As we grow and develop, we are bound to realize that things are getting better. Compare the world today with the world centuries ago - don't you notice that things are getting better? Take the field of medicine for example. Many centuries ago, one of the most popular ways for treating all manner of diseases was by bleeding the patient. Today, there are many drugs and treatments for various ailments. And it's not just the field of medicine that has seen improvement. Practically every sphere of human involvement has experienced decisive growth, development and change. Indeed, things are getting better. And they will keep getting better. I am excited for the future.
Why are things getting better? Because our souls are getting leaner. In Plato's Symposium, Socrates praised the lean soul. The lean soul is the one that does not pad itself with material things. It does not stay at the level of appetite. The lean soul does not gorge itself on food, or wine, or sensual pleasure; the lean soul is not after wealth or honors or self-aggrandizement. The lean soul instead is focused on philosophical reality; it contemplates life; it busies itself with epistemology and ethics. The lean soul seeks after truth. Conversely, the fat soul is overburdened with material pursuits; the fat soul lives at the level of appetite. It gorges itself on food, drink and sensual pleasure. It does not keep a philosophical posture; it does not contemplate immaterial reality. The fat soul does not seek after truth; it is not interested in epistemology and ethics. It is more interested in consumption.
Lean souls are productive. They lead their peers. They point the way, like light in the darkness. Lean souls are entrepreneurial; they come up with new ideas; they start businesses; they mentor people, and they pretty much make the world about them better. They give more than they take, because they are more intellectual than appetitive; more restrained than avaricious. Lean souls make sacrifices, so that their posterity might enjoy. Conversely, fat souls consume more than they produce. They are full of greed and wastefulness. They take more than they give, and they do not live any heritage for posterity. Realize in any case that there is a difference between a fat soul and a fat body. A person may have a fat body and a lean soul; and a person can also have a lean body and a fat soul. To tell a fat soul, observe the attitudinal and behavioral interests of the individual. If the person is more disposed toward dissipation, greed, sensual pleasure, and the satisfaction of narcissistic and selfish concerns, that person has a fat soul, regardless of his or her physical shape and size. If on the other hand the person is interested in philosophical pursuits, especially epistemology and ethics; if the person is more disposed toward immaterial, spiritual or intellectual pursuits, then such an individual is a lean soul, even if he or she has a fat body.
In the bible, Jesus talks about being poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3). This may easily be taken as a reference to leanness of soul. He says that the reward of leanness of spirit is the attainment or realization of the kingdom of God. It is no wonder then that the world is getting better. If the teleological end of humanity is happiness, then it is logical to say that the teleological end of the world, which is populated by humanity, is global happiness; or, analogically speaking, the kingdom of heaven. But how do individuals attain happiness in the first place? By epistemology and ethics. And what sort of souls do in fact engage in epistemology and ethics? Lean souls. And so, the more lean souls there are, the more happy people there are; and the more happy people there are, the more the world better resembles heaven. Or in ordinary terms, the happier and better the world is.
But how do we know that there are more leaner souls today than at any previous point in history? Education. The rate of education has increased. Look at statistics. The average person in the world today, regardless of where they live, is more educated than at any previous point in history. Many people go to elementary school, and then to middle and high schools, and on to colleges and graduate schools. Conversely, years ago, all people had was elementary or no education at all. Witchcraft, superstition and falsehood supplied the lack. And in this darkness of ignorance, many people could not find fulfillment or happiness. They did not have electricity; they did not have clean drinking water, and they did not have any of the infrastructural facilities that make life as we know it today easier and better. And because of this, they suffered. And why did they not have all these amenities? Because they did not have the knowledge (epistemology) to fabricate them. They also did not have the virtues of industry (practical ethics) to grow and develop in mature and sophisticated ways. Many of them were unhappy because they did not understand life as we do today. They did not know how best to cure diseases; they did not know how best to engage in agriculture; they did not know how best to express and actualize themselves. There was institutional demarcation among classes of people in such a fashion that meritocracy was impossible. People were prevented from fulfilling their potentials and were consequently denied the happiness that such a fulfillment brings.
Socrates explained in Plato's Meno that education (from the Latin educare) is the opening up of the soul; a process of drawing out of the recesses of the soul what its engagement in material reality has made it forget. In other words, exercising the soul to make it leaner is education. Let me give an analogy. Now, take a fat person - and this time around, I mean a person that has a fat body. If this person becomes uncomfortable with being fat, such a person would have to exercise vigorously, and restrain from consumption, in order to lose weight. Even drastically, such a person could have liposuction, a sort of surgery where doctors remove the fat from the person's body by medical operation. The person can then feel healthier and freer, physically. In the same way, education is like the gym exercise routine of a fat soul; and drastically, intensive education might be a liposuction procedure performed on a fat soul, to remove the fat, and render such a soul lean.
For Socrates, the fat of the soul is acquired when the soul participates in material pursuits, when it lives at the level of appetite. Such a soul is deceived and stays in falsehood. Such a soul cannot contribute positively to its world. Such a soul consumes and becomes even fatter. The fat of the soul is greed, pride, envy, avariciousness, anger, sensuality and so forth. Through rigorous education in any case, such fat is burnt off as if by exercise or surgically removed by liposuction, and the resultant leaner soul can then thrive in happiness through the progressive conduct of epistemology and ethics. Lean souls are good souls. And lean souls are the product of education. Good education is therefore a must. And thank goodness our education keeps getting better.
Just like things in general are progressively getting better. O joy! So, let's summarize what we've discussed so far, and conclude. We have said that things are getting better. We said the way we know they are getting better is by comparing our lifestyle today with what was obtainable centuries ago. Through this juxtaposition, we clearly see that there is progress. We, as a species, are moving forward. And this is because there are many more leaner souls today than there were previously. Leaner souls are more philosophic and contemplative. They live on the level of intellect and spirit; they create and give more than they consume. They bless posterity and the world about them with their wisdom and creativity, and the use of their talents. They vigorously engage in epistemology and ethics, and so are happy, and collectively they teleologically improve the world about them, and so make it better. And fat souls can become lean by exercising through education. In this way, they can join the ranks of lean souls, and everyone can then contribute toward making the world better. Because of the increasing plenitude of lean souls, things are getting better.
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