Excerpt #128 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Our old short-term instincts generate adversarial, hostile and belligerent politics focused on the destruction of one’s opposition whether that is an individual, political party, or a nation-state.
It is politics that favors unilateralism and unjustified pre-emptive wars.
BEWARE OF CLOSED MINDS AND CLENCHED FISTS.
Our long-term instincts and emerging worldview are about politics that are non-adversarial and seek to find the common ground.
Moreover, it is a worldview that recognizes that we don’t have the time, resources, or energy to fight with each other; that we have severe and complicated problems on our planet (energy, environment, water shortages, disease, etc.) that must be addressed in a constructive, cooperative, and multilateral manner.
In economics (business, commerce), our old way of thinking is short-term gain.
We maximize profits in the short-term.
We exploit people and our environment.
It will not be possible to build an enduring peace until the average man has been convinced that personal selfishness is detrimental to personal happiness and personal success. It must be shown that self-seeking is out of fashion, and that the world is moving on to a larger conception of living. – Manly Palmer Hall, author
Our emerging worldview is about long-term gain and sustainability: respect people, respect our environment.
It’s about a “triple bottom line”: people, planet, and prosperity.
Simply put, it’s socially responsible business.
It’s the understanding that life is a far more complex phenomenon than a race to see who can accumulate the most.
THAT WHICH BEST WARRANTS ACCUMULATING IS STORED IN THE MIND.
In social interaction, the old worldview is “we versus them”, exclusivity and segregation.
It’s time for humanity to understand that there is no “them”.
It’s just “us”.
We are all in this together.
The emerging worldview is inclusiveness, integration, oneness, and togetherness.
The new pattern recognizes the reality and behavioral implications of our oneness.
Old religious thinking positions one’s truth and tribe against other truths and tribes.
The result is never ending conflict and chaos, the antithesis of peace.
Emerging thinking, whatever one’s beliefs, is to focus on kindness in all relationships, and an intelligent understanding of the origins of ancient belief systems and of the origins of the phenomenon of religion itself.
In summary, our old worldview is characterized by separation, exclusivity, segregation, and unilateralism.
Our emerging worldview is about togetherness, unity, inclusiveness, integration, and multilateralism.
When patterns are broken, new worlds can emerge. – Tuli Kupferberg