Evolution of society

[Spart]

I am not sure if this is the right place for the post but it seems like the appropiate one.
Through out time we have all boasted a evolution in society, that we are not as barbaric we once were, though I feel that we are somewhere around square one.

There is no more slavery yet we employ people and pay them next to nothing and that will make sure that they come back to you because they have no other option but to come to the same place for their meagre salary.
We no longer make people fight to the death for entertainment yet many action movies portray a death, when it is that of a lackey no tear is shed (Austin Powers doe not count it is a comedy I am talking about a pure action movie Terminator for instance).
I feel that we just boast better technology that makes many things seem more acceptable.

I am no saint, I just believe that we must call a spade a spade.
Are there any out here that echo similar thoughts.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I think you're right, using incorrect terminology to hide the truth adds the crime of hypocrisy to the crime of slavery.

Society tends to go through a form of evolution similar to that of humans - the society form itself must be able to get reborn (rennaissance) or not fall, and the societies that don't fall or are good at getting reborn aren't necessarily the least cruel.

As for your comparison to gladiatorial games - much of modern sport, where great number of people ruin their lives with anabolic steroids and similar, and where we have boxing and karate etc. as a form of legalized violence, is things comparable to gladiatorial games. In fact, it's often claimed that sport as it exists today sprung just as much from the practise of gladiatorial games as from the slightly less violent Greek Olympic games (but even the Olympics had some quite violent "sports").

Slavery exists still to this day, both labelled as slavery, and labelled as "the right to have a work".

Genocide is a practise that modern man has gotten more and more fond of, as a "tool", especially in situations where overpopulation or economical crisis brings starvation and "Malthusian disaster". It is not strange, considering that in the short term, society forms which cause Malthusian disaster are more successful, than societies which keep their population numbers down and keep great margins. Roman dominance over Carthage had partly to do with population numbers, and the dominance of "civilizations" over so-called primitive "hunter herds" with small population size and almost no weaponry, has come from this. It's not strange that today the only hunter tribes that have survived are living in inpenetrable rain forests or distant almost inaccessible islands. Of course, the more aggressive these tribes would be, the greater chance of surviving against modern civilization they would have had. Odd then, that most conserved hunter tribes are much less violent than any more "advanced" societies.

The basic problem is that society is too complex and uncontrollable. Even a saint wouldn't be able to create a better world by working through the current institutions, commissions, and so on. The society form is built in a way that makes it vulnerable to random events and forces people to act in ways that in theory seemed good, but in practise leads to the unfolding of chains of actions that cause unforeseen trouble. It's my opinion that most disasters of our time happen only because of mistake, because of accidents, and not because of malevolence. And we have created institutions that put the full responsibility of such accidents on single human beings, who acted in ways they were trained to, and forced to, do. As such, whenever any criticism is to be directed towards bad things, there will always be innocent people who will feel the criticism is directed towards them, and they will "defend themselves" against it. The result is that we also create a strange tabboo on at all criticising, even though it wasn't anybody's idea to create such a tabboo. Society forms survive if they are complex enough to make it unable to remove them and fix their problems, and if they make human beings fight each other and accuse each others whenever accidents happen, rather than rooting out the problems of the society structure. A paranoid conspiracy theoretic would say all bad things that happen are caused by malevolence, but overviewing society tells you that only fractions of all bad things are deliberate. Only one or two steps in long chains of accidents and unforeseeable events caused by an unoverviewable complex buereaucratic society.

[Derfasciti]

I was just thinking of Evolving society today and I must say that my conclusions lean toward what Marx always believed: The slave/master-worker/capitalist kind of thing.

[Samurai Waki]

Humans have yet to evolve, but our technology constantly evolves. We're technically the same people with the same emotions, and share the same thoughts and concerns as the ancient Hellenes did. We're not any more intelligent on the whole (just read Cicero and you'll understand), but we have a much higher per capita of educated people than our ancient forebearers had.

[yesdachi]

I believe we humans may not ever need to “evolve” physically as we have been able to use our brains to make technology to bend our environment to meet our needs rather than evolving to better fit into our environment.

As far as the evolution of society goes I guess it all depends on what society you are examining and what society it is being compared to. As a whole I think we have evolved quite a bit. People are generally more educated and tolerant, have more freedoms and enjoy more equality than they have in the past. In general we work well with others and understand the complexities of other societies well enough to form relations filled with commerce and free trade of ideas and communications. Naysayer’s will point at all the war and strife but also look at all the other countries that are not at war with one another and enjoy the benefits of peaceful relations.

Although not always completely accepted everywhere it is common to see couples of different races and even different religions married now where just 100 years ago people would have freaked and probably lynched the couple.

I think we often forget just how far we have come because it is so difficult to comprehend where we, as a society, were just a few hundred years ago. It is not difficult to draw some comparisons between a slave and a low paid employee during the industrial revolution, prior to unions and child labor laws, or today in an underdeveloped country but any real comparison between a slave and a citizen in a developed country is silly.

I think we have a ways to go to reach a utopia or some perfect society but compared to where we were just 100, 500 or 1,000 years ago is a fine accomplishment considering the obstacles we have faced.

[Samurai Waki]

I don't think I would've minded living as a Plebian during the Roman Era. Freedom is a human concept as old as dirt, however, what Freedoms people are entitled too has liberalized much over the centuries.
Homosexuality for instance was something more commonly accepted by our ancient forebearers, not that it wasn't frowned upon entirely. And a Black Slave was worth FAR more than a white slave ever was, mostly because they would've been viewed as an exotic commodity. I guess what has changed more than anything as far as Freedom goes is that we've done largely away with the Caste System. But it still exists, mostly in peoples minds.