Are we products of our time or do we determine what is tolerable in our time? Do we make decisions based on what is socially acceptable, or do we define what is socially acceptable at a given time by the decisions we make?
In Vas, Square seems to believe that he is forced to make decisions he wouldn’t have to make if he lived in a less technologically advanced society or era. He gives us the sense that he almost wishes he lived in the simpler time of Mother’s youth. But are the decisions that Square has to make necessarily bad? He never asserts whether he would rather take the chance of having a child with birth defects or have the opportunity to screen for such defects and then make a decision with regard to abortion. Yet he laments over having to make such a decision. He never suggests that vasectomy is immoral, but he desires not to have to make the decision whether or not to go through “the procedure.”
It is unfair to complain about the choices technology brings forth if you are unwilling to live without the advantages advancement presents. Civilizations will evolve, languages will die out, physical ideals will transform, but humans will always have the ability to make choices, though these choices may become more ethically blurry.
1 comment:
I really liked your post. I feel that as new technology like genetic engineering develops, it is crucial to hold scholarly debates on the ethics of innovation. I think with the majority of the innovation, good intentions are in mind; but sometimes people and society can get really carried away and that will result in more chaos.
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