The destructiveness of Ego
I read an article a few days ago about the discovery of codes in Plato’s writing. For those not up on their Greek History, Socrates was executed (forced to drink poison Hemlock) for heresy, so it makes sense that Plato, his student, felt the need to disguise ideas that could upset the State. The codes, which were just recently cracked, contained knowledge centuries ahead of his time. Plato’s idea that nature was ruled by the laws of Math rather than the laws of Gods, for example, didn’t gain popularity until Newton’s work 2000 years later.
Think of the advancement we’ve made as a civilization in the last 100 years. In 1910, many homes didn’t have telephones (or indoor bathrooms,) the automobile assembly line had just been invented, and public television was a distant dream. Now, even 10 year olds have cell phones with Internet connectivity and you can cross the world in an airplane in about 12 hours for a week’s salary. Try to imagine what it would be like right now if Plato could have publicly discussed his ideas - if our society could have advanced by another 2000 years by now.
Plato was no where near the first or the last to be censored for ideas that have the potential to advance humanity. When his ideas were finally re-discovered in Newton’s time, we were no more evolved in our acceptance of ideas. Newton’s contemporary, Galelio was forced by the Catholic Church to “admit” he didn’t “really believe” in the idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun. We’re still not nearly cured of this disease today. Less than 10 years ago, the Taliban destroyed ancient Buddhist Statues in Afghanistan with artillery, showing we’re still not good at being open to ideas that conflict with how we see the world.
What this comes down to is pure ego. The ruling class of any society seems to have a huge emotional need to squish out any doubt about how they present the laws of existence - a need to be right about how the universe works. People who take such action in the name of religious beliefs are guiltier of an even bigger ego. You have to be pretty big-headed to presume you have a complete understanding of the inner workings about how your god created the world - that you understand all the mechanisms of your god’s creation.
If not for the ego of ruling classes, we’d have been led into the Scientific Revolution 2000 years sooner by Socrates and Plato. Maybe that would have freed up Newton and Galileo to invent space travel or renewable energy sources. From this angle, we have to admit that ego looks like a very destructive force, powerful enough to retard the progress of the whole human race by several thousands of years. Perhaps this is the root of why many moral codes preach humility as a virtue. Perhaps a little humility can produce a lot of progress.