If I were to say "The nature of our thoughts is the most effective contributor to our generation's future" many would accuse me of being too metaphysical, esoteric and generally unrealistic when compared to the role that action plays in the progression of events in the future.
Action is certainly the only way that anything is going to happen in the external world. But what causes those actions?
Our thoughts and our attitudes ultimately dictate our behavior, no? Therefore we act on the basis of how we feel, what we are thinking about, what we imagine.
When we are afraid, we unconsciously produce the effect that we are afraid of. The decisions we make, based out of fear, cause the fear to be more imminent. Have you ever seen the movie Sphere where a group of scientists are in a secret laboratory at the bottom of the ocean and somehow whatever they fear immediately materializes - kind of like that. But its really more like the attorney (or whatever he was) in Jurassic Park I that thought he could hide from the T-rex in an outhouse.
In Hollywood, the characters which are most conscious of their fears or those that succumb to their fears the most (the ones whose motives are purely for survival or in avoidance of conflict) always have an unfortunate, moralistic end.
Likewise in real life, as we are more objective, seeing and believing only what we want to see, we act in ways that make that a reality. There is NO reason to even entertain disturbing ideas. We all know people who are good at manifesting what they want. What are they like? They are positive, they are energetic, they are enthusiastic, they are entirely optimistic. Some critics might say that it is because they are getting what they want that they are so optimistic. But I would argue that it is the other way around. The way we think and feel decides who we are in the present and allows us to act according to the person we will become.
The idea of collective consciousness is not far off, either. Just as every individual is in control of their own lives through their perception, our collective view of our social future is also decided by every person, I think. You could call it paradigm. A campaign to transform the United States would not necessarily be forcibly political, it would not be a cultural shift spearheaded by an elitist Avante Garde. It would simply be a shift in consciousness. When I say "consciousness", I don't mean to be ambiguous or esoteric again. What I mean by consciousness is a lack of fear, an awareness of values and an awareness of true desires. Some of these things are not very easy to do, however, learning to get rid of dominating, irrational fears and subsequent feelings of self-doubt, and guilt is a CLEAR, OBJECTIVE, REASONABLE, and ACHIEVABLE GOAL.
Today there are fears with potentially very dangerous consequences in this global climate. I say potentially because our minds will draw us to those events or they will draw us to OUR end result. It is important that I refrain from even mentioning the negative potential in the world because merely introducing the idea plants seeds which grow into controlling vines. If we do not believe in it, then we will not allow it when the time comes to make a decision. Many of the fears today are beyond our immediate control other than how we govern ourselves now and how we perceive our future - Not even how we perceive our future - it depends on how clearly we imagine it - how detailed can we be. Who can ultimately stop us? We are not going to be passengers in history as populations have been in the past. Governments have made and executed plans against the hegemonic will because people have had no alternative vision for their own future. Let's do this for ourselves. Let's really imagine what our future will look like. Let's stay focused on that and avoid being swept into a campaign which does not bring us closer to our goals.
While many argue that our aspirations are too diverse, I believe that we would not be surprised at how many values we share. Some are so universal that there would be no reason to sign them into law. It would be redundant.
Would it be possible to develop technology to economically and socially support a human population double the size that it is today?
Yes it is possible.
All those in favor please raise your hand.
Is there anybody opposed to the idea? - There might be some people. We'll talk about that later.
Will we develop and implement the technology? That is the question at hand.
All Fears can be traced back to the fear of not having enough. That is the master fear. I am probably preaching, but some of the pessimists out there believe that resources are scarce and limited. This leads to a resignation of a Darwinian view of the economy and of society. We don't have to be a perfect reflection of animals in nature. We can reason, imagine and dictate our own futures. I believe that it is this "resignation to darwinism" which continually puts us in places which we don't want to be in. There are some that love to romanticize that "it is just the way that nature is". They are right to an extent - while we are busy making plans, a disaster could strike, killing us in our sleep. But that is out of our control. Worrying about a natural disaster is not going to keep it from happening. Our lot in life is to make our decisions based on logic about what we really want out of this whole experience.
Part of this resignation to darwinism is that: our utopias must always be costly to someone else - The weak, the poor, the uneducated etc.
Is this true? No.
Is it possible to ELIMINATE human cost (exploitation)? Yes.
Will we do it? That is the question at hand.
Back to the question of "Enough". The fear of not having enough can potentially ALWAYS exist. It is not a matter of survival. As standards of living have risen to unimaginable heights in some countries, there has been a marked increase, in the U.S. for example, of what Enough means.
Take an example of similar instances of decadence of the 1920s. Enough was at an all-time high and consequentially the Fear of Not Having Enough meant different things. New lifestyle images were marketed and sold without a consideration of why they were so great. Everybody wanted the 1920s version of enough. To get it: they bled the banks dry. We are doing the same thing: not with credit, but with Mortgages.
Enough is no longer a practical matter. It is no longer a matter of survival.
Enough has become an ideological symbol. It is status. It is meaningless. Yet some say it is worth a great cost. If we do not pay this heavy price, we will not have the 21st century version of ENOUGH.
Can we separate The Irrational Fear of Not Having Enough from real desire? Hunger?
Yes I think we can. It will take one hell of a marketing campaign:
How do you convince a nation that it is in their own self-interest to lower their standard of living?
We vote with what we buy, and nothing will move forward until we quit reelecting the same business as usual politics.
We can have decadence, but we can do it smarter.
Would it be possible to beat big industries at their own game by taking our business elsewhere until we get what we want?
Yes.
What is keeping that from happening? Who is standing in our way?
We have to start deciding for ourselves and believing in the possibility of our own visions.
Lets put one choice in a nutshell:
We can:
A.) Control and limit our population growth until we are more sustainable.
B.) Implement technology immediately to sustain more and more and more life.
C.) Ditch this society and go "off-the-grid", dude.
D.) Continue the human tradition of social cycles which involve the painful and destructive return to balance.
All four options are possible.
Our minds are the key and we are all responsible and powerful. There are many claims that things will not change because they have never changed the ol' nothing-new-under-the-sun theory. They said that before cars, before the microwave oven, before going into space etc. If we believe that there can be no Utopia, then there will be no Utopia.
But I can imagine a Utopia just as Edison could imagine and produce a light bulb so people could read at night.
Lets ditch the word Utopia and call it:
An explosion into sustainable infinity where exponential growth will reveal wonders which were once in a lifetime and will soon be a weekly occurrence.
