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It’ll quickly be a brand new 12 months and we’re nearly 1 / 4 of the way in which into the primary decade of the brand new century. The place are we heading now? What is going to occur to the human race? Will it overcome its shadow facet and migrate to the celebs, a imaginative and prescient of Star Trek, or will it annihilate itself, the way in which the Roman empire, the best empire on earth, the pleasure of the traditional world, whose sensible legislature, political group, unmatched army may, grand structure, progressive engineering and inventive achievements have now been relegated to dusty archives?
The way forward for humanity relies on consciousness of its plight. With out consciousness, extinction is extremely doable. With consciousness, a vital mass for change can occur.
At no time within the final ten thousand years because the Ice Age have we exhibited such astonishing genius or such abominable disregard for sentient life. In some way we’ve got arrived right here on this new century regardless of the worldwide struggling and traumatic occasions of the previous one.
The best peril dealing with our species often is the overpopulation of our planet. Our very success with science and expertise to enhance the survival of all human life could also be our downfall. The present fee of progress is about 1.9 % a 12 months. This will likely not sound like an alarming determine nevertheless it signifies that the inhabitants doubles each forty years. Proper now it’s round 6 billion. By the tip of this century it will likely be round 40 billion. By then, it will likely be too late to do something. That’s the present lifetime left for humanity except we develop into subtle sufficient emigrate to the celebs.
Can we do it? Can we survive as a species? So as to reply that query, allow us to have a look at the best century ever within the historical past of the human race, the 20th century. Until we be taught from our errors, we will probably be condemned to repeat them. However this time, we could not have a second likelihood.
The journey of the exploration of inside area started within the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud explored the unconscious, linked neurosis to the intercourse drive, and sought to heal the previous by inspecting it within the current. Initially shocked by his concepts, those that learn and understood him then unfold a brand new burst of consciousness.
Within the well-known portray, The Scream, Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist who adopted the custom of French Impressionism, epitomized the nervousness and terror of the human psyche, the grief that arose from recognizing the non-public and collective ache within the unconscious thoughts.
Pablo Picasso’s Cubism and Salvador Dali’s Surrealism created extra waves of consciousness in regards to the anguish of the person soul affected by the traumas of life, and this imagery of suppressed emotional ache unfold even quicker by way of the medium of surrealistic movies.
However whereas a small proportion of artists had been making public the existential angst of humanity, different nice minds had been marveling on the thriller of the universe. Albert Einstein declared that power and matter may very well be exchanged, x-rays confirmed the insides of a dwelling human being, and microscopes and telescopes began to disclose the world of the very small and the very giant. As well as, amongst quite a few different wonders, science developed contraceptives, giving {couples} the prospect to expertise intimacy with out the necessity to elevate a brand new household.
Human genius was on the rise in all places. Startling discoveries had been being made within the sciences that had been radically remodeling the very essence of human understanding and the way in which society functioned. However probably the most startling of all of them, was the facility of the atom. By isolating, smashing and splitting atoms, an unlimited energy of unimaginable magnitude had been found.
After the primary atomic bomb was examined in Los Alamos, the chief scientist Robert Oppenheimer quoted a passage within the Bhagavad-Gita, “Now I’ve develop into demise and the destroyer of worlds.” The scientists had been shocked at what they’d found, however the use to which the facility was put modified your entire historical past of humanity for the more severe. The powers of the Western World opted for the short-term advantage of defeating Japan, however didn’t then notice that it had launched an unfathomable nightmare of weapons proliferation that might destroy each dwelling creature within the recognized universe.
Earlier than the nuclear shadow fell on humankind, probably the most horrific trigger of hysteria within the collective unconscious, complete warfare had already been invented.
The primary world warfare escalated human territoriality and aggression to an industrial scale. The mechanical power that had been used to remodel humanity from an agrarian and localized inhabitants to an industrialized and globally increasing inhabitants was now used for wholesale slaughter. Man grew to become the sufferer of his personal machines. Armaments may very well be manufactured on a big and fast scale. The deadly invention of the gun now grew to become the even deadlier machine gun; within the few seconds it took to kill one man, now a dozen may very well be killed.
However this was solely the start of mass-scale struggling as a result of by no means within the historical past of humankind had evil males had the means to take advantage of and destroy so many individuals so effectively.
