One of my favorite TV shows is Futurama. It’s brilliant, it’s poignant and it’s hilarious. One episode in particular is referenced frequently in S4E7; Jurassic Bark. There are strong arguments for why the main plotline make it one of the greatest episodes of television of all time. If you don’t believe me, go watch it. It’s worth every minute.
Mixed into this fantastic episode is a line that gets frequently missed because, well… the ending of the episode tends to delete most of the actual happenings of it from your memory. You may not remember the events, but, you will remember the ending. Everyone will remember the ending.
However, in the conflict of the episode, the main character Fry and his friend Bender have an argument. In the context of the argument, Bender is upset that Fry is obsessed with something he is not a part of.
To which Fry says:
“But Bender, this has nothing to do you with you!”
And, Benders response has been forever immortalized in my heart as the best answer to “This has nothing to do with you:”
Bender:
“That’s IMPOSSIBLE!”
There are, unfortunately, many people in this world for which the concept of something having nothing to do with them is fundamentally impossible. Unfortunate because, to be perfectly clear, most of what is happening in the world has nothing to do with them.
Futurama gets that part right. It gets a lot right. The only thing in fact, that I tend not to agree with in Futurama is…. The future. The fantastical, science fiction future exposed in Futurama is wonderful and magical and… my worry. My genuine worry is the that there is a belief that that particular future is inevitable.
Because it is not.
The money free, worry free utopian world of Star Treck will likely not be our future, but, a more, dystopian world where the technology is spectacular, but the current state of affairs plague us isn’t necessarily likely either.
For starters, we already have most of the magic we’ve ever dreamed of, and most of it is already in our pockets. At some point, in the next ten years that will be in our minds as well, but let’s not get ahead of our selves, that is most certainly not what I’m getting to.
What I’m getting to is this: in the history of humanity, progress has never been and never will be inevitable.
For every civilization that has embraced new ideas and moved on to more liberal and open concepts, another goes backwards to barbarism and absolutes. Sometimes, the civilizations that led the charge are the ones that get left behind because of a refusal to change. Sometimes the civilizations to catch up. More frequently however, those civilizations fall behind and fall victim to more aggressive neighbors and foes. Classical examples of this are the Islamic caliphates, China and India. All of which at some point in history were substantially more technologically advanced. While the reasons for these collapses are all argued from a myriad of angles, Europe only truly flourished after the renaissance and advent of humanism in the 17th centuries Certainly arguments can be made about coffee, but let’s face it, none of this starts until after the Magna Carta and the Protestant Reformation. Both of those are social concepts, not technological.
Why is social progress so critical? As much as technology plays a part of it, make no mistake the social progress of societies is the crux here. Social progress allows for ideas that have never been approached and openness to new ideas for more efficient adoption. These in turn enable more new ideas and, inevitably, new technology. While technological progress makes things amazing, social progress enables everyone to enjoy it with a level of equitable access.
Now, I should say that I refuse to look back and judge our ancestors with the knowledge of what we know today. It is, simply unfair to project our knowledge into the past. That said, when we make those mistakes our selves, that is a double crime. The crime of knowing it’s wrong, and the crime of doing it anyway.
In this context the social progress I speak of is everything from the acceptance of gender fluidity to the some how still controversial subject of abortion.
How, as a forty-year-old, I am somehow still hearing pro-life arguments baffles me. This is not a belief thing; this is not a morality thing. This is, fundamentally, a human rights thing. This is the right to make your own choices in life, the right to have a choice over your own body. These are basic human rights and anything else, any other perspective is simply a projection of your own beliefs.
There is simply no reasonable argument to be made that your beliefs can trump another person’s decisions about their own life. None.
And I support your right to believe whatever the hell you want to believe. I really do. I am absolutely critical of those beliefs, but I really do want you to know, I think you have the right to believe what you want. You just don’t have the right to make anyone else believe that.
Because, and I cannot stress this enough: “Bender, this has nothing to do with you.”
Because it is Not Impossible that something has nothing to do with you, but it is very possible by forcing your way into it, to cease the momentum of progress.