Humanity in my grandson’s state
I just sat in my car and got ready to go somewhere. My ten-year-old grandson came closer to my car and said “I’m going with you!” and sat next to me in the car.
We set off and were driving along the busy street. Soon we went to the ring road. Every now and then I glance at my grandson, we both were too silent. But after a few minutes we made some progress. Grandson, who was watching the scenery on both sides of the road, suddenly asked me “Where are we going, father?”
– Why did you get into the car without knowing where we were going? I asked, replying to my grandson’s question.
– You know where we are going, that’s why I didn’t ask…
This one word answer of my grandson made me think hard. What is it about?
My grandson set off without knowing where he was going. I mean, he doesn’t know where he’s going, he says he trusted me. The question arises: what if I don’t know the destination? As far as I know, a person who is already over 70 and a 10-year-old child can’t have the same destination, right?
The conclusion to be drawn from the successive questions is that each person should know and understand his own destination! This conclusion is particularly relevant to the representatives of the current young generation. Unfortunately, if we take a look at the processes taking place in the world, in most cases, it seems that people do not know where they are going, what their goals are, what their dreams are. The victims of unrealized pleasure and fruitless indolence are those who fantasize about the age of “information age”. Based on these considerations, it is not wrong to say that the age we live in is the age of progress.
This is a natural, living soul cannot live a day or a moment without development. He strives for constant change and renewal. The concept that the only factor of a good, long and prosperous life is renewal (that is, movement) has risen to the level of dogma in the thinking of our contemporaries. Of course, no one can deny this innate tendency. It seems to me that the news of the information age and its frenzy seem to appeal directly to this innate tendency. This situation is observed not only in the way of thinking and life of an individual, but also in the scale of the nation, people, society, and state. If we try to simplify our thinking, the struggle between the individual’s thinking and mentality and the intensity of the information age is becoming more and more intense. The results and consequences of this escalation can be observed in any region of the world, in the life of any nation, regardless of the level of development.
“So, where are you going?” It is surprising that the question in verse 26, surah “Takvir” of the Holy Qur’an, seems to be aimed directly at our contemporaries. Doesn’t the fact that people who understand their own identity, know the black and white of life, and are mature in intellect, the fact that the whole of humanity is in a hurry without looking back and forth, suffering from the disease of forgetting to think about the consequences, shows that they are falling into the situation of my ten-year-old grandson described above?! And involuntarily you want to exclaim: Oh man, where are we in a hurry? What are we looking for? What are we losing, what are we gaining?
Why don’t we find an opportunity to find answers to important questions like this?!
A prediction of 60 years ago
Series of such multi-layered questions probably almost all go back to information, the flow of information, the intensity of this flow. “Mankind communicated orally for about three million years before the invention of writing, and only five thousand years later learned to print books on an industrial basis. Five hundred years later, he got telephone, radio and television. It only took about fifty years for the transition from traditional audiovisual media to computers. This historical fact itself shows the dynamics of global changes associated with the development of human thinking and the development of science and technology (N.Juraev. Theoretical foundations of the philosophy of history. – Т.: Мa’naviyatт. 2008).
This dynamic amazes the imagination and the mind! The dynamics of information intensity! Do you think that this dynamic, which squeezes centuries, times and eras into years, months, days and hours, will not add more days to humanity?!
Is time the same as it was in primitive times, that is, it has always been the same, it does not change? However, let alone half a century, let alone a century, the current concept of time cannot be compared with the situation 20 years ago. Time in the concept of rural and urban residents is completely different. From household appliances to vehicles, agricultural and industrial equipment – in every field, opportunities have been created to fulfill the work immediately. The human mind has already mastered the speed of sound. Human intelligence thinking is entering our lives with great strides, but why is the biggest problem for our contemporaries – lack of progress? The symptom of lack of time leads to haste, and haste leads to…
“I, first used the expression “Future convulsion” in my article published in “Horizon” in 1965″, writes the famous American futurist scientist and publicist Alvin Toffler (A.Toffler. Future shock. M.: AST. 2008).
Since then, over the past 60 years, the scientist has been known to the world as the author of this term. E. Toffler studies the problem of the impact of short-term changes-updates on a person as a real disease. A drastic change in the way of life and thinking has an extraordinary effect on the human psyche. The process of getting used to the updates causes both physical and mental stress. A transverse question arises: the creation and invention of technical means of development and speed no longer amazes anyone, but what will happen to the human body, human psyche, intelligence, culture, and morality?
