The Optimum Human / What Direction Progress?
What would I look like, how would I feel, what would I be capable of, if the world I live in and the society I'm part of allowed me the opportunity to reach my full and true potential?
You may not realise it or have given it much thought but there are a million and one different factors at play within our world and modern society that restrict us in our individual and collective pursuit of whatever our true potential may be. Personally, I have no idea what that potential is or would look like if achieved but I can see that our physical, mental and spiritual growth is being stunted in many ways.
We humans are incredibly complex and finely tuned instruments but unfortunately, we don't come with an instruction manual, so it's an impossible task to know for sure what exactly the human body requires and in what amount or to what degree.
I would hazard my own best guess that in order to be all that we can be, at the very least we need clean, naturally fresh water. We need just the right amount of the right foods, grown in a natural and organic way. The environment in which we live must also be just right. The air must be fresh and contain just the right amount of oxygen that the body requires to function physically and mentally at an optimal level.
These are just a few of the basic necessities I would suggest the human body requires to begin its journey towards meeting its true potential. Unfortunately, in our world and at this moment in our history, we have none of these things.
Our bodies don't get the right amount of oxygen from the air we breathe, particularly so for those of us who live in larger metropolitan areas and spend the majority of our time cooped up in offices, factories or for a growing number of us it would appear these days, in our own homes on the couch watching TV.
Given that most of us do live in cities these days, it's no surprise either to find that the water we have available for drinking, whether from the taps in our homes or in pre-packaged bottles is not natural and fresh as it should be but rather has been processed and chemically treated with additives, preservatives and let’s be honest, who knows what the fuck else?
When it comes to the 'food' we eat, as well as the amount and regularity with which we do, the vast, vast majority of us are consuming far too much of what we have been reliably informed is 'food' by those among us who have no more access to the non-existent instruction manual I mentioned a short time ago than we do but do have motivation for convincing us that this is the case.
Not only is the human body complex and finely tuned but it’s also extremely tough and durable. It can withstand a lot of punishment, including the processing of all manner of substances.
But just because it may be able to do so with no immediately visible signs of ill effect, this does not by extension mean that these substances are food, at least not the natural food we humans were designed to consume or digest.
Personally, I would suggest that the increase in physical and mental difficulties in later life have a direct correlation with the 'food' we eat throughout our lives and which we’re reliably informed are safe, by way of an unseen, cumulative effect.
Add to this list of restrictions mutating viruses and diseases of all description, the pharmaceuticals we use to treat them, smoking, drinking, taking drugs, cosmetics, creams, lotions and other harsh petro-chemical based products we force our bodies to endure such as aftershaves, perfumes, detergents, fabric softeners and bleaches etc, which are all becoming more a part of our daily lives than ever before. Our interactions with and consumption of all of these things and more, have an impact on our bodies, as well as the balance required between them and their natural environment.
This is compounded by the fact that the manner in which our societies are currently organised, operated and regulated does not allow for a reversal of the current trend anytime soon. Our societal structure is such that importance is placed foremost on the financial health of our economies, rather than the physical and mental health of the men and women who it is comprised of or the natural health of the world we live on.
Our natural environment is fast becoming an increasingly hostile one and while some would blame nature itself, it's my contention that the current, unhealthy state we find our world in is due to the adverse impact we’ve had on it and those we share it with over the course of our history, particularly so over the last two centuries, by way of our individual and collective actions.
It's my own belief that we have the ability to live in symbiotic harmony with our natural environment if we choose to but instead we've chosen by force of will or by ignorance to become nature’s adversary.
These days, most of the hazards we face that adversely affect our potential are unseen and stem from what would appear to me to be our own desire for societal and technological progress. The technology we all enjoy and celebrate as well as the infra-structure that supports it are having a hidden, detrimental effect on us individually and as a whole.
What troubles me most is that the progression of society is driven and propagandised by those few among us who stand to benefit from restricting our potential in ways that we no longer allow enough time to consider.
