Are we living the results of our past mistakes, or does life follow some comprehensive law, a general tendency? Or is it an inevitable process that we must experience, and only afterward obtain the benefits?
Confused By Today’s Biggest Crisis? Read This
In truth, the term “crisis” is not a negative one. Although this is how we define the current situations—an economic crisis, a crisis in education, or a crisis in science—they are all aspects of a single, global and integral crisis, a crisis in every realm of human engagement. We use the term “crisis” to denote a problem, when in fact the meaning of the word is actually “birth into a new state,” in this case, a state of being.
We know from experience that we tend to feel complacent and remain in a position with which we are familiar. Habit sets the tone, and habits—as we all know— die hard, especially bad ones. Once a system is in place and we need not spend much energy to maintain it, we become quite lazy, leaning toward what is safe and familiar.
Yet, if we see a happy future destined for us, we march toward it with confidence and the transition becomes easy. If, however, the transition is difficult and forbidding, and we do not see the future, our situation will truly seem tragic.
Therefore, first we must examine whether or not our situation is indeed tragic. Think of a fetus growing in its mother’s womb. It is lying in its protected shelter when a very unpleasant process begins to unfold—birth! Both mother and fetus experience great stress and accumulating pressure to the point that they cannot bear each other and the fetus must come out. Translated into our emotions, it is as though the fetus hates being inside its mother, while she appears to neither want to, nor be able to keep it inside any longer.
Then, by mutual rejection, birth occurs, and a baby is born into a bright, and beautiful world, greeted as one who has been rewarded with a new life on a new level. Where there were once a few ounces of flesh growing within another organism, a human has now emerged. It is still small, incapable of perceiving its surroundings, but it is the start of a new life.
This is very similar to the process that we, as a society, are going through. This is why our situation is like labor pangs before we emerge into a brand new world.
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Previously, crises were not so radical that they were defined as “birth.” We defined them as “steps in our evolution.” There were many such steps in the history of humankind, but the current crisis is fundamentally different from those of the past.
We’ve always wanted to discover the new, forthcoming state (once we realized that some form of revolution in our lives was mandatory).
Yet, until today, there has never been a revolution that so radically changed every aspect of our lives and the whole of humanity, affecting every continent, country, family, and person.
While we are still in the “prenatal” stage of the process, we cannot confidently say that this is what is happening. However, we can already see that we’re heading toward birth. The situation, which we will define as our “prenatal crisis,” increasingly presses on us, both collectively and individually. This is why we are increasingly unable to maintain family ties, increasingly reluctant to marry, and if we do, we are increasingly quick to divorce. We don’t know how to raise our children, we cannot seem to cope in our jobs or in our social ties, and generally, we’re being dragged into disorientation and disorder.
The reason we are defining the new state as a “full-blown revolution” or a “birth” of all humanity—and not the birth of a certain country or society—is that this state is manifesting all over the world. It is showing us how much we are all connected and affect one another. This is a global state, occurring simultaneously in every country and in each person. Indeed, this is an unprecedented situation.
But most important, we cannot see where this situation is leading us.
Here’s Why Today’s Biggest Crisis Is Misunderstood
Throughout history, we’ve always advanced toward more developed societies, replacing one for another. Indeed, these changes happened through revolutions and wars over religion, resources, and territories. Even then, we’ve always felt we were headed toward a new and better state of being.
But while in the past one part of society agreed and welcomed the new situation and another part did not, or one country sensed the change and another did not, today no one has any clue as to the nature of the state that is forming. This has never happened to humanity until now.
Throughout the world, a global eco-shift is taking shape. Previous climate changes induced great changes in humanity, changes that prompted revolutions.
Other changes resulted from technological advances or from resistance to a certain government. But now, the changes are all happening simultaneously, through ecology and through man’s nature. We can no longer cope even with such necessities as the continuation of the next generation, or such necessary systems as food provision, heating, family, and education. We have become dysfunctional. And most important, we cannot see the future toward which we are heading.
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Can we see into the future? Is it possible to approach it with reason and understanding, as humans? A wise person looks ahead, examines, and tries to calculate. By doing so, one makes one’s way easier and quicker, instead of groping in the dark as though one is blind. Especially now that the proportions are global, the thought of erring is alarming.
Information about the new, connected world will open our eyes to see reality from a new perspective. Primarily, it will present us with humanity’s future state and reveal how best to arrive at it.
To make the transition pleasant and smooth, we must know the nature of the changes we will have to undergo, why specifically those changes must occur, the reasons for our current failures in our handling of reality, and the means by which to move into the new state.
Can we truly relate to our current state as a prenatal crisis, with Nature being our “midwife,” with pressure from both our human nature and that of Nature itself pressing us and compelling us to change and arrive at the new state? Is this process natural for human development? If we knew the answers to these questions, could we predict what state would evolve ahead of time?
Therefore humanity urgently needs an integral education program giving people all over the world the foundations and tools to answer these questions and build the future state in a conscious, pro-active manner.
Written by Michael Laitman
Michael Laitman is a global thinker dedicated to generating a transformational shift in society through a new global education, which he views as the key to solving the most pressing issues of our time. He is the Founder of the ARI Institute, Professor of Ontology & Theory of Knowledge, PhD in Philosophy, MS in Medical Cybernetics. You can find him on Google+, YouTube and Twitter
