All over the world people and countries are spending like there’s no tomorrow on updating their arsenals of selective and mass murder and mayhem—based on the need to defend oneself—or to annihilate one’s foes. Meanwhile, the arms sales folks are rolling in ecstasy.
But Albert Einstein wrote: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our ways of thinking. Thus, we are drifting toward a catastrophe beyond comparison. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking, if mankind is to survive.”
A substantially new manner of thinking—we should underscore Einstein’s prophetic words. They suggest that any approach that relies on old formulas for solving the world predicament probably need to be scrapped. A substantially new manner of thinking? Einstein has remarked on the importance of imagination in solving the great problems. We have to step outside the box of our usual assumptions.
In Edward Thompson’s Letter to America, we read: “Nothing less than a world-wide spiritual revulsion against the Satanic Kingdom would give us any chance of bringing the military riders down.” Now we are talking about a spiritual revolution. Einstein and Thompson agree on the greatness of the challenge. It’s no small thing to outgrow one’s worldview and launch a revolution of consciousness. Something very jarring needs to happen. Perhaps like climate catastrophe or somebody fingering a possible nuclear strike.
In a short play by Luigi Pirandello, The Man with A Flower in His Mouth, a man emerges from a doctor’s office with a fatal diagnosis. Possessed by this knowledge of his impending death, the world lights up for him, the smallest things swell with significance; he lingers over every detail; the doomed man’s awareness changes radically, and he undergoes a brilliant conversion of consciousness, an insight into the eternal.
The question is whether ours is a world with a flower in its mouth. Like the man in Pirandello’s play, will we wake up in time to see life in a new enlightened way? Reader, what do you think?
2 comments:
An article that appeared in Science a couple of years ago suggested that we may have already crossed a tipping point with respect to the warming planet. Assuming we haven't, my assumption is that we will surely cross it in the coming years, especially given trump's agenda. Unfortunately, any resulting further degradation of the planet will likely not be fast enough to have the desired impact on global thinking, especially on those now in power who dismiss the looming danger. Of course, there is also the possibility of a limited nuclear exchange between some of the world's powers; one large enough to cause world catastrophe, but small enough to give those who remain a chance to make the needed changes to possibly reverse the damage. Frankly, from my vantage point, the future looks dim lest some sort of miracle occurs.
I have to admit that the picture of the human future is bleak. The people and countries with the most wealth and power want to cling to their wealth and power, even if it risks escalation to nuclear rhetoric and confrontation. At that point, who can tell what's next?
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