If politics is the art of the possible, Simple Reality is the art of what was previously thought to be impossible. – Roy Charles Henry
How are things going in our Global Village, and on our splendidly beautiful planet earth of late? Well let’s see. The number of undernourished human beings increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million. “The human suffering underlying the data includes almost one in four children under 5 years of age—155 million—with stunted growth and greatly heightened risk of cognitive damage and susceptibility to infection.” (1) That’s pretty sad!
How about the ubiquity of violence around the globe? The New York Times’ research-and-analytics department polled a sample of subscribers and asked them: Will we attain peace on Earth? The response was Yes-6%, Maybe-33% and No-61%. (2) Widespread starvation and violence. Are we going to have a dystopian future?
And, of course there’s global warming. We have the deniers and the affirmers. Psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, in his book The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope and Survival, thinks that all of humanity will eventually to come to the realization (the swerve) that an environmental crisis is just around the corner. “The swerve forces us to look upon ourselves as members of a single species in deep trouble.” (3)
We could say that Lifton’s hope for survival exists in the human mind. For exactly how that works you will have to follow the link below.
Insight # 54: Humanity has reached a fork in the road on our journey together; we can change direction or continue on the road that began in a garden with a serpent.
Link:
- “Paradigm Shift” in The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol II (2018), by Roy Charles Henry, in print and on this blog.
Reference:
- The New York Times. “Hunger Haunts the U.N. Festivities.” September 22, 2018, page A24.
- The New York Times Magazine. “Contributors.” September 14, 2018, page 8.
- Lifton, Robert Jay. “Our Changing Climate Mind-Set.” The New York Times Sunday Review. October 8, 2018, page 10.
