Chapter 5: A New Vision

It seems to me that a totally different kind of morality and conduct, and an action that springs from the understanding of the whole process of living, have become an urgent necessity in our world of mounting crises and problems. We try to deal with these issues through political and organizational methods, through economic readjustment and various reforms; but none of these things will ever resolve the complex difficulties of human existence, though they may offer temporary relief.

But there is a revolution which is entirely different and which must take place if we are to emerge from the endless series of anxieties, conflicts, frustrations in which we are caught. This revolution has to begin, not with theory and ideation, which eventually prove worthless, but with a radical transformation in the mind itself.

J. Krishnamurti, “On Learning”

This statement was not written in the beginning of the 21^st century, but in the middle of the 20^th. There were crises and problems – a “mounting series of anxieties, conflicts, and frustrations” – already in the past century, although only keen intellects were aware of them. A few perceived that these crises can only be coped with by a radical transformation in the mind: a transformation of the values and the beliefs – the vision – we have of ourselves, of others, and of the world around us.

In this opening decade of the 21^st century the values and beliefs we live by have become sadly, and in some cases dangerously, outdated. We need a new vision of ourselves, our world, and our place and role in the world. The vision we need can be, and indeed must be, grounded in the best insights we have into human nature and the nature of the world in which the human world is embedded.

Nine outdated beliefs

Everyone is unique and separate. We are all unique and separate individuals enclosed by our skin and pursuing our own interests. We have only ourselves to rely on; everyone else is either friend or foe, at best linked to us by temporarily coinciding interests.
Everything is reversible. The problems we experience are but interludes after which everything goes back to normal. All we need to do is manage the difficulties that crop up using tried and tested methods of problem solving and, if necessary, crisis management. Business as unusual has evolved out of business as usual and sooner or later will reverse back into it.
Order calls for hierarchy. Order in society can only be achieved by rules and laws and their proper enforcement, and this requires a chain of command that is recognized and obeyed by all. A few people on top (mostly males) make up the rules, legislate the laws, give the orders, and ensure compliance with them. Everyone else is to obey the rules and take his or her place within the social and political order.
Efficiency is the key. We must get the maximum out of every person, every machine, and every organization, regardless of what is produced and whether or not it serves a humanly and socially useful purpose.
Technology is the answer. Whatever the problem, technology can already offer the solution – and if not, it can be developed to offer it.
New is always better. Anything that is new is better than (almost) anything that stems from last year or the year before.
My country, right or wrong. Come what may, I owe allegiance only to one nation, one flag, and one government.
The more money I have, the happier I am. There is a direct link between having money and being happy. (A Gallup survey confirmed this belief: three in four young Americans entering college consider it “essential” or “very important” to become very well off financially.)
The future is none of my business. Why should I worry about the good of the next generation? Every generation has always had to look after itself, and the next generation will have to do the same.

Why these beliefs are obsolete is not difficult to see.

That we are unique is true, but it does not mean that we are separate from each other and from nature. Seeing ourselves as separate from the world in which we live distorts our natural impulses to seek our advantage into unfair and unproductive struggles among unequal competitors. Solidarity based on a sense of oneness with others and with nature is a basic condition for creating a world that is peaceful and sustainable.
If we remain convinced that the problems we encounter are but temporary interludes in an unchanging and perhaps unchangeable status quo, no experience of the problems will change our thinking and we shall be unable to learn and cope with them.
Order is seldom tenable when it is based on hierarchy. Male-dominated hierarchies do not work well even in the army and the church, much less in business and society. Successful business managers have learned the advantages of lean structures and teamwork, but for the most part social and political institutions still operate in the hierarchical mode. As a result, government tends to be heavy-handed, its workings cumbersome and inefficient.
Efficiency without regard to what is produced and whom it will benefit is not the answer either. It leads to mounting unemployment, caters to the demands of the rich without regard to the needs of the poor, and polarizes society into “monetized” and “traditional” sectors.
Technology is a powerful and sophisticated instrument, but it is only an instrument: its utility depends on what a technology is and how it is used. Even the best technology is a two-edged sword. Nuclear reactors produce an almost unlimited supply of energy, but their waste products and their decommissioning pose serious problems, Genetic engineering can create virus-resistant and protein-rich plants, improved breeds of animals, vast supplies of animal proteins, and microorganisms capable of producing proteins and hormones and improving photosynthesis, but it can also produce lethal biological weapons and pathogenic microorganisms and destroy diversity and the balance of nature. In turn, information technologies can create a globally interacting yet locally diverse world, enabling all people to be linked whatever their nationality, culture, and ethnic origin, but information networks dominated by the power groups that brought them into being serve only the interests of that minority and marginalize the rest.
That new is always better is evidently not true. Sometime the new is worse than what it replaced – more expensive, less enduring, more complex, less manageable, and more damaging to our health and to our environment.
The chauvinistic slogan “my country, right or wrong” asks people to fight for causes their government espouses, and may later repudiate, and to embrace the values and the worldviews of a small group of political leaders. It ignores the interdependence and the shared future of all people on the globe. There is nothing in the normal human mind that forbids the expansion of one’s loyalty above the level of one’s country; we are not constrained to swear exclusive allegiance to one flag only. We can be loyal to our community without giving up loyalty to our province, state, or region. We can be loyal to our region and feel at one with an entire culture, and even with the human family as a whole. Americans are New Englanders, Texans, Southerners, and Pacific Northwesterners as well as Americans. Europeans are English, German, French, Spanish, and Italians well as Europeans. In all parts of the world people can have multiple identities and evolve multiple allegiances.
The belief about the link between wealth and happiness is not borne out by experience. Money can buy many things but not happiness and well-being. It can buy sex but not love, attention but not caring, information but not wisdom. Since 1957, the GNP in the United States has more than doubled, but the average level of happiness has declined: those who report being “very happy” are only 32% of the population. At the same time the divorce rate has doubled, the teen suicide rate more than doubled, violent crime tripled, and more people than ever say they are depressed. We have big houses and broken homes, high income and low morale, secured rights and diminished civility.
Finally, without conscious forward planning – although it may have been sufficient in days of rapid and seemingly unlimited growth when every new generation appeared able to take care of itself – is not a responsible option when what we do today has a profound impact on the well-being, and even the survival, of our children and our children’s children.

Quantum Shift in Global Brain Part 7

Chapter 5: A New Vision

Nine outdated beliefs

Six particularly dangerous myths

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