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“People love to hate each other, don't they? And they can always find somebody new to hate. This is what we have been taught for generations. Until we break out from the lines of such classical thinking, we'll never manage to cultivate a field of improvement where what we finally reap is sown in the light of today, and not what was sown in the darkness of yesteryear.”
— Mickie Kent
Doesn't it seem like all those dystopian futures we read about are finally coming true, with experts warning of soaring food prices and worsening global conditions? Whether it be the weather, or the changing climate, it has really dominated our lives. We are always talking about the weather; from record heavy snow causing havoc in Japan, to Britain being battered by winter storms, it spans the world. We can hardly look up and see the stars in the sky thanks to climate problems; we are dirtying our windows to the universe simply because we find protecting the future too hard.
It shows that the problem of the environment is not just a future problem; it has a great impact on our health today. A new interactive map allows users to enter their postcode and discover their community's risk of developing 14 serious illnesses, including breast cancer, prostate cancer and leukaemia in the United Kingdom, and it is helping to identify the important questions that need answering about patterns of health and environment risk for future avenues of research.
Different climates will inevitably bring with them a different set of problems, but what with record-breaking wet weather damaging food production and paving the way for greater genetic modification of our foods, to the rising high levels of air pollution causing premature deaths, and the continuing global quakes in one country or another, doesn't it feel like this life is a TV drama that has reached the end of its lifecycle?
Nevertheless, if we are witnessing the death of our perceived global dominance - like so many 20th Century cultural icons to have gone a similar way - is that such a bad thing? What has our human dominance given us? The destruction of almost half of the genetic diversity in the animal kingdom thanks to our inhumane hunting habits? The way we treat each other just as inhumanely by murder, by a punitive approach to imprisonment, and by enslavement? A disparity of community as a result of the proliferation of techs and apps in our social lives?
The world is full of animosity, sadness and segregation, and as our divisions grow out of systems of class, the power play of privilege and politics and its petty policies we have become cynical. With governments and religions restricting our natural freedoms, and policing becoming more about generating revenue than saving lives, we are becoming embittered against the institutions meant to serve us.
Yet, some say since this manifestation of modern society, it has always be this way. People have walked and drove and bought and sold and fretted and laughed side by side with the threat of disaster of one kind or another. The world has gone on much as it goes on today, with the tentative tiptoeing alongside a precipice of crisis - global worries and all the other myriad of problems, major and minor, that have somehow lost their incisive edge of horror because we are so familiar with them.
Some would even look further down the line and say that this is just the natural evolution of humans going from dust to dust, because ultimately - even if a billion years down the line - the end WILL be nigh. The metamorphosis of going from the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in some cosmic soup is just the way things are set up to be, and is not complete science fiction. And how we see the future is, in actuality, a reflection of the present.
For instance, the abstract future envisioned by the celebrated TV series The Twilight Zone is an an acute reflection of a rare and intense moment in American history; a space-age cult classic that captured the messy transition between post-World War II America and the chaotic 1960s. Atomic war, space exploration, government control, anxiety, and mortality are all common themes in the show. But if there's one twist that encapsulates the series, it's the idea that humans are the true monsters. And for civilisation to survive - at least for the comparatively short term - the human race has to remain civilised.
Regardless, we continue to witness "Punch and Judy" style politics, with politicians hurling insults at one another; a reminder of an era where clashing politics went hand in hand with clashing policies. Today in Britain, while government policies create financial hardship and distress for the most vulnerable in society, they pursue drives to increase disability figures amongst the elderly. The lack of cohesion and principle behind the policies of our publicly elected is staggering to say the least. The same shit, just a different day.
When you considers the historical parallels that have been drawn between the Western empire and that of the Romans, doing everything to excess is certainly on the table. Easy money in the eighties era of the 20th Century made us not care at all, while strapped for hard cash in the 21st Century has made us care only about ourselves. We mistakenly think because less money devalues our lives, we should also devalue our minds, and other people. A great case in point was April Fools Day this year. Many will have read about the so-called 1st of April hoax about pop boy band One Direction member Zayn Malik being dead. The Twitter hashtag #RIPZaynMalik trended soon after a fake article mocked up to look like the BBC had written it did the internet rounds.
