How to make a better world
This is not an easy question to answer. The world is a complex place. We have gotten to the year 2018 due to periods of great progress and other periods of abject misery. The fortunes of humanity have gone up and down over the centuries. There were times of great prosperity, and times of terrible hardship. We are still here though. We work hard and try to make the world and the smaller pieces of that world better.
The forces at the centre of human nature have brought us to this place. Humanity is determined, strong and stubborn. We don't give up easily. But it also has areas of depravity, lust for violence, a will to dominate and a will to take and plunder. Society teaches its citizens how to behave and those citizens will eventually form the next generation who will in turn create a society of their choosing. The next generation will improve on some aspects of the previous generation and also fail to learn some of the lessons of the past. As days, weeks, years and decades pass, the fortunes of mankind wax and wane.
All humans live in some sort of society. These societies are perpetuated by the older members of the society and infused with new ideas and practises from the teenagers and young adults that have grown up in the society. A very important aspect in how these societies are created and sustained is power. Power is a very nebulous and yet fundamental aspect of the human experience. People either eschew it or lust after it. It has brought about some of the best times of humanity and some of the worst.
It is in the psychology of power that I think we should look if we want to find a way forward. Our ancient ancestors were probably successful because they were more cunning, more caring to their fellows and more ruthless in attacking their enemies than other humans and members of other species. The world we live in today was made by our fathers, our father's fathers, and all the rest, going back into the mists of time. What can we learn from their failures and successes? What can we do, today, to make our own lives and the lives of those around us better?
I think a very important task facing all of us is to look inside ourselves and be honest about the psychological forces inside us and in the societal forces beyond us. All actions, implicit and explicit have an effect on ourselves and those around us. We need to start being aware of our choices, be they unconscious or conscious, and acknowledge what effect they are having on the world. We do have the power to change things, but power is a nebulous beast and it won't be easily corraled.
I think this psychological concept of power has been a great boon and burden for humanity. The desire for things outside of our grasp and control has propelled our species forward since the caveman days and even before. We, as a species, have always wondered what was over the horizon. We have always wanted to live a safer, securer and happier life. People with the will to take charge and to impose their will on the people around them, and the larger world have often defined the times.
People like Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, George Washington, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, President Ronald Reagan, President Barrack Obama and all the other leaders throughout history have left their mark in small ways and in big ways. The world we live in now is a direct and also indirect result of the actions taken by those people and the people that worked with them.
We as a species have the potential to create a new world. A world where justice is fair and impartial, where good people got rewarded and bad people punished and where everyone can be safe and secure in their homes and bodies no matter where they live. That is not the world we currently live in, but for the vast majority of people in the world today, their lives are way better than it has ever been at almost any time in history. Our species is capable of amazing things if we work together. We are also capable of terrible things if we choose tribalism, if we choose selfishness, if we choose war or if we choose destruction.
It's time to stop blaming others while refusing to blame ourselves. It is time to love others as much as we love ourselves. It is time to stand up to the injustices of the world. It is time to accept responsibility for our own part of the story of life on this planet.
Power grows as people dedicate their time and effort to a cause. Many join causes out of a sense of brotherhood with their fellow man, with a sense of building and improving the human experience. Others join to carve out their own little kingdom in the world. They relish in taking control of even a small part of the activities happening all around us.
Maybe it is just a Facebook page, or a Youtube channel, or a traffic cop. We all have that part of us that want to make an impact in the world. We all feel like if we make just the right page, or channel, or ticket enough cars, then we will be making a positive impact.
Sometimes though, these positive intentions sour and turn bad. Power can corrupt, and it often does. Comments get removed from Facebook pages, people get banned, youtube channels start producing propaganda, traffic cops take advantage of their power and give unnecessary or overly harsh tickets. Power can corrupt and when it does, it corrupts the spirit and produces hardship and pain in small and big ways.
People like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are vilified by society and history books. And of course it is justified. But there was a time when they hadn't done anything bad yet. There was a time when they had yet to commit crimes that would be a blight on human dignity. There was a dark part in these men's souls and once enabled by those around them, they were able to act on it.
The Holocaust, and the Gulags, and the Trail of Tears, and the nuking of Hiroshima, and the Transatlantic slave trade, and 9/11 weren't acts of single people. They were carried out by people who were following people of power. Many were seduced by the power of those in charge. They felt powerful themselves because they were part of a greater whole. Others complied out of fear of reprisal. All of these atrocities were carried out by people like you and me. They started in someone's mind and they were not nipped in the bud, but rather allowed to sprout and grow until they had reached their terrible consequences.
What would have happened if those near those in power had spoken them down. They might have gotten in trouble. They might have been fired, sent to jail or even executed. But maybe not. Fear of those in power has just as much to do with this as the choices of those in power. An idea was created and it was supported and propelled along with other people involved.
If we are to create a better world, we need to be more introspective, more open minded and more intellectually engaged with the world around us. Let us promote ideas that can help create a better world. Let us provide rational and well worded critiques of ideas that would take us down the wrong path.
No one is an island. We all live in the world. We all have big and small impacts on those around us. Some of our actions could have consequences far further than we could ever know. Let us try to be kind to those around us. Let us promote an environment where those scared to speak up feel encouraged to say something. Let us promote an environment where everyone can have a say. The more we can talk to one another, the more we can see what is on the mind of people around us, and even on the minds of humanity as a whole. Let us embrace an open minded view of the future.
Let us all have a say in the future of the species. We all have power. We all can participate in the human story. Let us encourage dialogue, love for our fellow human and progress towards a better future. Anything less leads to people shrinking back into tribes of like minded people. These tribes begin to associate less and less with other tribes and communication breaks down. Ideas born in a tribe might only become known once it breaks out into the wider world and by then it might be very difficult to stop.
Each of us can move our species towards a more inclusive, and open minded future. Fear and doubt causes people to shrink away from the blaring lights and sound of differing opinions, thus making their part of society less inclusive and more inward thinking. They don't know how to process them, and the angry voices against them push them away further. They retreat to areas of comfort. Humans are very tribal. The tribe had been the way humans lived for thousands and thousands of years and it never really went away.
As we head into the third decade of the 21st century, we face many challenges in the world. The rise in populism, global financial uncertainty, growing tensions between Russia and USA, the refugee crisis, the declining prosperity of many socioeconomic groups in USA and other places.
Like pretty much every other point in human history, there are many who are doing great and can't or don't want to understand the problems of others. But no one is an island. If left unchecked, these crises will grow and could come to envelop every part of society. We might be at a turning point in history. A rise in populism might be a response to the failures of neoliberal political ideology and not actually a sign that people agree with these policies. The global financial uncertainty may convince some people that things needs to change in fundamental ways. The refugee crisis might make some realise that this crisis is caused by both social, economic and political factors and change how they approach all aspects of their country.
Or things can get worse. They can get a lot worse than they currently are.
But they don't have to. Humans are very intelligent and can be very high minded and altruistic. We can work towards making a world that is inclusive, loving, open minded and fiercly determined to make the lives of everyone better. The world is made up of countries and those countries are made up of people.
Those people make up the societies that make up the countries that make up the world. We are all a part of the human story. The only people who do not have an active role in the ongoing story of humanity are those who are no longer with us. Let us learn from them. Let us discover the aspects of humanity that can cause problems and not be too prideful to admit when some of those aspects might be affecting us. Let us all play our part in the human story. Let us make the next chapter the best one yet.