What Has Been, Is, and Will Be

January 25, 2020 General Insights, Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Humanity is in turmoil.

Several of the world’s biggest problems are at present happening together because of an underlying process. There is a need for a comprehensive look to see this process thoroughly. It is not so much related to what happens to us, humans, as to what happens from within us, who we are.

We are more than what meets the eye. We are much more than what we can think of merely with our conscious mind. Inside each human, there is a universe of non-conscious processing.

The main problem is that, most generally, we don’t take this into account. People live in a shallow part of themselves. It’s as if the earth would only be the tiny crust that meets the eye. What would happen if the rest of it (99%, officially) would disappear?

Coming of AGE

In the evolution towards human being, consciousness has increasingly developed. A good thing. However, mostly, we live in a dissociated state, as-if dissociated from our non-conscious. But that’s not possible! As a consequence, we live in a collective illusion of separateness from ourselves, others and the environment. This leads to unbridled anxiety, greed, and ego-focus (together: ‘AGE’). These are not separate from each other. They are even very much the same thing if looked at from inside. Yet many more human problems can be seen as deeply related: hatred, envy, aggression, and all kinds of personal suffering.

Humanity needs to come of AGE.

As I have written about extensively, I see as a counterpart to this a proper synthesis of rationality and depth. Together, this leads to insight into who we are as human beings, including a rightful place for non-conscious processing.

We can look at all this in the timeframe of a few centuries before, at, and after 2020.

Before 2020

The past few centuries have witnessed a considerable increase in the human population. We also see the most significant wars ever. We see a huge increase in science and technology. We also see an ocean of deep human suffering in the sense of depression, anxiety, addictions, chronic pain etc. Worldwide numbers of people with these inflictions are, respectively: 300 million, 275 million, 240 million, and 1.5 billion. Make no mistake: the list of this is long, while the suffering behind each item of the list is tremendous, even to each individual person! Most of psychological suffering shows in the body and is thus not generally seen as of psychological origin.

What we don’t see is a truly in-depth understanding of who we are. There have been attempts in literature, philosophy, psychology. More interestingly, in the past few decades, a lot of progress has been made in cognitive neuroscience. More and more, this shows non-conscious processing in the reality of mind-body-unity. On the contrary.

2020

We concretely see huge problems mounting:

The results of climate change are concretely affecting many people and ecosystems.
In politics, parties and individuals are ‘winning’ by being ‘protectors in need,’ and ‘following the hard-line, being strongmen.’ Rationality and depth are not at the forefront of this.
Society seems to be getting a harder baseline.
The big divide between rich and poor is getting ever more prominent.
The costs of healthcare are surging so much that they also have a huge impact on politics.
Mental health problems are surging worldwide. This is especially obvious if one looks at the human being from a mind-body-unity perspective.
There is still no rationality in religions. The latter are still a frequent source of huge violence.
The precursor of real A.I. is coming of age and already poses enormous challenges. Meanwhile, real A.I. Is around the corner.

These problems are all fundamentally fueled by what’s underlying AGE. Perhaps most of all related to it is A.I. and the existential threat of this to humanity when building further upon present-day dissociation.

WE are at the core of all these issues. WE should take action to ‘know ourselves’ finally, as Socrates admonished his fellow human beings 2500 years ago. WE should come of AGE, urgently.

After 2020

The problems we are facing at present will not readily subside. Each of them will pose huge further threats to the wellbeing of many millions.

Mental and psycho-somatic health problems will increase until we evolve towards solutions from inside out, as explained in Your Mind as Cure.

Artificial intelligence – the real thing – will either be Compassionate or it will be the ultimate scourge for humanity, as explained in The Journey Towards Compassionate A.I.

Leadership will not be able to open up and lead people (and more) towards a Compassionate future, as explained in Read&Do: Open Leadership.

Etc.

What should be the future

Many things, of which just a few:

The utmost possible should be done to relieve inner suffering and all dis-ease related to this.
We should strive to develop Compassionate A.I. before developing any other super-A.I.
Human inner growth is an ultimate goal.
Even one child dying of hunger or not getting enough proteins should be one too many.
Democracy should return and even more: as the real power of people. Inner strength. Nothing less.

In short: Compassion should rule this world.

The AURELIS/Lisa project is, in its core, an attempt to go for human depth in a rational way. This is needed for taking the non-conscious properly into account, which is a necessary condition for Compassion as we need it towards a worthwhile future.

There is no point in fighting for a small place on board of a vessel that is sailing right towards some very nasty cliffs.

If no one tries to avoid the cliffs, there is no point in sailing at all.