Om Malik shared on his blog this powerful excerpt of Mahatma Ghandi from 1909 (the full piece is available in Lapham’s Quarterly). He speaks of the true tests of civilization induced by ever-growing ease and creature comforts. The writing foreshadows what we are living in today: absolute luxury with lacquered thin-sheeted morality.

This excerpt especially spoke to me:

These are all true tests of civilization. And if anyone speaks to the contrary, know that he is ignorant. This civilization takes note neither of morality nor of religion. Its votaries calmly state that their business is not to teach religion. Some even consider it to be a superstitious growth. Others put on the cloak of religion and prate about morality.

But after twenty years’ experience, I have come to the conclusion that immorality is often taught in the name of morality. Even a child can understand that in all I have described above there can be no inducement to morality. Civilization seeks to increase bodily comforts, and it fails miserably even in doing so.

Here is some context on Gandhi’s time while he was writing this piece (generated via Claude v3 and manually verified):

In 1909, when Gandhi wrote this piece, he was living in South Africa, where he had been actively campaigning against racial discrimination and advocating for the rights of Indians living there. This was a formative period in Gandhi’s life, during which he developed his philosophy of nonviolent resistance, or satyagraha, which would later become a cornerstone of India’s independence movement.

All the same challenges that Ghandi was fighting against in his heyday still hold true for us today. The Western definition of “civilization,” “civilizing” and “civilized people” are all manufactured constructs. They rely on faulty appearances of good action in exchange for amoral decision-making, with a cover provided by nationalism sitting front and center.

Without facilitating the structured learning of morals and religion, the human being is diluted in the West with a false sense of happiness relegated to material possessions and experiences.

I reject the notion of the West’s “civilized people.” We must become more communal, more faith-oriented, more intentional and purposeful. Not just a moral relativism but a concrete truth.

Islamic teachings refer to the concept of fitrah, an innate, natural disposition towards goodness, truth, and the worship of Allah that is inherent in every person. Restoring this natural disposition requires clearing the cruft of confusing mixed signals on happiness being sold to us to a version of happiness that cannot be transacted or materialized, deeper than a feeling, a state of being.

True progress requires both education and unlearning to return to that fitrah. As a product of my environment, I fight for that active state of mind every day. I invite you to do the same.