This past week has been a week of devastation for our nation
with wildfires raging in the West accompanied by temperatures exceeding 100
degrees Fahrenheit. Over 200 homes were
incinerated in California. Today is
Sunday and the fires still burn. In the South
and Central parts of the country powerful storms with hail and tornadoes
flattened whole towns leaving a death toll of at least 35. West Virginia was swept with historic floods
that destroyed more than 100 homes causing over 20 deaths. This scale of catastrophes is not
normal! In this we get a preview of
what is in store from the effects of Climate Change. Although scientists now agree that humans are
in a large part responsible, there are still people stubbornly denying that
human activity is the cause in order to continue to avoid facing the need to
change our patterns of living.
As a culture we seem to have lost our taste for long-term
thinking. Since we became the ‘NOW
generation’ in the 60’s and 70’s more and more we seem to have replaced deep
thought with an obsessive drive for quick fixes, instant answers (instant
gratification?); but more than ever the world needs careful analysis and
solutions that point to a sustainable future.
Our world is in crisis. Throughout
the globe humanity seems to be moving relentlessly toward self-destruction,
either slowly by environmental degradation or quickly by wars that promise to
unleash the weapons of mass destruction that we have amassed and which continue
to be produced.
I believe the tensions of that unspoken fear is given a
voice in the increasing violence that is bubbling below the surface and
erupting suddenly and relentlessly in terrorist attacks, mass shooting of
innocent strangers, violence flaring at sporting events, and in public
gatherings that degenerate into riots . . . I see it also in the expressed
dissatisfaction with the institutions that are needed to keep order in society.
Not for a moment do I suggest our institutions aren’t flawed
and in need of repair—be it the economic systems, health care services,
religious institution, educational systems and yes, governments . . . but total
rebellion against the established institutions will not bring a ‘quick fix’;
rather chaos with new and different problems.
The week of environmental disasters was topped off by the
shocking vote by Great Britain to exit the European Union. The EU was established after WWII to bring
greater unity and harmony between those close nation neighbors and lower the
dangers of Nationalism, exclusive self-interest and xenophobia.
The great visionary Teilhard de Chardin (1881 -1955),
foresaw the inevitable movement of civilization toward globalization and he was
acutely aware of both the promise of and the dangers that movement held. In his book, Building The Earth he states: “The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not
parish, is to build the earth.”
The world has not yet embraced the fact that we are an
interdependent global world and we must build the earth together, transitioning from
exclusive self-interest to consideration for the greater whole. This is a
difficult but necessary change to make.
The reality is that the world we now occupy IS a global one. Communications, transportation and trade have
made it that.
A global world must prioritize differently and use different
decision-making methods—from demands and threats to cooperation and
negotiations. For many, rather than
giving serious consideration to how to accomplish the integration, there is a
pulling back, a retreat to the former ways. Tensions arise, polarization occurs and issues
become only black and white, “my side is right, his is wrong”. This polarization has swept Great Britain
into opting out of the European Union.
That choice has worldwide ramifications.
It has often been said that progress happens by two steps
forward and one step back. Unfortunately
Great Britain has taken the step backwards, lured by Boris Johnson’s rhetoric
that fanned the Nationalism of ‘taking our country back’, his firm stand on
anti-immigration and the promise of more money for health care by not paying
into the EU.
We in America face a similar polarization. Soon we face a national election. I can only hope and pray that we don’t also
confront the global challenge with a backward step to fanning nationalism, choosing
exclusive self-interest and embracing xenophobia; thus re-defining progress as ‘one
step forward and two steps back.’