This is the biggest and most complicated question!
Of course, young people have a great opportunity to safely use information technologies, and it is natural for the representatives of the older generation to be “inaccurate” in this regard. Of course, we adults are proud of this. I don’t want to raise the age-old father-son issue here. However, it is impossible not to say that the situation, attitudes and circumstances that are happening before our eyes are very worrying.
The problem you want to talk about is so deep, so overwhelming that you even start to worry.
One of the most urgent problems that need to be emphasized is related to the issue of youth thinking and information flow.
Until the end of the last century, the level of human perfection was measured by the breadth of the level of knowledge, that is, having as much information as possible. Lack of information was considered a serious problem. Various printed publications – newspapers and magazines, especially scientific and scientific-popular books and almanacs could not satisfy the need. A quarter of a century later, the wheel of the universe began to turn upside down. Now the problem of avoiding the flow of information is putting great thinkers in a difficult situation. Avoidance of information, info ethics, information etiquette… no matter what you call it, in a word, protecting the representatives of the younger generation from the intensity of the information flow has become the problem of the century.
The depth of knowledge still begins with having a lot of information. Possession of information is still a sign of intellectual potential. Moreover, reaching the status of a person cannot be imagined without a wealth of information. However… misleading, destructive information is also showing its “effect”. As a result of this, the shallowing of the mind, a light-hearted look at life, the weakening of attention to oneself, neglect, and the passing of national and human values easily occupy young and modern minds. In other words, the prediction made by A. Toffler 60 years ago is in some sense being proven, perhaps even more so.
What is the fourth wave?
At first glance, enjoying the flow of information is purely a matter of personal preference. However, it is impossible not to call “Ambulance” to a person who has been bombarded with information, and therefore cannot control himself and cannot protect himself from harmful information. The reality of life now demands that the emergency physician be armed with measures to provide immediate assistance to the information-stressed patient. In particular, providing close support to representatives of the younger generation is becoming an important task of our time.
For the development of a healthy society, not biological individuals, but social individuals, intellectual individuals are needed, young men and women who are losing their national and universal values under the pressure of information, who are developing their personal potential, are necessary for the present and future of every country, people and nation. To abandon the youth is to abandon the future. Look at the fact that, in the case of a single person, the issue, which is a purely personal problem, is generalized to the level of an extremely complex socio-political evil, defect, even disaster.
Yes, due to the unparalleled power of human thinking and intelligence, unprecedented speed and intensity have been created. However, we must also admit that speed did not make a person more intelligent and more refined.
Returning to A. Toffler, his “Third Wave” theory is extremely necessary and important from the point of view of the topic under discussion. The fact is that the scientist put forward the idea that the path traveled by mankind consists of three stages. In his opinion, the history of mankind has gone through the stages of agricultural civilization and industrial civilization. Now we live in the era of information civilization. The scientist also hypothesized that the third stage will end approximately at the present time of the 21st century. At this point, a very serious question arises: if A. Toffler’s “Third Wave” theory is to be continued, how will it continue? What stage of human history, civilization will it step into?
Logically, humanity now needs to step into the civilization of INFORMATION CULTURE! Let’s imagine that humanity has reached the age of purity, when it can cleanse its psyche from harmful influences. Just as humanity fought against the COVID-19, we need to fight against the flow of unnecessary and harmful information in the same way. This civilization will become the age of preserving the identity of our contemporaries from the pressure of harmful information. People begin to purify themselves mentally and spiritually. They need to find the way to perfection. They should become a perfect and healthy person.
It is necessary to focus all available forces, intelligence, and efforts on determining the tasks of the civilization of INFORMATION CULTURE. Information culture will save humanity, there is no doubt about it!
List of used literature:
- Holy Quran.
- N.Juraev. Theoretical foundations of the philosophy of history. – Т.: Мa’naviyatт. 2008.
- A.Toffler. Future shock. M.: AST. 2008.
- A.Toffler. The Third Wave: The Classic Study of Tomorrow. M.: AST. 2004.
- Khurshid Dostmuhammad. Information – miracle, charm, philosophy. Т.:2013.
About author
Leading Uzbek writer and journalist Khurshid Dostmuhammad graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the National University of Uzbekistan in 1973. Currently, he works as a professor at the International journalism faculty of Uzbekistan State University of World Languages. He is also a member of the Uzbek Parliament.
