All of us are ok--we are inheritors of a civilization that has given us, today, all the tools (with some modification) to create whatever sort of world we want. Certainly we can have a world free of poverty, war, and ignorance if that is what we want. We're in a perfect place to do that. Unfortunately, we don't want a peaceful an convivial world. We want a world where the environment is continually degraded by plastic in the stomach of sea creatures, herbicides, insecticides, depleted forests and choral reefs, massive species die-offs, rapid increase in greenhouse gases. We want a world continually at war and believe the government when they claim there are "threats" around the world. Here's news for you--there are no real threats. Nobody other than the corporate elite want to conquer your country and your community and, to be blunt, your family.
No one wants to send troops to the our country and conquer it. There is only one country that seeks to conquer, invade, murder leaders, start "revolutions" and civil wars--only one country with a national "security" budget of over a trillion dollars a year. Which, by the way, has 20 trillion in unaccounted expenditures much of which is sitting in secret bank accounts around the world. Who stole that money? And how much of that could have educated our children? Created marvelous infrastructure projects like the Chinese are doing all over the world (you don't know that because your media won't report it).
Now for most of you these problems I listed seem removed--but what about really serious family issues we all face? What about the outbreak of depression and anxiety? What about drug addiction and the lower life-expectancy? What about our gradual drift into being the first truly poor rich country where nearly half the population can't come up with $500 for an emergency? What about so many of us being just a couple of crises away from not paying our mortgage or other bills? What about the fact we can't rely on a steady job--we might still be working in a year or maybe not as automation sets in, as jobs are farmed out to other countries, as we have to accept lower-paying jobs with our steadily decreasing minimum-wage.
Few Americans know that Western civilization has moved on from punishing it's poor and now try to better them--most European countries don't believe poverty = immorality because that is simply illogical unless your values are ONLY based on materialism and the cult of "winning" and "losing"; a cult based on degrading compassion and community despite the findings of science that show human beings as being deeply hard-wired for sociability. Other countries make education, health-care, housing, food, and other necessities available to citizens because they understand that if more people are healthy and less stressed then that makes each of us less stressed even rich assholes.
But we consistently choose misery, fear, and loathing over conviviality, joy, and compassion. In a word this is deeply, deeply perverse and has no basis in our collective knowledge and our science.
Each of us is ok, each of us has feelings of love (unless we are seriously abused) and other virtues right here at our fingertips. We can respect ourselves, our humanity and our link to the divine through accepting our lives and, also, accepting the broad possibilities available. Even if society blocks us from realizing our potential we can begin to heal our society by healing ourselves. We have all the information, the methods, the styles of therapy (stay away from psychiatrists and other pill pushers), the insights of scores of people who have accepted themselves, their abusive childhoods, their addictions, and moved on to live full lives through a variety of techniques and insights. We also have the knowledge from social- and neuro-science that shows us what sort of lives we can live to be happy. There's no reason to be confused--just study the field of happiness studies--they provide some clear roads--why not use these findings?
Instead our information media obscures and/or ignores important findings that could help each of us to navigate our lives. If we start to pursue more knowledge we will be rewarded as individuals. But it is by re-invigorating society itself which, in turn, will begin to heal the corruption in our political-economy dominated by a ruling class that seeks all benefits for themselves and nothing for the rest of us. Only by changing social mores and broadcasting possibilities that we can easily solve all problems we think are unsolvable--but only because it is to the advantage of the rich and powerful to keep their power by taking from the system and giving little back (there are rich people who are somewhat interested in society but only if it doesn't interfere with their profits).
We are ok, just as we are warts and problems. Our society is ok the way it is--we have to fully understand ourselves and our world and the only way to do that is to accept who we are. Accept that we are selfish and that we live in a culture that encourages selfishness. We have to accept that this is all part of processes that are hard to see. Morality has broken down because it needed to break down so that appropriate values to our real situation in life emerge. There is no rational reason, for example, to say that homosexual sex is immoral because there is no need to expand the human population. We no longer live in an agrarian culture or a herding culture like the ancient Hebrews thus their moral codes, while interesting and something to build on, make no sense in a world that is as far away as we could imagine from the world of two to three thousand years ago. So the process of family disintegration, social isolation and alienation are necessary for us to reorganize our social lives along different lines than the old habits that are obsolete.
So I suggest we stop feeling guilty, understand that "there's beauty in the breakdown" and start to think more holistically and along the lines of Systems Theory which depends on understanding whole systems. We have to move away from what we imagine to be certain and be open to new experience, new states of consciousness, new perspectives. And yes, that's all dangerous and yes, it can lead to all kinds of pain and disaster but that was also the case when our civilization faced the Age of Exploration to find new sea-routes to India when the Ottomans blocked off trade. We now face a different kind of exploration that will, if we continue to engage in it transform the world by transforming ourselves so we can begin to use the technique and technology to create a more pleasant and healthy life for all of us. The amazing explorations in science and technology was accomplished at great effort and creativity by past generations. We hold all this inheritance in our hands--are we going to squander it on pointless waste. Or are we going to take up the challenge and run with it.
