Crisis? What Crisis?
While trying to be witty and come up with an
interesting title for this article, it struck me that a more correct phrase
should be "Crisis – WHICH crisis?" Is it just me –
or do we seem to be experiencing some sort of societal meltdown? Are we now, as
a global society, finally approaching that critical mass experienced by all
earlier ages of mankind who sought to unite the "known" world under a
single dominant world government or philosophy?
Things, for the most part, are just fine in my
own little corner of existence. Technology is at an all time high and continues
to advance into the realm of the fantastic. The economy is surging and my
standard of living is limited only by my own ambition. Medicine is breaching the
cure for cancer, AIDS has been stabilized, and we can prevent or cure nearly
every horrible disease that, in past times, threatened to wipe out entire
nations. Life is exciting, interesting and continuing to improve on a hundred
different fronts.
You can’t deny it. As long as you keep your
eyes on the bright and shining examples of mankind’s triumphs over all our
previous woes, things are definitely looking up. But wait a minute… what’s
that in the corner? Is that a shadow? Are all these brilliant accomplishments
we’ve surrounded ourselves with simply the figurative "trees"
camouflaging a jungle of unresolved and increasingly complex problems of the
very near future? Are we ignoring the jungle for the pretty trees surrounding
our individual clearings?
The ancient Syrian, the Egyptian, the Inca and
the Mayan, the Chinese and the Japanese, the Greek and the Roman – all these
previous empires and dynasties had reached the pinnacle of social, economic and
technological development of their times shortly before their time ended and it
all fell apart. You would think that there would be a lesson to be learned here.
I can’t possibly be the only one to recognize the parallels.
So isn’t it time that people learned that the mechanics
of civilization – technology and the apparent standard of living – have
less to do with the survival of that culture than the social philosophy which
motivates, cultivates, utilizes and embraces these mechanics? Each age of
civilization began its climb to power and fame from relatively modest levels of
technology and standards of living. Upon reaching that point where it was
thought things simply couldn’t get much better – a sort of philosophical
plateau – the societal structure appears to have rested on its laurels. It is
at this point that we can see the eventual demise of each of the previous grand
ages.
On the plus side, after a period of tribulation
and re-organization, it seems a new civilization is bound to emerge somewhere in
the world which capitalizes on the triumphs of the stagnant age and assumes that
things can only get better – and then proceeds to make them better. The
question is, what point are we at in the timeline of our own civilization, and
can we make that leap – that "paradigm shift" – from the current
era to the new? Can we do it without destroying ourselves?
I’m not an academic historian, a theosophist,
or a social scientist – just a slightly-more-than-casual observer. Perhaps if
I’d spent more time researching the political, economic and philosophical
details of each of these past civilizations I would have a clearer explanation
of what happened. I am, however, a direct and interested observer of our current
times, and it seems rather apparent to me that we have chosen the path of
"dissolution by disinterest" for ourselves.
Dissolution by disinterest? It is an ironic and
dichotomous theory. There certainly is no lack of interest in specific things,
but I feel that the tide has turned from an interest in improving life as a
whole, to simply maintaining or improving life for the moment. As a society we
no longer dream of improving the future or question our actions and the
concurrent result of our actions upon the future. Nor do we consider the effect
of our actions upon those outside our immediate circle.
We have, I believe, become a puzzle of selfish,
self-centered, and righteously indignant special-interest groups who fail to
realize that it takes each and every other piece of the puzzle, as well, to make
up the whole picture. That each piece is unique and that the integrity of the
whole depends upon each piece being connected in precisely the right place with
the proper orientation. That we cannot discard a given piece simply because we
do not agree with the design or immediately recognize its purpose or importance
within the puzzle. That we cannot arbitrarily force a piece to fit wherever we
want it or reshape that piece to fit where we’d like and expect to produce a
coherent and workable design.
If our civilization fails, it won’t be for the
lack of technology, a medical or physical catastrophe, or a failure to integrate
the economics of an expanding society. It will be the abdication of the
philosophical standards of life, the decay of the moral foundation of
excellence, and a complete disregard for the binding principles of unity
necessary for the advancement of any civilization. In short, we will have tossed
aside the will to survive as a civilization, replacing it with a meager desire
to just get by (albeit, as best as possible) as a series of disconnected and
uninterested individuals.
Have we reached the era of decadence and decay
leading to dissolution? Let’s take a look at the facts, the history of our
societal evolution in the recent half century.
Since the end of World War II (that’s September
2nd, 1945, for those of you who went to public school) and the dawn
of the Cold War Era, our civilization has been dominated - not by the will to
succeed and expand, but by the frantic desire to conquer and suppress. We have
been manipulated, controlled, directed and motivated – not by lofty goals and
ideals or visions of a Utopian future, but by fear, suspicion and hatred. Nearly
every technological advancement and societal adjustment we have experienced
since that time has been the result of a concerted effort to keep the bogey man
at bay. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that the entire world has been living in
fear of total annihilation for more than 50 years? That every time things seem
to settle down enough to concentrate on the future a new political or military
crisis raises its head like some mythical hydra? Can we not see a definite
pattern developing here?
Certainly, we’ve experienced great leaps in
technology during this period. What have we done with it? Have we ended world
hunger or eliminated homelessness? Have we eradicated war? Have we ended
pollution - or even begun to repair the damage we’ve inflicted upon the world?
Do we enjoy clean, free, renewable and natural power? Have we made it any easier
to get around? Did we solve the problem of crime or created a workable solution
for criminals? Have we done anything at all, with all this advancement, to
improve, affirm, advance or continue our civilization? Have we traveled to the
stars and colonized distant planets? Or even established a defense system
against interstellar trash slamming into our planet?
