Friday, March 13, 2009

New Paradigms for a New Paradise

...The tides of time and history have reached a confluence, and our choices are rapidly narrowing as we enter the cusp of a decisive moment. As many of the wiser conservative politicians have remarked, ‘we’re all greenies now’. As the world economy goes down the gurgler and people become more desperate, we have a bright brief moment to decide the course of our individual and collective futures - before rationality is once more swept aside by the apparent dictates of unsustainable competitive behaviour. We can ride the shifting tide to a more pleasurable destination than the obvious horrors elucidated by prophets of doom.

The competitive chaos and eternal dissatisfaction of modern consumer societies is almost as stultifying and alienating as the moribund communist regimes of the last century. If we’re to live in a civilization built to accommodate the real needs of human beings we’re going to have to create it ourselves. We have to cast off the shrouds of outworn notions, lifestyles and technologies and embrace the most ancient truths of all – the realities that arise from being an enlightened immortal consciousness experiencing the life of a tribally-oriented domesticated primate on planet Earth.

Extraordinary new paradigms are already growing within the outmoded shell of the old social orders, which will inevitably implode of their own accord when the time is ripe. Complex societies are inevitably submerged beneath the constricting weight of hyper-organisation and restriction. Like water, freedom inexorably seeps through the seams of regimental order and ultimately overcomes all barriers, levies and narrowly focused canalized systems.

We can still create a sustainable civilization and survive the worst excesses of our past addictions to poisonous lifestyles and toxic consumerism. Growth for its own sake is pointless and lethal on the surface of a highly populated sphere. We can only continue to grow and prosper by changing the ways we think and act, and by spending our time, energy and money more intelligently and honourably. If we’re to live in a truly healthy world we have to see the problems our current lifestyles create, and dream up new ways of living together.

We need to say goodbye to outmoded jobs, tools and industries and ride the changing currents to healthier and happier lives. Wage slaves need to free themselves from mundane tasks that eat up the time of their lives. Pointless industriousness, money-grubbing self-enslavement and beurocratic punctiliousness must be recognised for what they are - time-filling distractions from the main game of having a fruitful life in a bountiful world.

We must question everything about our fundamentally feudal and medieval civilizations, and conceive how to create and enjoy a plentiful world. There’s more than enough to go around if we can only relax enough to share. We can still create a paradise on Earth – if we stop destroying the planet in the pursuit of illusory money, merit, credit, careers and power. If we’re to learn how to live in a global paradise, we have to work, play and live with each other, now, today. We need to achieve far more than simple tolerance of each other’s differences and foibles – we have to open our lives wholeheartedly to other women, men and children who are brave and open enough to do the same.

There is actually an abundance of energy and materials on Planet Earth; a thorough shakedown of the world’s economies and industries is necessary to break the gridlock of the military/industrial/feudal mindset, that’s congealed around humans like a hypnotic cloud for the last few millennia of regular war and monarchical terrorism. The current shift is a nexus point in history, yet the future is still writ on water; we shall emerge from the shadow of dark industrial mills and step into a new paradigm, but the delineaments of the future will be decided by the struggle within each and every human heart.

Once in every generation there comes a time when the tide turns, and meaningful choices can be made by each and every one of us – apparently personal decisions that will directly influence coming events. If we’re ready to climb out of our private bunkers and fortified homes we can seize the day and right the wrongs of the world – and learn that the world is made of mindstuff. If we aim for a happy, healthy, hopeful future we won’t be trapped in the default settings created by fears and desires - which feed on the insecurity created by the socially segregating separation of woman and man, child and parent, of differently hued tribes, races, flags and religions. This is the time to examine our motives and transform our inner selves, if we’re to have a real hope of creating a future powered and nourished by clean, green natural systems. We can all have a great future, in our very own lifetimes, crafted from the shifting clay of our heartfelt hopes and dreams – if we stop feeding destruction with our thoughts, words, deeds and jobs and seek out better ways to live together.

At this nexus point in history, the future is in our hands; we have a chance to create fairer societies at last. Free clean energy, abundant healthy food, pure water, increasingly diverse ecosystems, human rights and technologically advanced and interesting lives are not mutually exclusive *; only prosperous, well-educated, freedom-oriented societies can have a hope of saving the environment. Prosperity, free access to information, free choice and a large amount of leisure time are all prerequisites to healing ourselves and the planet. There are plenty of interesting things to occupy us and many ways to exercise our bodies and imaginations in the days ahead. Do you enjoy the way you currently fill your time? Can you think of a better way to live? Do you dare to dream of paradise – for all?

Always on the edge of conceivability, the future beckons to us from behind a choice of doors, beyond which await the lady or the tiger - and an undreamt range of other possibilities. Last time I looked, the fate of Schrödinger’s cat was still undetermined. You wake up in a new world every day. If we remove our stupid neckties and subservient uniforms, and loosen the ties that bind our imaginations we can all live long and prosper amidst limitless bounty. We live in an infinite cosmos in which anything is possible – where we can achieve anything we can conceive, if only we imagine it into being for the right reason.

What would you do with a longer, healthier life? Why are you alive, here, now? What did you imagine you were, before you could understand words?

Who are you, really – how did you get here, and why? The answers to these questions are all you need to know to recreate the world.

What are you going to do when you look away from these words – right… NOW?

- R.A.