Excerpt #16 from my book, Interconnected, Interrelated & Interdependent, Like It or Not:
IDENTIFYING CAUSE
As we continue to consider the matter of cause, let us look to our world of politics which is in every way linked to the myriad of problems by which we are beset.
It represents the conduit through which our values travel, the reservoir in which they are collected and stored, the arenain which they are debated, and the gateway through which they are introduced into, and eventually effect, our world.
As a prolific breeding ground for the consequences of our age, it is a fertile field in which to search for cause.
That which is found, obvious even after the most cursory exploration, is revealing.
The problem is that too many people think only their watch tells the right time.
As a consequence, we witness disgusting and debilitating partisanship and relentless bickering.
As the savage and unrelenting fights persist, severe and complicated problems in need of urgent, cooperative, and constructive solutions go unresolved.
This behavior is not only consummately ignorant and nirresponsible; it’s the rode to our self-destruction.
THE CAUSE
Political ignorance, irresponsibility, and inaction among too many politicians — not all — plunges us more deeply in the direction of unprecedented peril.
This occurs at a time when there is widespread agreement that we have at our disposal all the required technological means to resolve our problems.
Upon examination, we find that our failings are not of a technological nature.
There is at our core another force active which is denying us our liberation.
In alluding to this, Rene Dubos wrote: “The quality of our lives and the welfare of the Earth will be determined, not be technical difficulties or potentialities, but by judgments of value.”
Technologically, we are well-equipped to solve our problems.
What we lack is awareness and political will.
Lester Brown wrote correctly: “Whether the future is bright and promising or dark and bleak hinges on how quickly we can mobilize politically to bring about the changes in policies and priorities that circumstances call for.”
We exist within an ocean of plenty, yet many are in need.
We’ve been graced with abundance, yet many are deprived.
We have been given every freedom, yet to many it is denied.
We have had every need fulfilled, yet many create want.
We have every means to resolve our problems, yet they proliferate as we decline.
What is causing this anguish that we suffer collectively?
What is it that has set us on a perilous course?
What is it that keeps us from achieving our greater potential?
What is the cause of our deep divisions that are destroying us from within?
We have made enemies of each other.
We have so engaged ourselves in competition that we have lost touch with the merits of cooperation.
We have become so enamored with our personal thoughts, beliefs, and conclusions that we have stopped listening to those of others.
We have so over-indulged ourselves in words and deeds that we have begun to destroy our lives, consume our resource base, and threaten our existence.
We’ve so forsaken coalitions in favor of partisanship that we have rendered ourselves ineffective and pathetically inconsequential as problems loom and people suffer.
We have become so insular in our imagined self-interests that we have begun perishing in our detachment.
We have grown so blind to the value of diversity that we have endangered our species.
We have become so hostile with each other that we’ve demolished our political processes, paralyzed our institutions, eroded our social fabric, and have set ourselves on a path to self-destruction.
We have become debilitating adversaries who have made ourselves ominously omnipotent to effect urgently needed changes.
That is the cause.