Tannishblog

There are ways of looking at the world that perhaps should be investigated. As all things continually change, immutable view points eventually create problems. One obvious example is how mankind treats industrial pollution, still clinging to the view that the world is vast and capable of absorbing the smoke, runoff, and debris of human industry. This used to be true, before the industrial revolution, but is no longer. nonetheless, it is a common belief.

Another example - if one is needed- is the concepts surrounding the formation and maintenance of statehood. It is founded on, among other premises, the idea that people of differing geographical origins are somehow different from each other. Intertwined with this false view is the common value of us-over-them. "We" are always somehow better than "Them." Over the past few centuries we’ve seen how such adamant thinking, unrelated to reality, eventually ends. Our species competitive nature, jealousies and fears, and subsequent distrust fuel and perpetuate such false notions.

Yet the march of time proceeds. All things change. Science and technology is opening up our views, albeit reluctantly, and soon we will not be able to deny the basic facts found in today’s quote from one of my favorite people:

Today’s world requires us to accept the oneness of humanity… The world is becoming increasingly interdependent. Within the context of this new interdependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the interest of others. Without the cultivation of a sense of universal responsibility our very future is in danger.

     ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Please read this as a spiritual message, then re-read it as a political one. The two aren’t apposed, as we once believed. As we reach toward a global conclusion of our species naked aggression, as we simultaneously reach outcomes of outmoded patterns of thought in seemingly diverse areas like religion, science, industry, diplomacy and it’s failures, economics, we must either acknowledge our inter-connectivity or die of the consequences. Look about you, it is writ large everywhere.

The time is now. There is no other time, past is lost to us and future is yet speculation. Only now can we act to reassess our static views, and let our reality shape them. Too long have we been trying the opposite…