Wednesday, May 25

What are You Afraid of?

The Chinese have a curse, “may you live in interesting times.” and these are interesting-meaning changing- times indeed. There is no doubt the world climate is changing along with the geopolitical landscape, the economy and rapidly shifting social morals but pinpointing the cause is harder. In order to regain a sense of control, our habit is to look at anything nearby as the cause of problems and put the blame on it.

Obama wasn’t born in America, the homosexuals are out to destroy marriage, Muslims are breeding home grown terrorist babies. Such fantasies are presented as substitutes for fact when finding a convenient scapegoat is easier than looking deeper for a cause. The media feeds this nebulas fear with predictions of the apocalypse- thanks to the Mayans- arriving on December 21 2012. Which is not going to happen. According to the Mayan calendar it is the end of a “long count” i.e. the end of one cycle and the start of another. More ignorance is heaped like dry tinder on a bonfire.

Adapt or die Darwin pointed out and we are at a critical point of choosing to adapt to the changes happening in the world or succumbing to fear and self destruction. The hysterical flailing by religions and politics don’t encourage the meditative state of mind required to bring about healthy soul searching. The next time your blood pressure begins to rise in response to a news story ask yourself is this a real problem or is it designed to generate a reaction? Getting riled up only hinders your ability to think clearly.

We need to re learn how to look inward and unplug from all the noise to understand what’s going on and what to do about it. Only then can we overcome the fear that paralyses the world.

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