To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question

I read an article the other day about the evolution of the human mind. It said that we tend to think that humans of the past had the same mental capabilities that we do today, but that is an illusion. One of the examples that demonstrated the point was the fact that as Shakespeare was composing his masterpieces, human heads were on spikes around the city he lived in to discourage criminal behavior. It's a poignant juxtaposition. The acceptable behavior of the day verses the eccentric; an eccentric whose work is still amazing to experts in the fields of literature, art, and psychology.

Can you imagine living in a time when the grotesque was considered as normal as a stop sign? When human life was so devalued that one could get killed on the street for looking at the wrong person in the wrong way? The fact that I can barely imagine what it must have been life is proof to me that our consciousness has indeed advanced. A person would have to be very disconnected from the sense of human nobility to live like that.

Not to beat a dead horse, but slavery is a good example. Here in America it really took a fight to eliminate the practice, but it wasn't long after that all other civilized nations followed suit. Why? Because the adaptation by America of the view of slavery as wrong caused others to question the practice as well. It is my estimate that until that time no one had really ever thought to question it at all. And if it had, it was not nearly as public as the war America fought about it. Inciting a civil war over the practice of slavery put the question in every one's mind, from which they applied their judgements and evaluations. The conclusion, as we can all see clearly now, is that if humanity is equal, then slavery has no part in a just society.

My father brought up an interesting question in his Jewish Tradition classes. In the Talmud there are practices regarding slavery; that the owners should treat their slaves a certain way. In the context of the time the book was written, the attitude displayed towards slavery was far and above what was considered normal. Yet, my dad asked, why was slavery allowed at all? Why didn't the Talmud forbid such a practice? Today, any rational person can conclude that slavery is wrong - it is clear. So it would seem that it should have been clear to the Jews as well. But it was not.

The argument, however, rests on the idea that the consciousness level of the people living at that time is the same as ours today. That they possessed the same ability to reason, intuit, and perceive clearly as the modern mind can. I would say, however, that because slavery is included in the most holiest of books (according to their tradition) that the idea of an evolving mind has much merit. It is clear that they were trying. The way the book spells out how to treat slaves was incredibly humane and fair and totally unheard of at the time. The Jews were really reaching for the best from within themselves to demand these practices from their followers. It is my opinion that they simply did not have the mental capacity to reason out the idea of equal rights for all of humanity. The idea had not come.

I hasten to add that this in no way implies that the Talmud is any less holy. Although I am not a Jew, I have much respect for the religion and the wisdom contained in their teachings. Instead, I like to think that either the minds of the Jewish writers at that time simply were not that open to see the entire idea that God was trying to transmit, or we have not interpreted the historical writings deeply enough. It is amazing what levels of truth you can find when you really dig into books of inspired writing. Perhaps if the open-minded scholars of today interpreted the Talmud with the intensity that they interpret Shakespeare, my father's question would have already been answered.

In closing, I would like to restate the author's point in looking at the history of the human mind in such a way: that we can be a part of that evolutionary process. In fact, we already are just by being here, living our lives, and thinking our thoughts. It is an inspiring message. We, like Shakespeare, can affect the direction of humanity. Our very lives are enriching the human experience and making it bigger and better. It is my belief that Shakespeare, and the other "lights" of history - masters of their time - called the best from himself and gave it to the rest of us. That was his contribution to our today and is an example worth following on many different levels.