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poles of the human dichotomy an eternal, unifying principle was long neglected.
Humans will always fight over which approach should prevail : individuality or
collectivism. Humans will never notice how ambiguous and equivocal their
arguments and technology are. They will forever fail to behold the seeds of the
destruction of their camp sawn by their very own technology, actions and
statements. In short: humans will never admit to being androgynous or bisexual.
They will insist upon a clear sexual identity, this strong the process of
differentiation is.
But the principle that unites humans, no matter which camp they might belong to,
when, or where is the principle of Time.
Humans crave Time and consume Time the way carnivores consume meat and
even more voraciously. This obsession with Time is a result of the cognitive
acknowledgement of death. Humans seems to be the only sentient animal which
knows that it one day shall end. This is a harrowing thought. It is impossible to
cope with it but through awesome mechanisms of denial and repression. In this
permanent subconscious warfare, memory is a major weapon and the preservation
of memory constitutes a handy illusion of victory over death. Admittedly, memory
has real adaptive and survival value.
He who remembers dangers will, undoubtedly live longer, for instance.
In human societies, memory used to be preserved by the old. Until very recently,
books were a rare and very expensive commodity virtually unavailable to the
masses. Thus humans depended upon their elders to remember and to pass on the
store of life saving and life preserving data.
This dependence made social cohesiveness, interdependence and closeness
inevitable. The young lived with the old (who also owned the property) and had to
continue to do so in order to survive. Extended families, settlements led by the
elders of the community and communities were but a few collectivist social results.
With the dissemination of information and knowledge, the potential of the young to
judge their elders actions and decisions has finally materialized.

The elders lost their advantage (memory). Being older, they were naturally less
endowed than the young. The elders were ill-equipped to cope with the
kaleidoscopic quality of today's world and its ever changing terms. More nimble,
as knowledgeable, more vigorous and with a longer time ahead of them in which
they could engage in trial and error learning - the young prevailed.
So did individualism and the technology which was directed by it.
This is the real and only revolution of this century: the reversal of our Time
orientation. While hitherto we were taught to respect the old and the past - we are
now conditioned to admire the young, get rid of the old and look forward to a
future perfect.