Centuries after the enlightenment, one would imagine the words or ideals would seem realized, if not exceeded. As I read the Kant, I was struck by a passage, which implied freethinking would lead to the realization of these ideals.
“…the propensity and vocation to free thinking – this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity” (Kant 7).
I was instantly reminded of a series of photographs I saw in the wake of the London riots, which occurred for over a week in early August. I found the images intensely disturbing and difficult to comprehend. Below is a selection of these images, which depict citizens throwing items at the police, burning buildings, and destroying property at random.
How easily the present population will digress into a state of barbarism against not only police in seats of authority, but also their fellow men and their businesses is horrifying. If you have not read about the riots, they were caused by a racially charged incident in which the police killed a man. Yes, his death was a travesty, but the destruction of one's own city serves no purpose in protesting his death. When I think of London, I imagine a hub of culture and intellect, a city who is home to royalty as well as a capital of fashion. If a city so developed can digress so quickly to extended acts of violence, how can we expect anyone to be civilized? D'Alembert discusses at length a similar notion "Moral philosophers are fond of asking how men lived in what is called a state of pure nature, before there were organized societies and laws, and whether such a state was one of peace or war." (D'Alembert 15). However, he believes such a question is pointless, instead he explores how "men of letters" have behaved, concluding that in society "no one has the right to live to the complete detriment of his fellows" (D'Alembert 15). In the introduction we read, they indicated that Enlightenment ideals lost clout after the atrocities of two world wars and the Holocaust. I wonder, in our present society, if we have progressed towards these ideals of Enlightenment, or digressed. Can these ideals hold merit in our society? Or are we simply slipping further into darkness?
