Anthropocene Essays - The Enlightenment
By Alexia Sang
As a little girl, I remember spending a lot of time in the car. We lived half an hour from school and work, so a lot of our family time was spent on the road shuttling my sister and I to and from school or dance or whatever other passion we young children had at the time. I have fond memories of these car rides, but, unfortunately, the experience for my parents was slightly more frustrating thanks to my love of something my parents refer to as “The Question Game.” On these half-hour-long treks to town, I would sit, staring out the window, my reflection of innocence painted on the glass in front of me, and I would ask an ungodly amount of questions about the world around me. “Mommy, why is the sky blue? Why are there yellow lines on the road? Why do birds fly in a V? Who invented cars? Can I drive?” And while oftentimes my parents’ knowledge could answer the trivial questions my young brain was barely smart enough to come up with, there were times in which they simply didn’t know the answer. This was when I’m sure my mother questioned whether or not to leave me on the side of the road, as I would simply refuse to accept “I don’t know” as a response, and this answer would result in a crying fit of me complaining for the rest of the car ride that my parents did in fact know and they just weren’t telling me. I mean, parents know everything right?
As a little girl, my parent’s held all the knowledge in the world, so anytime I knew something they didn’t, I felt like the smartest human to have ever lived. I remember the overwhelming feeling of pride the days I was able to help my little sister with her homework because my parents couldn’t, or the days I was able to find the area of a triangle when my father had forgotten — something thirty years of life had simply pushed out of my parents’ brains for much more useful information — but to me, it meant I was undoubtedly smarter than my parents. I had it all figure out. That is, until the next time I rode in a car looking out the window, my reflection of innocence painted on the glass in front of me, and wondered why the leaves were different colors.
As a young adult, I now spend the majority of my life switching between classes, challenging my intellect, and developing my own logic and reasoning. I no longer ask my parents a million questions as I drive myself to and from school and swim and wherever else my busy schedule takes me. I now believe my parents when they say “I don’t know” and my egoic teenage brain has even started to expect it. The more I know that my parents don’t, the more I know I must be smarter than they are, and I must know everything, right? It’s the teenage mindset that every parent fears. I’m smart enough to think I’m mature, but not smart enough to realize I’m not.
In 17th and 18th century Europe, the teenage mindset of humanity, a society of people that believed they knew everything they needed to know based on the Bible and the knowledge of their King chosen by the divine right of God, were greeted by the Age of Reason where a handful of philosophers looked at humanity as we claimed we had it all figured out and went “But do we though?” Unfortunately, hundreds of those philosophers and anyone who bought into this newfound idea of reason and logic were promptly executed or imprisoned (Lucky for me, my parents never had this option). Still, these ideas escaped beyond these philosophers, and the preposterous ideas of equality, liberalism, and scientific progress were born. We no longer solely relied on our religious texts or the word of our Kings to answer our many questions. So next, the birth of the Enlightenment, as philosophers came to realize that a belief system based on personal logic and reason still did not make it objective. They realized that when people learn to think for themselves humanity must also learn to distinguish between the subjective and objective truth, something human nature is still inherently bad at.
Like my earliest reflection in the car window, the Enlightenment was not the time when society started to figure it out and find all the answers, it was the time in which society just started to realize that we didn’t have all the answers and perhaps that was the basis for all knowledge.
Now, sitting in my car at a red light, staring out the window, I no longer ponder the trivial questions I pestered my parents with as a child, but I still ponder the world around me nevertheless. I am thankful to those philosophers who set the stage for freedom of thought and liberty to become my natural right. I sit peacefully, happy to debate many answers to my own questions, and with the same realization those philosophers had so many centuries ago, “I don’t know” no longer bothers me.
I rate The Enlightenment 9 out of 10 stars.