Last night I heard the Dutch song again whose lyrics say “Vraag niet naar de weg, want iedereen is de weg kwijt”. It’s a 1985 song by Fank Boeijen called Kronenburg Park. These lyrics would translate something like “Don’t ask for directions because everybody has lost track”. (lyrics, video, Wiki)
This beautifully crafted song line carries a lot of truth. Many of us will not even realise that we have lost track until a life altering moment hits us in the face. It’s not easy changing a Belief system though. The Love for Money (IMDb-Jerry Maguire) doesn’t automatically change into the Pursuit of Happiness (IMDb). At first we experience the Unbearable Lightness of Being (IMDb). If we survive this then we move forward towards Eat Pray Love (IMDb).
Of all the 7 Belief systems, only Love is in need of Love today (lyrics, 2001 video, Wikipedia). Somebody asked me yesterday “Where did Love go?” Actually, it’s a difficult question.
At an individual level, we still experience love. On a larger scale, Love has been eroded by the erosion of our family ties. Work and income are no longer close to our (family) roots. Families drift apart – all over the world. Everyone is now on his/her own. In the absence of family, work and income now prevail over anything else. Nowadays, we prefer to give our family members financial support rather than emotional support.
The dismantling of community structures will further continue in decades to come. Ivo Daalder in the FT of 26 May 2015: “For the first time in human history, more people now live in cities than in rural areas. By 2050, 6.5 billion people, two-thirds of all humanity, will live and work in cities. In 1950 fewer than one billion did so.” Also see my May 28 blog on global city-states. There may be little choice given the expected further increase in the mismatch between jobs and people (e.g., robotics).
It’s hard to see how and why the impact of this further dismantling of community structures would not have a disastrous impact on human behaviour and human well being. Egocentrism and survival of the fittest are likely to become of paramount importance.
Is there a solution? Only when we are willing to accept a massive loss of prosperity.
In essence, such a solution would require us to be living in small to medium sized, self sustainable, rural, farming like societies without debt and perhaps even money. They would consume what they produce and vice versa. Let me call this the ant colony concept.
Reality is that we are heading for a society based on an enormous concentration of individuals in a “few” extremely large city-states. Increased prosperity is based on an accelerated depletion of natural resources and an enormous amount of waste in the immediate vicinity. It’s quite likely that they will need to swarm out, find and conquer other planets to keep up with that lifestyle. Let me call this the grasshopper concept.
The choice is ours: either we live like ant colonies on Earth or like the grasshoppers of our Universe.
Love’s in need of Love today – Stevie Wonder (2001)
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