This is a state that is likely to become more toxic going forward unless we’re able to radically change our perception of what is important to us in the long term. For too long we’ve suffered and continue to suffer the negative consequences of being led in our thinking and by extension our actions by those among us who value themselves and their own self serving desires as being worth more than the rest of us or ours combined.
By their hand and with our silent, ignorant consent we've raped our world of its natural resources and polluted it to such a degree that it now seemingly has barely the ability to sustain life, as opposed to providing the environment for life to flourish. To survive rather than thrive.
Now, we step into a period in our history where our supposed desire for technological progress is leading us down a very specific path of human optimisation and those who have benefited from leading us here also intend to benefit from us once again by providing us the opportunity of fulfilling our potential, that is, the potential they want to see fulfilled for themselves.
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see into the future these days. In many ways, I would suggest our future is much clearer than our past.
Of course, the future hasn't been written yet. Everything and anything can change in an instant but it's a fact of life that the future is controlled by those who control the present and I can assure you, those who are in control now have a draft copy of the preferred future they would like to see. They have a plan and they will see it through, if we allow them to.
Today we stand on the precipice of a new world. A trans-humanist world. A world where it would appear that human potential can only be fulfilled by way of integration with technology. This is the world that those who control the present would like to see and it's the world we will soon be living in if we continue down the same course of ignorance and acceptance.
This doesn't have to be our future if we don't want it to be though. We still have the opportunity to reverse the trend and regain that symbiotic relationship with our natural world. But we can only do so by regaining control of the present, by regaining control of ourselves, our body, our mind and our spirit.
If we can find the strength to accomplish these things then we stand a chance of progressing to a brighter future in a natural way and in doing so, rediscovering who we are, as well as our true and natural potential as individuals and as a society.
We need to give serious thought to the direction in which our society is progressing and decide whether we want to continue down the current path that’s laid out before us and satisfies only the same few as always or whether we want to make our own path that leads to a new world with new priorities that can satisfy the many and lead us to a point where we might be able to think about fulfilling our true potential.
If we don’t decide what sort of future we want for ourselves and our children, someone else surely will.
This is so true! Especially the last line. Everything is our world is starting to be more and more artificial and unnatural and we just blindly accept it and let it happen without asking any questions about it which makes us really vulnerable to the potential threat.
A good alternative solution is to do your own research and gather data on why, how, and where these things are happening in the first place.
Great article @tonyr! Really well-written.
Thanks a lot @ayushjalan. I appreciate you taking the time to read it through and leave such a lovely comnent. :)
You're definitely right. We need to start reaching our own conclusions in tge areas where we can and stop allowing others to tell us how we should or shouldn't be living our lives.
Hope you have an awesome day my friend. :)
Haha absolutely buddy :) Your content is really interesting to read and it is clear by your way of writing that you really put hard work into making them.
Honest efforts are always appreciated.
Some great writing here. I especially resonate with the wasted potential part in the sense that we could be so much more if things were better.
However, perhaps there's an importance or.. Strength we can gather from realizing that we could have been so much more if things were different as well.
Well said! I wish more people took such kinds of things to heart and stopped letting predators who don't care about them take over their responsibilities and spirit.
People are more powerful than they often give themselves credit for. I think if we woke up in larger numbers, we could give the system a run for it's money.. It's tough and discouraging at times though as it seems so many almost prefer slavery and looking the other way rather than setting a foot down in principle and honor.
I still have hope or I woulda given up a long time ago and joined in the hedonism. And in a strange sense.. I think that an even higher level of happiness can be obtained when you try to do what's right in the world as opposed to just trying to gain as much visceral and carnal pleasure as possible.
Well observed and said
Masses are nothing but means of getting what the few want to achieve and leaving us to pay the real bill
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@tonyr Very true,Still we have the opportunity to reverse the trend and regain that symbiotic relationship with our natural world. We must have to work on social progress and equality, environmental protection, conservation of natural resources and stable economic growth. Everybody has the right to a healthy, clean and safe environment.