Where To from Here?
by Rahasya Poe
Is it just me or do a lot of you also feel the frustration of dealing with the controlling powers and organizations in our world that either don’t seem to know what they are doing or have an agenda that doesn’t include our best interests?
When you stop and think about it, almost all of our institutions are failing to do what they were created to do. The question is, why? Why is it that our society seems to be breaking down and failing us on all fronts? Well, at the risk of exposing myself as a child of the ’60s, I’d like to give my humble opinion.
I remember reading Alice in Wonderland and to paraphrase, she asked the Cheshire Cat, “Which way do I go from here?” The Cat replied, “Where do you want to get to?” Alice said, “I don’t much care.” The Cat then said, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” I think our situation is similar; we not only lost our way in this world, we forgot or never knew where we were going.
The State of the World: Surely we can do better than this.
We’ve built whole industries around the consumption of resources as if they would never end, and well, now they are ending. We have millions of well-intentioned people trying to help others, but are stuck in a health system built around making a profit, and they do make a profit. We have corporations whose sole purpose is to maintain high dividends no matter what the environmental costs are, but they are showing signs of diminishing dividends, because we are intrinsically connected with the environment.
We have world governments that are entirely built around imperialistic and defensive or offensive ideals; this system too is showing signs of collapsing. We have global climate change melting away our glaciers while a handful of government scientists keep us bogged down from making any progress to counter it by censoring scientific papers.
We pay huge subsidies to food producers to import cheap food from other countries that ends up being very expensive because we subsidize their transportation costs (the average food travels 1,500 miles now). Our children are getting lead poisoning from cheap toys from China.
I could go on like this page after page until we’re all ready to scream, “Enough!” Which brings me to my point . . . enough is enough.
The Next Steps: We’re all in it together!
So, the question becomes, “Where do we go from here?” To figure this out we must all agree on one thing—wherever it is, we must all go together. The days of ignoring the suffering of others is over so anything that relieves our suffering, and others’ suffering, is a good place to start.
As for where we’re going, maybe it’s not some place down the road; maybe it’s a state of mind, a new level of consciousness combined with real compassion for others.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Can we do it? Not in a million years, at least not with the old dysfunctional thinking that created this situation in the first place.
Looking to Visionary Leaders or Pop Stars
This is why it’s important to start listening to some of our visionaries, our artists, and people who are thinking out of the box. This takes courage on our part, because to do this we must question our beliefs about who we are and why we are here.
As I write this there is a mountain of archaeological evidence that will rewrite our human history, but the gap between those academic scholars who know of it and the general public is growing ever so large because the general public is more interested in Paris Hilton and who is going to become the next American Idol.
We could also look at alternative energy as an example. We are so controlled by the media that are owned and operated by fossil-fueled governments and corporations that we seldom hear about some of the most amazing alternative-energy systems that are available if we would put money into them.
The Challenge: Responsibility? You Mean Me?
The time has come to take action, and that action is not the great actions of one person; it’s the almost insignificant actions of many people taking personal responsibility for their lives. This means self-education about our world, the food we eat, our consumption of goods, and the overall footprint we leave behind us. This is possible only with a new awareness that allows for the idea of oneness. My actions affect everyone to some extent; I know this to the degree that I can experience it.
Now comes the challenge, which is to be honest with oneself. So, I will start with me; am I doing everything I can do to “be the change I’m talking about”? No, but I acknowledge that and I am working every day to become that change.
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