Excerpt #31 from my book, Interconnected, Interrelated & Interdependent, Like It or Not:
WE ARE THIS WORLD — VISION
We live in a time calling for a new renaissance in both clarity and direction.
It’s imperative that we enter into a new understanding of the reality in which we exist and the behavior it requires of us for life to continue to evolve.
The window of opportunity to make the necessary and monumental shift in thinking is small compared to the large obstacles in our current beliefs that must be overcome.
We must do this if we and all the other life forms with which we share this jewel of a planet are going to survive.
This is not optional; it’s imperative.
- Our social and political attitudes, behavior, and beliefs must rise to a higher level.
- Life need not be so impersonal, complicated, andthreatening.
- Disagreement need not result in confrontation.
- Sustaining life need not lead to the depletion of ourresources.
These tendencies can, and must, be arrested and reversed.
Let us begin the reversal of our present trends with a vision of a humane world.
- In it the ideals of humanity — freedom, equality, and dignity for all people — would be, not only spoken of, but practiced.
- Interaction would be characterized, not by competition, but by cooperation.
- Diversity would be, not feared, but revered.
- Differences of opinion would be, not attacked, but welcomed.
- Self-interests would be served, not by selfishness, but through sharing.
- Life’s resources would be, not devoured, but savored.
- Leaders would seek, not power, fame, and fortune—all illusions—but the opportunity to serve.
- In planning, sustainability would be, not ignored, but the objective.
Joined in a cooperative venture, we would achieve a peaceful, secure, and content humanity.
Here would be a civilization unobstructed in its evolutionary path.
Of course the skeptics and cynics will proclaim loudly that this can never happen; humanity is what it is and is incapable of such a shift.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once remarked: “The country needs, and demands, bold persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
Today, there are many who both acknowledge the need for change and who are prepared to participate in a transformation.
It is they who will reap new benefits while those who cling to old habits will suffer old pains.
The world for which our deeper selves long is an expression of the wholeness that can only be achieved through the cooperation of the many unique, diverse, and complementary parts.
Of this, Teilhard de Chardin noted: “Driven by the force of love the fragments of the world seek each other that the world may come into being.”
A transformation to a world so envisioned requires our commitment to bring about the change.
It all begins with a decision; nothing begins before there is genuine decision to commit to any undertaking.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
“All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
“A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way.
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
“Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
“Begin it now. (Goethe)
Following commitment, a course of action must be developed, for as Ernest Becker once wrote: “A protest without a program is little more than sentimentalism—this is the epitaph of many great idealisms.”
Let us remember that society is greatly impacted, if not shaped, by our political and business leaders.
They, in turn, are directly influenced by the pressures exerted by the people.
Today, with the means we have available, the ease by which to both organize and apply pressure is perhaps greater than ever.
Therein lies the opportunity to affect change.
We have evolved from our agrarian roots (Agrarian Age) through an Industrial Age into a post-industrial high-tech, digital, Information and Communication Age.
Our current age promises to impact history far more significantly than its earlier cousins.
As a rising force in a declining civilization, our age of information may prove to be our salvation.
It’s an age—growing exponentially—that is able to better inform and educate greater numbers, to increase participation, and to decentralize power; all factors favoring a constructive democracy.
“The strength of a democracy is only as great as the enlightenment of the people.” Thomas Jefferson
Information alone, however, is only a beginning point.
Unless it is used to improve the human condition, it is, in a relative sense, of little value.
Who has access to the information, their motivations, and their intentions are all significant.
For, as we know, there are those who, for financial rewards and the promotion of demented short-term agendas, use their ability and means to communicate to misinform and create chaos.
Many urgent issues desperately in need of resolutions are blocked today, not for the lack of data but because of human problems.
It is time to reverse this trend.
Our current age enables us to connect with growing numbers — already legion — of people who share sincere and grounded concerns for the future of humanity.
With them, new kinds of social and political networks, based on a true understanding of the way reality works, can be and are being established.
Empowered by our alarm for our deteriorating world, our disdain for the mentality that has produced it, and our insatiable desire for change, we need now, each of us, to begin in our chosen manner.
“It is required of a man that he should share in the action and passion of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)