In my first post on future consciousness, I spoke of what
may be coming into play in the next phase of our evolution. What’s at stake is
what it means to be human. We may be changing into something new – whether better
or worse remains to be seen. The
problem is that technology is accelerating everything and the ultimate outcome
is obscure. We know that it is
changing our climate. There are
more subtle changes. Technology is wiping out time and space, eroding the
difference between real, unreal, and surreal.
And think for a moment about this. An unknown (‘dark’) energy is increasing
the rate of expansion of the universe; but something analogous is happening, as
technology creates an explosion of information, which in turn is altering our
consciousness. It looks to me like
a spectacular synchronicity of cosmos and consciousness.
All the information and rapid communication may be speeding up
the growth of consciousness.
Unfortunately, technology offers us no guidance or anything that
resembles wisdom. Mere information cannot stem the tide
of wars and civil wars, mass migration, mass killings, suicide bombings, trafficking,
violence against women, catastrophic illness, homelessness, addiction,
psychosis, natural disasters, poverty, injustice, and oppression spreading
practically everywhere.
So what are we supposed to do about all this? Is there something we need to think
about that is beyond the powers of technology? Yes, there are resources for improving our rational, emotional,
and esthetic intelligence. But when
it comes to training our voluntary or
willing intelligence, where can we
go? Where are the schools, the
classes, the professors?
For one thing, the ethos of science dictates against this
form of intelligence. Science has planted
in our minds the idol of determinism, before which we’re all supposed to
genuflect. The free shaping of our
lives is not something we’re officially allowed to take seriously. One rarely hears
of training the capacity to reflect, plan, choose, and form one’s inner as well as one’s outer world.
Meanwhile, the ethos of consumerism is about dismantling the
will. It is better for business to have automatons rather than free agents. If scientism takes a dim view of the ‘will’
and its freedom, our consumer economy is designed to orient us constantly
toward consumption – a bottomless abyss.
But without some ability to be the directors of our
lives and of our consciousness, we’re likely to wreak havoc on ourselves and
others.
It’s hard to live our lives, if we’re pushed around all the
time by our needs, fears, impulses, grievances, worries, and resentments. Being immersed in seas of information is
no help -- we just drown in distractions. Traditional societies, in this regard, are better off. They have rites, codes, services,
dogmas that one has to master, which, in effect, force people into some kind of
will training – and the responsibility that implies.
But in our world that celebrates endless options for everything,
like the one thousand variations of Wheaties in the cereal section of the
supermarket, the corporate plan is to answer all our metaphysical questions in
terms of the consumer culture. Slavery to appetite is the consummation of capitalism. It’s the wrong place to go if you want
to explore your potential for self-mastery.
The Greek philosophers called the intelligence of the will encrateia (self-mastery). There are great
modern writers on the subject such as William James and Roberto Assagioli. To mobilize
this power is key to breaking free from our lower selves and from the dark side
of our superiors. It’s the
ur-skill, the sine qua non, without
which the whole spectrum of human skills becomes dormant.
It looks as if we’re on the cusp of unprecedented crisis. Collective transformation of
consciousness is fast becoming a necessity, if we hope to survive the
singularity of human idiocy we’re hurtling toward. Voluntary intelligence is
the pivot to our future consciousness. By means of it new forms of social and
cosmic awareness will become possible.
Well said!
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