Did reason fail or‘men of reason’?

The age of reason, rationality, and science, a gift of the European Renaissance, seems under attack from critics who argue that the modern world has not lived up to mankind’s expectations. Despite major advancements, anti-modernity intellectuals point to ongoing hunger, starvation, and senseless conflicts that lead to humanitarian crises, environmental destruction, and disease.

Meanwhile, those who condemn the Medieval Age as one of ignorance and superstition cite the debauchery of the Papacy, the Crusades' fanaticism, the Inquisition’s horrors, and the clerics' and kings' tyrannies. They argue that modernity rescued humanity from barbarism, promoting science, technology, and exploration. The modern age drastically reduced hunger and disease, wiping out plagues like the Justinian plague and the Black Death, which had annihilated over one-third of Europe’s population in the 14th century.

This is not the first time the Age of Reason has faced criticism. Many intellectuals have questioned the rationality behind romanticizing modernism. For instance, Christian priests who witnessed the brutalities of Latin American colonization were among the first to highlight the greed of the colonizers. Jean-Jacques Rousseau condemned the rising bourgeoisie's destructive appetite, which intensified class divisions across Europe. The Frankfurt School also challenged the belief that modernity solely brought blessings.

Critics argue that the modern age also brought horrors, including genocides, subjugation, and brutal slavery. According to Howard Zinn, over 45 million indigenous people were killed, and American scholar Roy Casandra claims the toll could exceed 115 million. Even conservative estimates suggest over 80 per cent of the population was decimated by genocide and diseases, for which explorers' policies are often blamed.

They did not stop there but expanded this brutal model of colonial subjugation to other regions, bringing Africa, Asia, and beyond under their control. Their policies are said to have caused over 135 million deaths in places like India, the Belgian Congo, Algeria, and China. Between 1937 and 1945, Japan is accused of killing over 10 million in China, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines, including Western POWs. The desire to dominate led Western elites to control over 35 per cent of the world pre-Industrial Revolution, and by 1945 to control 85 per cent.

This race for land, resources, and markets triggered the Napoleonic wars, the scramble for Africa, and two world wars. World War I took over 20 million lives, while the apocalyptic World War II resulted in the death of more than 70 million.

Such appalling killings by 'men of reason and enlightenment' can only be compared with the massacres of over 37 million people, who were slaughtered by the barbarian Mongols. The Mongols, who decimated 10 per cent of the world's population through these brutal onslaughts, can be dismissed as hordes of savages, devoid of all civility and principles of civilizations. But what would we say about the scientists of the modern world who invented nuclear bombs that not only incinerated hapless souls in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but threaten to wipe us out today? What rational arguments can we offer to justify this self-annihilation or collective suicide of humanity and humankind?

As if the destruction in these two wars were not enough, since 1945 the world has witnessed more than 280 wars, civil conflicts and military skirmishes – killing three million in the Korean War, five to seven million in Vietnam while several other millions were also slaughtered in the killings fields of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Bosnia, Laos, Cambodia, Rwanda and other parts of the world.

It is not surprising that many tribes that we consider barbarians or savages did not even have the very words for private property, war, greed and subjugation in their dictionary while several other tribes in the Americas and other parts of the world managed to maintain peace for a long time. For instance, the Iroquois tribal confederation managed to live in peace for 300 years through talks and dialogues while we are even finding it hard to douse the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East. This is despite the fact that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has prompted scientists to fear the specter of a nuclear holocaust.

It might be argued that perhaps it is not science or the Age of Reason that is to be blamed but the use of these modern phenomena that should be held responsible for problems like hunger and starvation which should have been a thing of the past by now. It is asserted that the Age of Reason basically talked about the larger good of humanity. The age wanted us to be rid of the shackles of superstition that was the order of the day during the Middle Ages. It wanted to universalize knowledge by putting everything at the door of common sense.

But where do we see the common sense of the 'modern man' when the US and other powers pumped trillions of dollars into arms and militaries just to ensure the mutual annihilation of the countries involved? Does our reluctance to come up with 50 billion euros to mitigate the consequences of the damage to the ozone layer reflect any common sense when at the same time we are spending close to $2 trillion on militaries and defence?

We don’t have five billion dollars to wipe out extreme poverty from Africa but can spend trillions of dollars on marketing and advertising, private jets of the elites and weddings of the super-rich. We are doling out trillions of dollars in bailout packages but cannot provide millions of people with decent housing, free education and sources of livelihood.

The goal of the Enlightenment was to extend prosperity and progress to the vast majority of humanity but prosperous states worldwide can still be counted on our fingers with the wealth of 5000 rich people of the world greater than what over four billion people own/possess. So, if reason has not failed, then at least the 'men of reason and rationality' must be in the dock and answer these crucial questions.

The writer is a freelance journalist who can be reached at:

egalitarianism444@gmail.com