Humanities & Classics 1002
|
|
Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
    |
|
In my final I will address the question of whether or not the ideal of the "Renaissance Man" is still valid, and my answer is simply a yes. And what is the support that I have for this answer? Well simply this; what kind of class am I writing a final for right now? A liberal arts class. And what is the purpose of a liberal arts class? To broaden one's knowledge in as many ways as possible, to make the most well-rounded person that will be an effective member of an increasingly competitive workforce that requires multi-talents for a single job. Now more than ever a "Renaissance ideal" is needed for one to get a job, one can't merely graduate from high school and then get a decent paying blue collar job, the labor force just isn't needed as much for computers are now doing the tasks of what before took many people's time and energy. We are also no longer hindred by lack of communication because of the advanced technology present today, in order to work in conjunction with other nations and cultures we must first understand and comprehend the ways in which other cultures act, their ideals, their basic mentality, what they stand for. A well rounded person will know something about these people in advance, they'll have the knowledge necessary to work efficiently with others. We're having a sort of Renaissance period right now because new discoveries are being made everyday, computers are becoming obsolete basically the moment that you buy them. People are thinking of new ways to do old things more efficiently, people are daring to dream big dreams and to make things happen. We are not, however, without the faults that the original renaissance period had. We are still suppressing individuals such as Native Americans, there are still multitudes of people taking advantage of other people because of greater knowledge, the church (I feel) is still in the throes of indecision. People are breaking free from the originals and making things new. I read an anthropological paper about the birth of religions, and they're basically starting in no different ways than the ways in which Luther broke free from what he felt was wrong, these people are doing the very same things. It's because of the Renaissance that we are able to have the "Renaissance" that we are having right now. We are using knowledge that was handed to us from our predecessors and building off of it even more. As I mentioned before, in spite of all the good things that are coming out of our period of time there are also the bad, a good example is nuclear, chemical, and biological weaponry. To me the people that created these things are indeed geniuses but what good have they really caused the world? Instead of negotiations we just drop nucs at the press of a button and descimate thousands, millions, geniuses that should (in my opinion) have been smart enough to know what they were getting themselves into, the harm that they could do unto others. There is also so much corruption in the governments of today, so much abuse of power, so much killing, and assassinations,I guess you could say that it all just carries over from the Renaissance, or basically just from the sheer power that is given to few over multitudes. To get ahead in this world of today one must kind of stick to the essentials of a "Renaissance ideal", one must be knowledgeable in many areas and use that knowledge as an edge, to get all of the material things wanted and all of the status needed to complete a person's ego. I guess that in my own view the Renaissance was a good thing for the furthering of knowledge but a bad thing for all of the corruption that follows... And I think that most certainly that corruption is present in today's society of the now-occuring "Renaissance"