Essay: The Spirit of the 21st Century

The Spirit of the 21st Century

The generation of the late 20th and 21st century are enriched with prosperous lives through the resources. We have the capability to be able to use the natural resources compared to our previous generations. We have seen and experienced the highest technological advances through strong and creative intellects. However, our capability and the accomplishment that we have made brought struggles and conflict (along with the capability to cause damage and destruction that we have not seen), in which the numbers are far greater than any other period in history. Could this be an example of Newton's Third Law, in which every action results an equal reaction? Or, from the oriental philosophy of um and yang (yin and yang)? Our advances and innovations has resulted an equal opposite of these triggers. What could be the appropriate spirit (mentality) of the generation of the 21st century?

In this generation, people classify themselves into a certain group, in terms of religion, political ideology, and other beliefs. People try to categorize other's into a certain group for what they say and act. For example, in South Korea it may be the case that a person is accused of being a communist for their compassion towards North Korea. They accuse each other for being different and attempt to categorize them into a group to create division. However, it does not mean one is pro-North Korea or support its government system, but it means that we are pro-peace. Just as this, it seems to be the trend that in the 21st century, we tend to identify ourselves to a particular group or we become classified to a particular group. As a result, conflicts rise from these differences into forms of minor arguments or physical war. Was there an opportunity, when we all worked together for a cause? The spirit of 21st century should be accomplishing something that has never been accomplished completely. It is the spirit of cooperation. It is not division, or reacting towards an action, but it is reaching to an equilibrium.

There is one occasion, when we see mankind becoming one and working with each other. This is in science fiction or disaster film. It is when earth is attacked by an alien force from outer space or from a natural disaster. One example is Roland Emmerich's SF film '2012'. In the midst of different natural disasters happening all over the world, mankind combines their effort to survive. However, should we become one, when we are facing something that will cause extinction? Could we not become one before an exterior force that threatens us to become one? Could we not realize that the wars, which happen in our time could lead to an extinction of our race? In addition to special effects of the film, it left a question on what it means to be a human and unity.

"Today, none of us are strangers. Today, we are one family, stepping into the darkness together."

"To be human means to care for each other and civilization means to work together to create a better life."

The spirit of the 21st century must be guided towards becoming one family, in order to prevent leading ourselves into destruction. We have to constantly attempt to achieve the true meaning of what it is to be a human. We study in college and take courses on humanities, but we never achieved what it is to be human according to one fictional scientist in the film. Perhaps, peace and unity is a fiction that only exists in our fantasy. However, the fact that we hope for such things and portray these through different visual arts show the possibility that peace and unity are possible in reality. It is essential that the spirit of the 21st century must be focused on achieving our humanity or in other words, world peace. It is even more essential, because we have enough power to destroy humanity. In order to prevent this our spirit needs to reflect, "What is the true meaning of being a human?". So, in this sense WARP Summit demonstrated the possibility that we are capable of working together and building the world that we live into a better place.