Perhaps my view is different from your own. In my
own estimate, it appears we have done nothing but sacrifice ourselves to fear.
We’ve created the greatest and most destructive civilization of all time and
wasted the entire wealth of our potential on militaristic and self destructive
endeavors. It isn’t that we lack the means or method to solve all of the
challenges mentioned, but that – as a nation and as a worldwide civilization
– we are entirely devoid of a logical and rational motive for the survival of
our species. We haven’t the will to survive – only to conquer, suppress and
destroy.
Perhaps it is a basic flaw in humanity. Perhaps
it is in our genetic makeup. We laugh and make jokes about lemmings flooding
over the precipice, all the while repeatedly performing a similar feat, century
after century, ourselves.
Why? Why is it that we continually trod, as a
species, this spiral path of advancement and destruction, advancement and
destruction? Like it or not, mankind is an hierarchical species. We demand
organization in our life, our religion, our society and our government. All
organization requires the key ingredients of leadership and responsibility,
authority and subservience, motivation and determination, desire and dedication.
The key to success in any organizational effort depends upon how each of these
aspects are implemented and the final product can only be as pure and valuable
as the ingredients.
It seems apparent that we are using substandard
materials. At various points in time we have blamed our consistent inconsistency
on race, religion, heritage, politics, economics, philosophy. We blame evil men,
evil minds, evil conspiracies or just plain "evil" for our failures
when, in the final analysis, it has nothing at all to do with others. There is
no "lack of foresight." Any fool can predict the result of an action
taken today from the results of countless similar actions taken over the course
of the last 2000+ years! There is no evil genius, no vile conspiracy, no demonic
tyranny that cannot be foreseen and averted through proper action, concerted
efforts, effective organization and determined leadership. The problem is, we
seem to be severely lacking in each of these areas.
Blind Leading the Blind?
More likely, it is the over-ambitious leading the
ambivalent. World leadership is currently dominated by the theory that those who
govern have some unique insight over what is best for those they govern. They
are ambitious, power-hungry, highly educated, intelligent and manipulative. They
believe they posses some "divine right" to control the destinies of
those they govern and that the people they govern have neither the interest nor
the intelligence to fathom the intricacies of modern social engineering. To a
certain extent, they are correct.
The United States was created as a self-governing
nation – of the people, by the people, and for the people it governed. Today,
however, the extent of the average citizen’s involvement in government is
choosing the candidate least likely to offend our personal sensibilities to
handle all of our self-governmental responsibilities for us. In short, we’ve
abdicated the power to control our destiny for ourselves and vested it in a
political system we neither like, trust, nor fully understand.
Is it any wonder that our leadership views us as
ignorant and misguided children who require their constant "parental"
attentions? To them, we are nothing more than a house full of vociferous and
demanding selfish ingrates without the slightest idea of how to manage our
affairs without getting into trouble. Our only goal in life appears to be
nothing more than one of maintenance – getting a decent paycheck (whether our
efforts deserve a decent pay or not), keeping enough food on the table, and
keeping ourselves entertained between work, food and sleep. It isn’t hard to
see where the term "sheeple" came from. If it looks like a duck, acts
like a duck, and sounds like a duck . . .
It isn’t fair to automatically demonize those
who step forward and assume leadership in a world that avoids taking
responsibility for itself. When 60% of the voting population fails to
participate either out of protest, ignorance, ambivalence or sloth, it is no
ones’ fault but our own that we produce the leadership we now experience. If
the best and the brightest refuse to take the helm while those with less
benevolent ideals prove ambitious the results are, once again, quite
predictable.
We are ruled by people who care only for
themselves. We are not being "governed," we are being ruled. We
allowed this to happen because we failed to accept responsibility for ourselves,
our communities, and our future in any but the most immediate and personal
concerns. Those who have stepped into power long ago realized that all we want
is "somebody else" to take care of the details of self-government, and
that we would be willing to accept "anybody else" at practically any
cost. This has been going on for a good century or so. To "fix" the
system we’ve created at this stage of the game would require a stamina,
determination, and dedication among the populace that probably does not exist in
sufficient quantity.
While I believe that the current source of
dissatisfaction stems from ineffectual and oftentimes abusive leadership, the
root of the problem is not the leaders we empower, but the people who empower
them. As long as the common folk are unwilling to solve their own problems, yet
continue to demand that other people (the elected officials) do so, we are all
going to have to accept whatever ridiculous plans they come up with. The longer
we continue to act this way, the more ridiculous and intrusive the
"solutions" are likely to become.
Either we begin to take responsibility for our
lives at every level – our personal lives and actions, our families and
friends, our communities and societies, our governments and their relation to
other governments – or we accept the fact that we are individually incapable
of handling our own affairs and allow ourselves to be treated like ignorant and
unruly children.
You can’t have it both ways. You either
manifest your own destiny or become a child of fate. You either accept
responsibility for your life, or accept dominance by others.
End Times
How will it all end? I don’t think that anyone
can really tell, but the indication is that one day the world will be ruled by a
close fisted, heavy handed, semi-benevolent dictatorship. As long as you do as
you are told - exactly as you are told, and when you are told to do it – your
life will be simple. All you will ever need to do is obey the state, abandon any
unique ideas or attempt at individualism, and everything will be taken care of
for you. Stay in line and you will never have to wonder or fear what will become
of you - everything will be planned in advance by the state.
No crisis here. . . .
MEG
28 February 1999
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