Will evolution keep pace with the challenges we face, or will inequality, global warming, population, and pollution overwhelm us? Right now it seems we are losing the battle.

There is ample evidence that evolution is an ongoing process. The advances in science, technology, and production over the last century are obvious. Some progress is also evident in civil rights, tolerance, and social justice. We are getting smarter, but are we getting better?

The evidence here is less persuasive. We remain greedy, self absorbed, corrupt, insensitive, suspicious, cruel, superficial, and incapable of selfless cooperation for the common good. Our government is dysfunctional, the economy precarious, and money and power are in control.

Some argue for smaller government when the problems facing us continue to grow and government, with all its limitations, appears the only institution capable of addressing them. Capitalism may be the best economic engine yet devised by man, but it has two major problems: sales and profits.

Sales of products (some of which are harmful or of little or no value) are necessary to generate the profits that too often pay executives more than they deserve and pay workers less. Shareholders are the principal beneficiaries. By its very nature, capitalism resists efforts to regulate or control its pursuit of profits. Government is supposed to restrain its excesses.

Regrettably, the wealth, power, and influence of capitalism now make it appear that it regulates government. The power balance designed to protect the common good is distorted. Capitalism has become better at what it does while government has not. The creative tension that maintained the balance has been severely undermined.

The difficulty of establishing a sensible energy policy in light of the threat of global warming is a perfect example of immediate gratification overwhelming the need to avoid, or at least minimize, a global disaster. Greed is now; it has a limited horizon. Government is supposed to anticipate the future.

We are smarter, but is there a corresponding development of our culture and sense of values? It is the old story of what we call “progress” carrying with it unanticipated consequences that generate new problems. The advantages of technology are obvious; the damaging effects of the way we use it are less apparent. The social network is good, but the extent to which we are wedded to our devices is not.

The world’s established religions are either in denial or in a struggle to reconcile traditional beliefs with science. Christian theologians examine the reliability of mankind’s “fall from grace” in the Adam & Eve allegory and the doctrine of original sin within the context of cosmic evolution. They search for reasons other than atonement for the incarnation – Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection.

The evidence so far suggests that our ethics, moral values, self restraint, and altruism have not developed as fast as our ability to generate products. Advances in intelligence do not necessarily include the wisdom to apply what we know to a new reality.
While we are smarter, particularly in the area of science and technology, that part of the brain or soul in which wisdom, prudence, conscience, and empathy reside, remains relatively primitive. Perhaps those qualities are more difficult to measure, and progress, therefore, less discernible.

We can only hope the two tracks of evolution – intelligence and character – will eventually develop in tandem to equip mankind with the talent and equilibrium necessary to cope with progress and its attendent problems. Otherwise, like a high-speed train on old rails, we’re heading for more trouble.

James W. Dolan is a retired Dorchester District Court judge who is now practicing law.