As a species we have failed and we ought to get our act together
We are the species that never admits to failure and destruction to the world and all we seem to be able to do about it is direct our fingers at faceless governments and assign blame. We shake our heads sadly and sigh: "If only the leaders would lead then the people would surely follow." The best we seem to be able to muster up in dealing with any crisis is protest. Protest is fine, but it's not enough. Demanding stricter controls from governments proven to be incompetent will not handle any problem nor will any mutually assured destruction solve our problem/s. An issue such as the global economic crisis is overwhelmingly complex and requires a people much wiser and stronger than we are today.
The age we live in today is often called the age of information but if anyone is really paying attention it appears to be more like the age of disinformation. Propaganda abounds across the globe and it is only effective because people are such easy prey to propaganda. It requires a higher level of awareness to discern fact from fiction and truth from talk. That level of awareness will not be accomplished before we learn how to accept responsibility for our actions.
Accepting responsibility for our actions requires we become more honest with ourselves and admit we are too lazy and too willing to stagnate on all levels. Our marriages fail because we don't make the effort to keep them working, children become estranged because parents don't make the time for them, our communities fall into disrepair because we let them crumble, all the while waiting for someone else, some expert or someone wiser than us to fix our problems.
We eat too much fast food and then turn to our doctors expecting some sort of little yellow pill that can correct the imbalance we created because we eat garbage for sustenance. We turn to psychiatrists and psychologists asking for medication that will help us ignore the mess we've created so we might keep plodding forth making bigger messes. We hide in our churches, mosques, temples scolding others because they aren't as holy as we are ignoring the message that comes with attending church or visiting the mosque or the temple. We blame, and we blame and we blame, never satisfied with the results of blaming and so, astonishingly we blame some more.
We are woefully human and to err is human but there is evidence that we are also divine. We build remarkable cities filled with breathtaking edifices and homes; we build dams, superhighways and learn the mechanics of rocket science. We care and we love just as deeply as we are indifferent or hate. We discover that our actions and thoughts are caused by synapses in the nervous system and brain but we wonder if that is so, how is it we know about synapses.
We are much, much more than we've ever been and when we finally figure out how to accept responsibility for each and every one of our actions, we will finally become all that we are and all we are supposed to be. This is quite a problem and solving this problem will not be easy. It appears, however, that life is not easy. Life is hard and it is the struggle we make that defines who we are. All of us are capable of so much more than we have ever accomplished and perhaps one day, the people will face their problems until the only real problems we're confronted with are in the decisions we face in handling new problems. That will be an epoch to remember. Let us get our act together.
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