Exploring the Developmental Trend of Human Society

Xuefeng

January 17, 2020

It is not moral preaching but the advancement of science and technology that change human thinking and living conditions. The invention of steam engines in the 1860s changed the way that people traveled and dressed and brought about the appearance of ships, trains, and the international cotton textile and the steel industries. The invention of electrification in the 1870s brought electric lights, telephones, airplanes, and cars to people, which changed their life patterns. The inventions and innovations of atomic energy and microprocessor based calculators in the middle-twentieth century not only brought people a new thinking mode, but also brought us into a new era, especially the scientific and technological revolution in electronic communication in the beginning of the twenty-first century which accelerated the change of people’s thinking and life patterns in all aspects.

As for the moral preachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam, it is the same today as it was two centuries after their founding prophets lived. The moral education of Confucianism in traditional Chinese culture is even more stretched; it has no effect on people’s thinking and brings no effective changes to the way that people live. Mao Zedong’s ideological and moral education, which was popular in China from the 1950s through the 1960s not only failed to bring freedom and wealth to people, but it also cultivated countless hypocrites and corrupt officials. The facts have proven that the more emphasis that is placed on moral education, the worse people’s living conditions become and the more cunning people’s characters turn, while the more rapid the development of science and technology are, the more people’s lifestyles and living standards improve for the better.

Today, it is not moral education that changes people’s thinking, behavior, and life patterns, but scientific revolutions and technological innovations such as computers, mobile phones, videos, and biotechnology. With continuously emerging new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, facial recognition, and so on, people’s thinking will undergo revolutionary leaps, and people’s traditional life patterns will be completely subverted.

With mobile phones and other social media, who would still send love letters and family greetings through snail mail? With powerful cars, who is still willing to ride ox-carts and carriages? With fast airplanes, who would still ride to faraway places on horseback? With GPS navigation systems, who wants to look for places on street maps? The invention and creation of science and technology force people to change their traditional lifestyles. It is not a question of whether we are willing to do this, but a matter of necessity.

In addition to science and technology, the core factors that change people’s ways of living and thinking, another major factor is institutions, systems, and programs. Different systems lead to different ways of thinking and living. For example, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are all Chinese, but their social styles are totally different due to their different systems. As far as their systems are concerned, the more open and free a system is, the more advantageous the development of its productive forces will be, the more vibrant the society is, the more active people’s thinking becomes, and the better the people’s living conditions become; while the more closed and conservative a system is, the less freedom it has, the more it hinders the development of productivity, the more lifeless it is, the lower people’s degree of happiness is, the more rigid their thinking is, and the more ignorant the people remain.

Let us compare the United States, Iran, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

The United States was founded only two hundred years ago, but its productive forces have flourished from the beginning through the present, and its society has unlimited vitality. This proves that its system is superior.

Historically, the Persian Kingdom once created a splendid civilization, but after the Ayatollahs took power in 1980, Iran embarked on an autocratic system that combines politics with religion, and they have declined since then.

Venezuela used to be the wealthiest country in South America, but since Nicholas Maduro took over the supreme power of the country in 2013, he implemented an autocratic dictatorship and changed the country’s operating system; and as a result, the country has gone from bad to worse and become the country with the most severe economic collapse and the worst national life in the world today. A country of just thirty-two million people has created four million refugees; this is how different systems produce different outcomes.

Zimbabwe was once the granary of southern Africa and the most pleasant garden-like country in the world, but since they gained their independence in 1980, they have been governed by Robert Mugabe. As Mugabe became more conservative and authoritarian, the country’s currency collapsed by 2009, and its people were becoming desperate.

After analyzing the above factors, let us look at the developmental trend of human society.

The current systems in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and several other countries will collapse. No matter how the autocratic systems are controlled, due to the massive emergence of computer networks and mobile phone communication videos, no matter how effectively their firewalls block people from receiving new information, the spread of information is unstoppable, and people will become less and less tolerant of authoritarian rule.

Market economies will replace all other forms of economic models.

The movement of people will become freer and more frequent. The concept of hometown will only exist in people’s minds, and that of “where there is bread, there will be motherland” will be deeply rooted in people’s minds.

Religion, culture, and nationality will gradually merge, religion will go into decline, culture will develop toward the American style, and nationalist sentiment will fade.

The concept of countries will gradually fade, a global government will appear, and people will move toward it.

Various kinds of social and non-governmental organizations and teams will spring up like bamboo shoots after a rain, and they present social wonders of a hundred flowers blooming in a variety of forms.

Marriage, as one of the most ignorant phenomena in human society, will gradually disappear as the traditional nuclear family mode gradually disintegrates. People are more keen to rely on their emotions and live with folk collective production and life modes such as in Japan’s Konohana Family.

After experiencing great changes, turbulence, and integration, the world will move toward unity and countries will disappear completely. Eventually, the values of Lifechanyuan will be deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and the New Oasis for Life mode created by Lifechanyuan will blossom everywhere.

The above is only the developmental trend of human society as analyzed from the evolution of social factors. The inventions and creations of science and technology and the evolution of systems are not enough to constitute such huge social changes. Another extremely explosive factor that will also play a role is the vicissitudes which will be brought about by climate. Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, plagues, scorching heat, freezing cold, droughts, and similar disasters will be staged in turn and become more and more severe and harsh which will force all of human society to move towards the Lifechanyuan era. This will be an objective law that does not evolve with people’s subjective will.

Let us wait and see!