injustice can be tolerated?
Before the ink was dried on their hypocritical charter, they immediately approved a state for the Jews on land that belonged to another nation. Where would the native citizens go? They did not even blink as they watched them dispersed and homeless. That was only the beginning. Watch the genocide witnessed by the whole world, all 192 nations of the United Nations. Some hint, some blink, some cannot see, some cannot care.
How is the 21st century doing so far? Even technology is working on improving wars.
If you think the network age has improved the human race, think again. The 21st century underscores the remarkable technology and medical advancement. Both are out of reach of more than half of the population. Robotics, genetic engineering and nanotech are admirable, but they threaten to make humans an endangered species. Is not technology great?
Is there starvation in this new millennium? Apart from Gaza and the Sudan, there are 733 million people worldwide go hungry every day. Half of all child deaths are caused by malnutrition. According to the Global Hunger Index, hunger levels in 36 countries are ranked “serious”.
There could be, should be, no slavery in this century. More than 46 million people are currently victims of 21st century slavery, most of them women and children. In a recent book The Various Forms of Human Enslavement in Today’s World, also known as “modern-day slavery”, or “neo-slavery” among other terms, authors Usha Iyer-Raniga and co explore the effect of compelled labour, commercial sex acts, fraud, or coercion. Whether tricked, coerced or forced, they lose their freedom. Although slavery is illegal in every country in the modern world, it still exists. “The need for the eradication of all forms of slavery has become imperative in the 21st century,” so they say.
The 20th century was known as the “bloodiest century in human history” with two world wars, killing a total of 231 million in the last 100 years, how about this century, so far? Although the 21st century has seen a considerable reduction in the present wars, in the similar span, tens of thousands of lives are lost each year. Nine wars so far, including the greatest misnomer known as the Israel-Gaza war, not to mention the Israel-Palestine crisis. It is without question an outright military occupation, with criminal intention to eradicate the population, in other words “genocide”. So said the International Criminal Court, but who cares. Is not Israel above the law, any law?
Much like the last century, the whole of mankind is guilty — or mad.
How did the last century fare? Let us count the ways.
It was exactly 120 years ago, July 1905, that German physicist Albert Einstein published his Special Relativity Theory, E=mc2, where e is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light. “A small amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy.” The genius of one man changed the whole of mankind. It helped us better understand our universe, catapulted into space exploration and lead us to an exponential growth of science. Who is the genius of this century? Elon Musk?
The quality of our lives was definitely improved with scientific advancement in medicine and technology. Life expectancy grew from 46.4 years to 75 years and continues to grow in this century. The question is how to feed, clothe, house, and care for 10 billion people by 2050?
Technology has pampered, entertained, and informed us. Its stellar achievements are endless. They also gave us weapons of mass destruction the world has yet to dream of. Yet can technology prevent earthquakes, fires, or floods?
We continue on the path of technology, clueless, without purpose, chasing after a blind alley, leading nowhere.
Helplessly addicted to technology, playing games for fun and wars, will this age bring prosperity to a weary world, or will it eradicate matters of the heart?
“The world would be a safer place, if someone had a plan, before exploring outer space, to find the inner man.”
E Y Harburg (1896-1981)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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