Joseph Stalin initiated the collective farms of communism. Beneath his interpretation of the ideology of communism, 22 million individuals died within the labor camps of his slave empire.
The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and slaughtered 60 million Chinese language.
Adolph Hitler promised the German individuals the restoration of their honor and self-respect after the humiliation of Germany’s earlier defeat and the penalty imposed upon them by their victorious enemies. Nazi Germany slaughtered one other 50 million. 27 million of those had been Soviet residents. 6 million of them had been Jewish individuals, who had been systematically hunted and captured, stripped of all human dignity and murdered with ruthless effectivity.
But the havoc that was unleashed by the equipment of the economic age was solely the start of the flagrant abuse of uncooked energy.
The second world warfare had leveled down many beforehand flourishing cities by way of steady bombing over months like Rotterdam, Dresden, and Tokyo, however when the atomic bomb was dropped by America on Japan, two complete cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been leveled in seconds.
Regardless of the overwhelming violence of those horrors, human cruelty continued unabated on a scale that had by no means ever earlier than been witnessed on the face of creation.
Mao-tse Tung promising the Chinese language individuals “an important leap ahead,” publicly humiliated landowners, initiated widescale persecution and torture on anybody who disagreed with him and gave the land to the peasants. These peasants overworked the soil, making a famine of immense proportions and 30 million Chinese language starved to demise.
In Cambodia, Pol Pot, waged a warfare on his personal individuals and one out of three Cambodians was murdered.
In Cambodia, Viet Nam, Rwanda, and Kosovo the massacre was relentless.
Struggle had develop into distant, exact, and lethal. Human beings had develop into the cruelest and most savage creatures ever to have walked upon the earth. Even the Dinosaurs that when roamed the earth within the distant previous didn’t have the identical vicious depth. They killed to outlive, however human beings killed due to wounded pleasure. Intelligence enlisted to fulfill darkish human drives created unspeakable struggling.
But by some means, remarkably, humanity, regardless of its new penchant for environment friendly slaughter, as a complete, nonetheless continued to progress.
Round 1950, America’s statue of liberty grew to become an emblem of hope for immigrants from world wide. With their zestful power they infused renewed life into the nation. A few of these immigrants had been the best scientists on this planet, together with Albert Einstein; others reworked the New World by way of backbreaking labor. The results of this inflow of brilliance and large effort reworked the USA right into a formidable financial and army energy. To the remainder of the world, exhausted and depleted by the aftermath of warfare, every part appeared larger and higher in America. It boasted taller buildings, larger automobiles, an enormous community of roads and railways, and a love for innovation and expertise. America grew to become the brand new hope, its imaginative and prescient of a promising new humanity dominating the remainder of the world.
Nevertheless a migrational shift existed throughout the entire world. Those that couldn’t journey overseas moved in giant numbers from the nation to town. Calcutta grew to become overwhelmed with a inhabitants of 10 million individuals; Tokyo swelled as tens of millions of nation individuals grew to become city dwellers; and within the 18,000 sq. miles of Mexico metropolis, an city sprawl developed across the fringes of town and discarded waste supplies unfold outwards.
All around the world, in wealthy and poor nations, cities grew to become extremely engaging: a spot for larger wealth, broader freedom, and extra pleasure. Working out of room, cities started to develop upwards, changing into vertical, climate-controlled, and neon-lit. Their progress was as a result of a flight from the poverty skilled within the countryside and the lure of the promise of dwelling in a client paradise. Shanty cities grew to become frequent place across the fringes of many cities within the growing world, and the hole between the wealthy and the poor widened, with ladies changing into the poorest of the world’s residents.
Europe having exhausted its assets and inhabitants in colonization and complete warfare now skilled an inflow of the individuals whom they’d subjugated. Within the unfold of imperialism, ties had been made with the conquered individuals. For instance, Asians from India, Pakistan, East Africa, and Trinidad made England their new house. In Wembley, North London, the native Hindu individuals imported an impressive temple, stone by valuable stone, from their native nation.
In the USA, too, migration continued, not solely from abroad and from the nation to town, but additionally from its borders. Los Angeles has the most important Mexican inhabitants exterior Mexico metropolis. Preserving their cultural traditions, the rising Hispanic inhabitants is slowly altering the European mixture of America right into a Latino one.
