Of Progress and Self-Control

This essay is the result of an assignment given to my English III class my junior year of high school. We were instructed to mimic the series of contemplative essays by Sir Francis Bacon. For my topic I chose humanity's progress through the ages and the advantages and dangers of being so advanced a species. The following is the result of my musings.


Ever since the Neanderthal and his even earlier counterparts discovered their ability to shape the nature around them to their advantage, humanity has set itself on a course for unmatched progress. From the bone dagger and the wheel to electricity and space travel, he has been slowly but surely finding new ways to better his own life and gain more knowledge about the world he is changing. This cycle of knowledge and betterment has been going on for millions of years. But what if he has come to learn so much that it destroys him? For whatever reason, man has always had a tendency towards the destruction of his fellow man. When the Neanderthal, after a millennia of slow development, fashioned himself an ax, it almost immediately became a tool not only for work, but also for fighting. This development took millions of years. However, as humanity comes to understand more and more about the world it now rules, the time lapse between the creation of an idea and its terrible byproduct has decreased exponentially. It took less than 500 years for simple iron cannonballs to become a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the planet that had nurtured its creators since the beginning of time. Several times over. As a rule, humans will continue to discover the world around them and realize the possibility for tremendous and terrible power capable of destroying everything he knows. His thirst for understanding, while potentially fatal, is not necessarily so. It does not need to end in disaster. However, before humanity equips itself with the wondrous technology and terrifying power of the near future, it must learn self-control. Any civilization with the means to destroy its own planet cannot be burdened down by sudden primal urges to kill his fellow man. He would inevitably destroy himself.