Excerpt #28 from my book, Interconnected, Interrelated & Interdependent, Like It or Not:
WE ARE THIS WORLD — PARADISE LOST
Allow me to repeat the following metaphor I’ve used in another book I’ve written:
Imagine, for a moment, that at one time a diverse group of people were put ashore on an island to live together for a period of time as an experiment.
On this land there existed an abundance of natural resources available to sustain and nourish these inhabitants.
Furthermore, these resources were renewable as long as a balance was maintained between consumption and replenishment.
This island was resplendent with infinite beauty and splendor, indeed wonderment, a veritable paradise.
The people were given free will to come and go as they pleased and to enjoy life however they wished.
The mixture of people was such that they collectively possessed all the abilities and skills they would ever need to meet all of the challenges they would ever face.
All that was required was for them to interact in a peaceful, friendly, and cooperative manner.
In return for satisfying these requirements, theirs was a joyful and secure life of peace, freedom, and security.
This was and is the opportunity we, the people of Earth, had and still have.
What has evolved instead is for far too many a living nightmare.
No, not so much for those who presently live comfortably above the fray although they experience their share of debilitating anxiety.
But for the many who suffer the horror of lethal disputes on every scale from domestic to global; for those who experience the agony of starvation; and for countless others who endure the immeasurable daily abuses and indignities that result from our primitive behavior.
All this suffering is needless and avoidable.
We have ensnared ourselves in a trap of our own creation.
We impoverish ourselves as we channel our treasuries and resources into weapons of destruction that ironically leave us less secure.
Already, we are only a likely human- or machine-error away from a tragic nuclear accident.
With the anxiety of life, our resources disappearing, our climate becoming increasingly inhospitable, and a litany of other troubling issues, we find our mental and physical health succumbing to the ravages of our primitive behavior.
Our trial courts are overrun in their efforts to level the scales of justice which we increasingly tip in our personal and business lives.
Those presently comfortable with relative safety and abundance have every reason to assess the situation with grave concern.
They know both consciously and unconsciously that life as we are living it is not only unstable and unsustainable but foreboding.
While the dispiriting erosion of our quality of life has clearly begun, our current destructive momentum continues menacingly to contribute to its further demise.
The evidence clearly suggests that, in many ways, we are devolving as a species.
We are generally aware of our problems and destructive momentum but or at a loss as to how to solve them.
Increasingly, it’s obvious that in our civilization there exists self-imposed limitations that are eroding the quality of our lives, our potential, and our future.
As the people of the world desperately search for solutions, they concurrently seek meaning in their lives as the limitations of their material existence grow increasingly apparent.
Many who are disturbed and frustrated are at a loss to suggest what could possibly be done to alter our course.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change.” (Carl Rogers)