Sunday, March 28, 2021

Our New Reality

 There is a need to see the new reality in our nation and our world.  The reality is that we are  one world.  We have failed to see our planet as One World.  Only if we recognize it as a singular unit, interacting and interdependent, only in recognizing that, is there a possibility to avoid self-destructing.

 

This nation had 4 years of inciting division—and what it led to shocked all.   A brutal attack on our nation’s capital.  We never dreamed an insurrection was possible in this democratic nation.  The four prior years led up to it.  Our democracy works by cooperation between opposing ideas.  Four years of lies, insults, and fanning low burning rebellion ignited it.  It was a time of ‘Us’ vs ‘Them’—no cooperation, no seeking understanding, no empathy—just do whatever it takes to WIN.   The divisions allowed the insurrection to happen!

 

In the more distant past it was understandable why division was the norm.  There was no realization of one whole interacting interdependent world and a Universe beyond.  There was focus only on the ‘pieces’ (and the desire to make ‘my piece’ supreme).  There were excuses for past generations, they had never realized the planet as one whole…..but the 20th and 21st centuries had forced that awareness upon us—two wars that involved the world—that’s why they were called WWI and WWII.  Two world wars and later a trip to outer space to see the singularity of the planet . . . that new awareness requires our response; the need to see and act upon this new reality.

 

It’s so obvious we need to cooperate—yet so hard!  Within our nation and among nations there is so much disagreement.  There is a simple prayer that has appeared in all religions throughout time; the wording changes a bit but the essence is the same ‘Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.’  The ‘others’ includes our near neighbors and our far off ones.

 

That is what is needed to get out of the world-threatening dangers we are in.  This is our WORLD, there’s no other planet to escape to.  We face a triple threat: 1) permanent division of humanity into the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’; 2) universal environmental collapse; and 3) extinction of humanity by a nuclear holocaust.  Any one of these three should compel us to cooperate.

The facts are: 1)  a report from World Economic Forum reported that ‘the 26 richest people on earth in 2018 had the same net worth as the poorest half of the world population’; 2) It is feared by many scientists that we have damaged our environment to the extent we can’t fully recoup.  (We have exploited the earth rather than husbanding it); 3) in 2016 there was a total of 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world’s  arsenal.

 

We must face the reality of our One World and work cooperatively to heal internal division and address what unites us as a world . . . both are essential.  We can still avert global disaster, but to do so it is imperative that we accept and act upon our new reality.