After its victory within the Second World Struggle, the USA grew to become the strongest financial system on the earth. In addition to the inflow of recent concepts and labor from immigrants, the emphasis on science and expertise created a revolution in telecommunications. Radio, tv, Hollywood motion pictures, satellites, and promoting from America influenced the remainder of the world. American celebrities grew to become widespread in all places, from the songs of Elvis Presley to the fights of Muhammad Ali. A star in America normally grew to become a world superstar. In the direction of the final decade of the century, America initiated the community of computer systems that we now know because the world large net.
Communications created the primary sense of a worldwide group. Everybody was in a position to see everybody else and share frequent human pursuits and values. 200 million individuals watched the marriage of Princess Diana and just a little over two million watched her funeral. In the course of the remaining World Cup Soccer match in 1998, 2 billion individuals watched it on tv. With the arrival of the cell phone, anyone on any avenue on this planet may discuss to anybody else anyplace on the planet.
In addition to the fun of watching one another, the human race additionally had an opportunity to look at itself. Maybe the best advantage of the lunar expeditions was not footage of a useless moon however the footage of a dwelling planet. Humanity started to see itself for the primary time as a single species, fairly than a group of warring factions. From area, the planet seemed like an enormous, blue marble floating in inky darkness. Folks seen extra ocean than land, the absence of any political borders, and the potential of multinational friendships and the sharing of frequent experiences. In addition to seeing itself, humanity additionally vicariously skilled the fun of watching their house planet as a complete. Listening in to the astronauts stay broadcast, they shared of their sense of awe.
Whereas the stability of energy shifted from Europe to North America, it then slowly started to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Rim. American supremacy was being challenged by the nations of the East.
One thousand years in the past, Japan was remoted; within the twentieth Century it began changing into an financial super-power.
Equally, different “tiger economies” additionally erupted across the Pacific, with Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore creating cities that rivaled the cosmopolitan grandeur of North America. In Singapore, for instance, the island has develop into a metropolis whose breathtaking skyline is simply rivaled by that of Shanghai.
One thousand years in the past, the silk roads to China led to probably the most refined civilization on earth. China had already invented printing, paper foreign money, the compass, and gunpowder. Within the twenty first Century, it’s poised to develop into the brand new world super-power, due to large international investments, significantly from Chinese language dwelling abroad, in addition to its inhabitants of 1 billion individuals.
The best dilemma of the longer term shouldn’t be our powerlessness, however our energy, and never our stupidity, however our immense intelligence.
Initially, we used industrial and nuclear energy to create carnage that made the fear of Genghis Khan look delicate.
Later, regardless of complete populations being destroyed, we constructed up cities, explored area and our personal minds and hearts, migrated nearer to one another, and shared expertise and communication.
In our most wonderful century, we’ve got recognized each the agony of large scale destruction and the enjoyment of rebirth.
We’ve got seen what all of us appear to be and shared our fondest cultural snapshots with one another.
Plainly within the final century of the final millennium every part modified for humanity.
Sigmund Freud uncovered our darkish human instincts. Evil males dominated complete nations and slaughtered tens of millions. Conquering individuals started to coexist with people who they’d as soon as subjugated. Financial energy shifted from one a part of the globe to a different. And the speed of information expanded at a bewildering tempo. By no means earlier than had humankind skilled a lot, realized a lot, and been uncovered to a lot uncooked energy that it had realized to harness from nature.
On this new century we discover ourselves experiencing an enlargement of the cultural and world patterns we created earlier, and our biggest power, our uncooked energy and unsurpassed intelligence, may prove be our biggest weak spot.
What is going to occur to humanity? Will the presently current outbreaks of warfare develop to develop into an Armageddon? Will political, financial, army, industrial, and non secular rivalry outweigh any frequent sense? Will we merely overpopulate and pollute ourselves to demise? Will the accelerating financial inequality and exploitation of pure assets create its personal model of chaos? Will prevailing human helplessness on the measurement of our world issues overshadow us or will we select to develop into extra conscious, educated, cooperative and communicative?
Humanity’s future has develop into excessive: it faces both an apocalypse or evolution to a species that may stay in space-stations and journey in star-ships. Every thing hangs within the stability primarily based on what we do that century. We’ve got survived the previous, but when the identical naive patterns proceed into the longer term, we won’t make it.
