Civilization stands in opposition to nature in relation to human societies − an artefact of humans, whether in the realm of ideas or of tangible materiality, that facilitate ways of social living, of civilized, that is, orderly, reproducible, forms of life that offer protection from the unexpectedness of living in the wilderness. At the core of this ancient concept lies the idea that anthropogenic actions that free human societies from the constraints of the natural environment create the rationalizing world where they can prosper. In the ancient thinking of the Old World, this included agricultural techniques, the building of ships and navigation knowledge, and in addition, laws, cities, government, the arts, organized religion. As a concept, it signifies human progress – over the natural state of being human in survival mode and over nature, freedom from the burdens and dangers of nature. But the dead end of this western mentality with the destruction of climate and the self-destructive nature of capitalist development has underlined the richness of other ways of thinking about the human relationship to nature.
Since organized living became associated with urban forms of living, contemporary societies that show respect for the natural environment and live with mild forms of intervention to it, are bringing to the fore an ideological richness in which the western concept of civilization was deficient – respect for nature is also civilization. Notions of what constitutes civilization have varied; for some societies, it may be the stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced in a certain era, as a form of organized urban society; for others, it denotes different historical expressions of societal living that encompass different priorities and sets of values. Due to historical vicissitudes, civilization came to be synonymous with urbanized forms of living across parts of the modern world, which included, on and off, unfair ruling practices such as empires, unequal treatment of members of the society, violence and enslavement, often for the benefit of a small class within the society, which amassed material wealth and showcased it. “Every civilization is a testament to barbarity”, as Walter Benjamin put it − reversing the ideological opposition of the Enlightenment that construed ‘civilization’ in opposition to ‘barbarity − in that very sense of the tangible technological advancement trumping all other forms necessary for amicable, functional, just organized living. Claims of superiority were based on such outer, material expressions of human living: be that in the built environment or in the production of scientific, technical knowledge. In the course of ranking human societies across history, superiority was pinned on these markings of civilization.
Yet technological progress alone does not suffice as a criterion of civilization. Without societal values developed over millennia in human societies, the presence of technological progress can be at loggerheads with civilized living – such as when technologically advanced weapons are sponsored and used to annihilate entire populations systematically. Civilization is not synonymous with technological progress, for without the social well-being of the societies that constitute the populations of a specific place and time, no organized society can prosper, freed from the constraints of nature. For this reason, the absence or curtailing of laws, the trumping of legislation by those who yield excessive force, the domination of capitalist markets over people point to un-civilized ways of living. This is the antithesis of civilization. In such cases, technological progress is tantamount to living in absence of freedom and under the pressure not of death from the dangers posed by nature, but through the domination of the powerful over the weaker. Civilization, as the organized human living that allows societies to prosper, is that system of living that protects humans both from the dangers of living in nature without means of protection and from the dangers posed by the excesses of human power.
Eleftheria Pappa