how can you compare this philosophy to the situation in our society right now?..is it right/good or wrong/bad?

Question

the philosophy was from Jean Jacques Rousseau..

"But human nature does not go backward, and we never return to the times of innocence and equality, when we have once departed from them.."

if you're going to compare it with the situation in our society, what would it be?..
is it right/good or wrong/bad?..

thanks!

Answer 1

It is true. Truth is not bad/wrong. Truth is not nessasarily right/good either.

Answer 2

Rousseau has a point on society. Cavemen discovred that they could get a pretty tasty meal from killing another of God's creatures. People discovered that having the most amount of shiny metal pieces can bring you happiness, and then started killing for it. Now we've discoverd that the weapons we've created back when we were revelling in our own scientific prowess can be used against fellow man we've started using them to threaten other people. I mean, people would kill other people simply to get money - which is expendable... does that mean that human life is worth as much as that expendable amount of happiness? Look at the Iraq situation; Bush spent over 5 billion looking to destroy 'Weapons of mass destruction'. Suspicion. It was all suspicion. What he did gain though was a puppet country and millions of tones of oil. With that money, he could have provided every 3rd world child in the world with basic immunisation and food for a month.
Selfishness corrupts innocence, and nows it's necessary for people to be selfish or "uninnocent" in order to be happy. Once we're happy there's no way in hell we'd go back because we're too selfish.

Answer 3

Also think it is true. Once you "depart" innocence, you cannot go back. You car repent, but not go back. Try looking into the eyes of a very young child. See the innocence in his/her eyes and try to find that inside you. I do not think i could; I am past it. I can only hope for "cleaning" what wrongs I've done. And regarding equality, we are only ever equal when we are young, before we know that there are things that can destroy this equality.

Answer 4

Good, if we learn from them.

Alas! Society it seems never learn, so we repeat the same mistakes...sometimes in greater scale.

But hope springs eternal. The advances in communication would surely help anyone who cares enough. It remind us of those mistakes of the past, and learn from it, and do much better this time around.

Answer 5

i think its pretty much true. innocence, once lost, is never regained. however thats only on an individual level. society as a whole can move back into the grounds of innocence.

Answer 6

it is what it is