Creative Blog 1: Technology and Conrad

Technology is what allows some to feel superior to others. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the Europeans believed that they were superior and more civilized than the Africans. This was not because of their race, but because they were able to overpower the Africans. And the reason the Europeans were able to overpower the Africans is because the Europeans had more advanced technology and weapons. The Europeans had large ships and guns while the Africans only had row boats and knives. Had the technologies been switched, there would have no way for the Europeans to defeat the Africans and the Africans may have even attacked and enslaved the Europeans. Even today, it comes down to which countries have the most powerful weapons. Once one country had nuclear weapons, then the other countries started getting them too so that they could compete. But all of this technology doesn't really help anyone in the long run. There is a book called Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody that takes place a few hundred years after nuclear weapons have essentially destroyed the planet, making certain areas uninhabitable and causing mankind to regress back to the use of horses and candle light. A girl asks her old friend about the Beforetimers, referring to those who lived before the nuclear destruction. The man responds by saying, "'tis my feeling they was just mighty clever people--too clever for their own good," (Carmody 128). Humans really are too clever for their own good. Most of the grief, death, and destruction in the world is caused by things and technologies that humans themselves invented such as cars and guns. Humans survived thousands of years without these things and they do more harm than good, not just to humans, but also to the environment.