Finally, even when we are able to overcome our particular person and collective shadows, even when human decency can outweigh primitive aggression, even when human collaboration is lastly doable and human genius is allowed full self-expression, we’ve got one final hurdle to beat, in any other case the previous millennium could have been the final one for our species. Every decade, the stakes are rising. The warning of futurists has fallen on deaf ears. The chance of perishing within the coming millennium is now not science fiction, it’s changing into observable truth to even probably the most detached and ill-informed individuals.
A time will come once we will want a brand new house. No pressure on earth can cease over-population apart from widespread devastation as a result of belligerence or the depletion of restricted assets. Our solely doable hope is to develop into star vacationers.
Will we be able to make the brand new leap to the celebs or will the sunshine of human genius, hindered by territorial animal disputes, fail to rise to a degree that may save our race from oblivion?
Prompt communication and fast journey has shrunk the world. Can we now use our world mind, the Web, to speak in a significant option to create a collective change within the consciousness of humanity? We owe this to not ourselves however to generations but to come back. Optimistic motion has to occur this century, a vital mass of consciousness needs to be reached, in any other case the ensuing chaos will probably be past management.
Previously, based on the literature of varied traditions, avatars would present as much as information us to knowledge, however we persecuted them. As witnessed by the atrocities of the previous century, our shallow intentions and brute instincts are nonetheless with us. The one hope for humanity is a collective renaissance of consciousness, as a result of solely the beginning of a widespread intelligence will stop disaster. An enlargement of thoughts and coronary heart has to occur at a vital mass.
Such as you, I’m no-one, however with you, we might be everybody. Please move this message on. Throw this message within the bottle again into the ocean. A thousand years from now, one in all our descendants will learn it and be pleased about the life that they’re now dwelling; and it’ll most likely not be on earth anymore. In the event you had the perseverance to learn to this line, do not click on “delete”, click on “ahead.” Right here is why: The longer term can now not be a revalidation of the previous. There may be an excessive amount of at stake. Intelligence has developed us from the apes, however the lack of it is optimistic software might also be our nemesis. Alone as people, we won’t have a lot of an opportunity of saving our planet, however collectively, there isn’t a restrict to human genius. Can we evolve to a species that colonizes area or will we perish earlier than we get there?
We live on a dying planet, and also you and I can sound the alarm bell. The Web could make this doable. With every passing decade, the value of human ignorance will probably be extracting a heavier toll.
The antidote to apathy and withdrawal is consciousness, which is the rationale for this essay. Paraphrasing the phrases of Mahatma Gandhi, we might be the change we want to see on this planet. It begins with the press of a mouse button.
Until sleeping humanity begins to get up, it is rising energy of numbers, financial enlargement, scientific exploration, and technological advances will probably be used for extinction not evolution. As you possibly can see, we’ve got already grossly abused the facility that we possess; there isn’t a assure that we are going to develop into wiser within the new 12 months and within the new decade which can quickly be upon us. Our energy in all areas is increasing as our information expands. Navy toys have gotten deadlier; viruses are adapting to our most potent antibiotics and changing into unstoppably virulent; and ideological fanaticism is reaching a degree the place nuclear proliferation shouldn’t be doable to comprise. Consciousness proper now’s our solely hope. Until, by way of consciousness, humanity as a complete is keen to surrender its aware and unconscious hostilities, catastrophe is inevitable.
We are able to use the Web to unfold these concepts to each house and company and authorities on this planet. Solely 6 levels of separation lie between us and anybody else on this planet.
With out consciousness, optimistic change shouldn’t be doable. We owe it to generations but unborn to unfold consciousness. That is the meme that may save our species. Consciousness can blossom into information and information into optimistic motion; however with out consciousness; by way of mere blind, reflexive dwelling, chaos will erupt as certainly as night time follows day, or one century follows the subsequent.
Please ship this text to a number of individuals or put up it someplace. You’ll be able to click on “delete” or “ahead.” In a wierd manner, the destiny of the world could have one thing to do with us. You and I’ll most likely by no means meet, however we share a typical bond. Regardless of all our variations, we’re all related. It’s our biggest worth. Allow us to act, every in our personal small manner, on an impulse, irrespective of how faint, to assist the larger good.
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Source by Saleem Rana