|
Two Worlds by Richard South
|
||
|
We stand at a pivotal point in the history of humanity. There are two worlds and I do not know how much longer they can continue to co-exist. Which choice will we make? Our
economy is on the verge of collapse, a fact none of us wishes to face.
Our endless need for oil and our ruthless pursuit of hegemony has
widened the rift between the rich and the poor throughout the world. We
are despoiling our environment, trading self-gratification and
over-consumption for the future of out planet. We are decimating the
globe, sacrificing the many for the few and squandering our chance to
build the world we truly desire. In
every society, there are two sides: on the one side there is fear and
hate, on the other, love and compassion. Selfishness is opposed to
sharing, retaliation pitted against unity. Around the world, there are
many that still cherish love and peace, compassion and harmony. Many,
however, wallow in the deceptions that breed excess consumption, war,
and hate. Despite
all of our wealth and progress, much of our society is alienated by the
institutions we have built: a government that no longer serves us or
supports our most cherished values and corporations that place the
unbridled pursuit of profits at the expense of humane values. Much of
our society is lost in the maze of self-gratification and selfishness,
the desire to hide from our feelings of futility, meaningless and
despair. In our desperate attempt to hide from our sins and failings, we
endlessly seek distraction in our games, our entertainment, sex, and
amusements. Our
country has spread weapons throughout the world. Much of the evil in the
world has been spawned and propagated by us. Have we not invented all of
the “weapons of mass destruction”? We
hide from the stark reality of the emptiness of our lives with our TV,
our games, our drugs, and other escapes, trading the possibility of
furthering our real values for the temporary, fleeting unreality of
self-gratification. We profess to be a people who value justice,
freedom, equality and beauty, but look around you and tell me if our
culture truly reflects this. How many of us give in to fear and hate and
retaliation, while professing our values of love and peace and
compassion? How many of us say we believe in God while advocating war
and pledging all to the continuation of our “lifestyle” at the
expense of others? We say we are a nation “under God” and that we
are committed to justice and equality, but the image we hold up to the
world is one of consumption, oppression, and selfishness. I
know that many of us yearn for a return to “normalcy”, to maintain
the status quo. But this cannot happen. We are at a point in history at
which change is inevitable; we will either futilely continue with the
past and so guarantee our destruction, or we will change and put our
might and intelligence towards building a better world. To
ask God to help us wage war is the height of hypocrisy. To pray for our
own security at the expense of others propagates the hate and separation
in the world. We
have everything we need: a beautiful planet, the miracle of our own
intelligence, the desire for a better life for all. We can feed and
house the world’s population and guarantee basic rights for everyone.
God has given us everything; it is up to us how we utilize it. We will
shape our own destiny. How many of our values will we sacrifice to
maintain our standard of living while much of the world is mired in
poverty and hopelessness? Will we choose the path to war and separation
and the futile attempt to secure the few at the cost of the many? Or
will we choose the path of compassion and peace and sharing? In
this life, there is no escape from suffering and death. But we can
choose how we meet this reality. We can try to lose ourselves in
self-stimulation, greed and self-righteousness or we can look clearly at
our lives and make another choice. The unspoken, unseen question that
faces us all now is whether we will choose the side of fear and hate and
separation, or the option of change for the better. There
are two worlds: one is based on love and unity and true justice and one
is based on selfishness, opportunism, and fear. The choice as to which
continues to exist is ours. What will you choose for the children? Will
you give them a world of peace and hope, or more of the past? Our
destiny, and that of our children, is in our hands now. There
is a force in this world that dwarfs our hate, our fear, our egos. That
force is to be found in each of us. The answer lies not in books, or
opinions, or the past. The answer lies in our hearts and that is the
place to search for it.
|
||