No one wants to send troops to the our country and conquer it. There is only one country that seeks to conquer, invade, murder leaders, start "revolutions" and civil wars--only one country with a national "security" budget of over a trillion dollars a year. Which, by the way, has 20 trillion in unaccounted expenditures much of which is sitting in secret bank accounts around the world. Who stole that money? And how much of that could have educated our children? Created marvelous infrastructure projects like the Chinese are doing all over the world (you don't know that because your media won't report it).
Now for most of you these problems I listed seem removed--but what about really serious family issues we all face? What about the outbreak of depression and anxiety? What about drug addiction and the lower life-expectancy? What about our gradual drift into being the first truly poor rich country where nearly half the population can't come up with $500 for an emergency? What about so many of us being just a couple of crises away from not paying our mortgage or other bills? What about the fact we can't rely on a steady job--we might still be working in a year or maybe not as automation sets in, as jobs are farmed out to other countries, as we have to accept lower-paying jobs with our steadily decreasing minimum-wage.
Few Americans know that Western civilization has moved on from punishing it's poor and now try to better them--most European countries don't believe poverty = immorality because that is simply illogical unless your values are ONLY based on materialism and the cult of "winning" and "losing"; a cult based on degrading compassion and community despite the findings of science that show human beings as being deeply hard-wired for sociability. Other countries make education, health-care, housing, food, and other necessities available to citizens because they understand that if more people are healthy and less stressed then that makes each of us less stressed even rich assholes.
But we consistently choose misery, fear, and loathing over conviviality, joy, and compassion. In a word this is deeply, deeply perverse and has no basis in our collective knowledge and our science.
Each of us is ok, each of us has feelings of love (unless we are seriously abused) and other virtues right here at our fingertips. We can respect ourselves, our humanity and our link to the divine through accepting our lives and, also, accepting the broad possibilities available. Even if society blocks us from realizing our potential we can begin to heal our society by healing ourselves. We have all the information, the methods, the styles of therapy (stay away from psychiatrists and other pill pushers), the insights of scores of people who have accepted themselves, their abusive childhoods, their addictions, and moved on to live full lives through a variety of techniques and insights. We also have the knowledge from social- and neuro-science that shows us what sort of lives we can live to be happy. There's no reason to be confused--just study the field of happiness studies--they provide some clear roads--why not use these findings?
Instead our information media obscures and/or ignores important findings that could help each of us to navigate our lives. If we start to pursue more knowledge we will be rewarded as individuals. But it is by re-invigorating society itself which, in turn, will begin to heal the corruption in our political-economy dominated by a ruling class that seeks all benefits for themselves and nothing for the rest of us. Only by changing social mores and broadcasting possibilities that we can easily solve all problems we think are unsolvable--but only because it is to the advantage of the rich and powerful to keep their power by taking from the system and giving little back (there are rich people who are somewhat interested in society but only if it doesn't interfere with their profits).
We are ok, just as we are warts and problems. Our society is ok the way it is--we have to fully understand ourselves and our world and the only way to do that is to accept who we are. Accept that we are selfish and that we live in a culture that encourages selfishness. We have to accept that this is all part of processes that are hard to see. Morality has broken down because it needed to break down so that appropriate values to our real situation in life emerge. There is no rational reason, for example, to say that homosexual sex is immoral because there is no need to expand the human population. We no longer live in an agrarian culture or a herding culture like the ancient Hebrews thus their moral codes, while interesting and something to build on, make no sense in a world that is as far away as we could imagine from the world of two to three thousand years ago. So the process of family disintegration, social isolation and alienation are necessary for us to reorganize our social lives along different lines than the old habits that are obsolete.
So I suggest we stop feeling guilty, understand that "there's beauty in the breakdown" and start to think more holistically and along the lines of Systems Theory which depends on understanding whole systems. We have to move away from what we imagine to be certain and be open to new experience, new states of consciousness, new perspectives. And yes, that's all dangerous and yes, it can lead to all kinds of pain and disaster but that was also the case when our civilization faced the Age of Exploration to find new sea-routes to India when the Ottomans blocked off trade. We now face a different kind of exploration that will, if we continue to engage in it transform the world by transforming ourselves so we can begin to use the technique and technology to create a more pleasant and healthy life for all of us. The amazing explorations in science and technology was accomplished at great effort and creativity by past generations. We hold all this inheritance in our hands--are we going to squander it on pointless waste. Or are we going to take up the challenge and run with it.
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