All Mankind Will Ever Be: The Decline of Creativity in 'Childhood's End' Anonymous 12th Grade

“Art is the signature of man,” says G.K. Chesterton in The Everlasting Man. If this is true– that where man is, there is art– then art, or creative expression, must be an inherent characteristic of man. This is a recurring theme in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, in which he also proposes that without struggle, human creativity declines. However, Clarke’s prediction of humanity’s behavior under systematically instituted peace does not correspond to his view of utopia.

Clarke’s summary of the human experience is that struggle continues even without external adversity because “even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remains the searching of the mind and longings of the heart” (83). Struggle is a general term referring to the suffering which results from pain, discomfort, or dissatisfaction. Clarke describes a law of conservation regarding human suffering. To the same extent that external hardships are removed, internal dissatisfaction will continue to grow so that humanity is never satisfied. No matter what social or political structure is instituted, mankind’s condition never improves. Because struggle continues even without external adversity, Clarke is right in saying that no utopia can satisfy all...