How did we make it this far…
…given all the challenges of our modern lives?
After all the ranting, blaming, and widespread scapegoating, we stand here poised to do something…anything, but what?
Experience has taught us that more venting is definitely not working. And disconnecting leaves us bearing the brunt of a dysfunctional society, with no hope of facilitating change.
Where do we go from here?
Like any good explorer, the way forward is tied the how we arrived here in the first place. Regardless of the path we have taken, all of us are survivors. We survive, and even thrive, because we have utilized the resources necessary to support our well-being. And the only precondition for the resources we relied on is countless people, supported by our natural environment, who successfully produced the needed goods and services we did not produce for ourselves. Let this sink into your consciousness while I dispense with a modern myth.
Money did not make this happen.
We all have spent money for goods and services that were inadequate or even detrimental to our well-being. While money is a necessary precondition for accessing resources, only high quality, effective human innovation and effort, supported by our natural environment, provides the resources that actually support our well-being.
Once we acknowledge our daily well-being is a function of the effective efforts of countless people, we realize both how we survived thus far and how best to proceed.
Now consider how we make choices today. How often do we consider the countless people who contribute daily to our well-being? In fact, social norms encourage us to think only of ourselves and the people we love, and to fear other people. The values that define American society support this outlook by teaching us we have a fundamental right to pursue our own happiness.
Yet despite being empowered to provide only for ourselves and our families, we find we are angry as hell because it is becoming increasingly hard to do. Why?
Because the wealthiest people, empowered by the right to pursue their own happiness, are taking an increasingly higher percentage of global resources for themselves. Ironically, since we believe pursuing our own happiness is a virtue, we would rather blame other resource deprived people for our struggles. The culmination of our collective angst is America has put the world on notice. We will no longer allow the less wealthy countries of the world to take advantage of us anymore. This Orwellian rationalization is the path to dystopia.
Each of us has the power to expand the sphere of our consideration when we make choices. If it is an undeniable truth that we survive based on the effective efforts of countless people, then it is in our best interest to consider the general well-being of all people when we make choices that effect their lives.
Reconnecting to how we survived thus far is the guidepost for the path to sustainable well-being.