Excerpt #13 from my book, Interconnected, Interrelated & Interdependent, Like It or Not:
OUR EMERGING REALITY
Elements of the transition we are approaching today require a stronger emphasis on values, a greater understanding of our interrelatedness, a new appreciation for cooperation, an awakened respect for life, and a shift of emphasis from means to the definition of goals.
Albert Einstein, brilliant physicist and humanitarian, believed in an ordered universe that is fathomable and comprehensible, conforming to discoverable laws and principles.
He believed that the perfection of means, and the confusion of aims, are characteristic of our age.
The visionary, Buckminster Fuller, similarly spoke of our confusion of priorities.
In a 1970 letter, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh wrote of his concern for the future welfare of humankind.
“The human intellect is becoming aware of the vulnerabilities that accompany its power . . . to avoid self-destruction it must exercise control over its accumulated knowledge . . . one certain principle is that man must place more value on the human life stream than on himself as an individual . . . that his salvation and immortality lie in it (the life stream) rather than in himself.”
Today’s clarion call for change comes not only from an elite group of humanitarians and visionaries, not only from those directly involved in higher consciousness movements but is widespread and growing.
Those observing and commenting on our present-day dilemma are limited neither to the political right nor to the left.
The editorials of our newspapers and all media are riddled with examples.
Many recognize that we United States’ citizens are far from fulfilling the potential we are afforded by democracy.
They question not our form of government but the efficacy with which we, as a people, are applying the principles.
Our emerging reality, which includes an increased awareness of both our interrelatedness and the erosion of our freedom has begun to alert us, and in time, may prove to serve as the undeniable catalyst for change.
Before we consider the elements of a new reality base for decision making, it is important that we understand the forces responsible for our present crisis.
As we look to the future for renewal, it is essential that we explore the past in order to identify causes.
For we need not only to acquire new habits, we need also to prevent ourselves from repeating the mistakes of our past.