This could naturally be just a backlash at the pervading superficial tween culture discussed in part two of this series, but why was the targeted member Malik and not the others? Malik is the only token boy of colour in the line-up, and from a Muslim background, as well. Now, we could say that we have all become a little too over-sensitive over gallows humour, and to complain about such things is political correctness gone mad, but I think it's absolute laziness to feel we need to disrespect people of different faiths and backgrounds, and laugh at their expense. I am definitely NOT a musical fan of Malik or any of the other boys in that band, but that doesn't mean I have to make him a target of my mockery, either.
We need to continue to stand up against racism, because it still holds relevance in the modern world where inequality and human rights violations still abound. Coaching political correctness in derogatory terms is the racist person's tool, as though we have somehow solved the world's problems, and can afford ourselves the luxury of humouring what only the most narrow-minded would find funny. Of course we need to laugh racism off, but I didn't laugh while watching, "Skin", a powerful drama based on the true story of Sandra Laing, a black woman who - due to a rare genetic irregularity - was born to white Afrikaner parents in 1950s South Africa and ostracised from white society as a result of the apartheid regime. A child torn apart from her parents simply because of the colour of her skin is as saddening to me as a foolish joke run off the back off a boy, who happens to have been singled out because he is the only boy of colour in a boy band.
It's a sad fact of our modern world that among us roam the remnants of a dying mindset, and racism is just the adult equivalent of bullying. Those who fall victim to bullies and racists are harmed most immediately, of course, but in truth, all of us pay a price for toxic mindsets and cruelty. It's precisely because of such narrow-minded attitudes, Great Britain is increasingly becoming Little Britain, and the more defensive we become over our narrow-mindedness, the smaller in stature we will become. Sixteenth century English poet John Donne meditated that the persecution of any person diminishes us, because we are involved in humankind.
We need to stand up to bullies. When we don't let bullies intimidate us, they stop very quickly. After all, a bully needs a victim. When we don't play victim, the bully has to find somebody else, but trying to understand a bully mentality is to our benefit, too. When we feel fear, separation, isolation or an inability to get what we want (at the core level, love and acceptance), then we are indeed a vibrational match to what's really going on inside a bully. Bullying, and of course racism, are often passed down from generation to generation. Ignorance is the great big player, but on an emotional level, this is about disconnection.
Also, when we feel good about ourselves – when we love and accept ourselves, "warts and all" and connected to our authentic self, it's just not possible to be cruel to others. Ask yourself, what does it take to be cruel to others? The answer is that it generally takes two things: To feel separate from them, and to feel like shit about yourself.
Moreover, the way we treat people that are not citizens of our country with less dignity than we confer to our domesticated pets - simply because we believe we cannot afford their presence in our country - is insulting to our humanity. It means we feel shit about our species as a whole. The level of intolerance and ignorance displayed by the majority over the issue of migration is appalling. We can only hope our children will be better treated if they have to migrate to the Far East to find work. Most seem unaware that nations and nationalities are an artificial construct of previous centuries. The history of humankind is dominated by mobile populations - constant emigration and immigration.
Any "foreigners" in a western country are often there as a consequence of an imperial past, and yet now we say we can't afford to welcome immigrants. While we rarely question the billions we spend on defending the nation's security by going to war, and now seemingly have made the migration of people an issue for national security, too.
The simple fact is that armed nations are not the basis for our freedoms. Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and firearms have no place in them. But defending our borders has become a mindless mantra thanks to George W. Bush and America post-9/11, leaving us the legacy of a world to inherit that's an even narrower place than the mind of a deluded racist poisoned by the gangrene of prejudice. It's a terrible statistic, if true, that in the last 5,000 years we have only enjoyed 100 years of peace.
History is constantly on repeat because, more than a case of the wheel that turns, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As a species, it seems that we have yet to change for the better. Which is a shame, because being human can be a beautiful thing, if only we could learn to love ourselves. But will we ever learn? It would seem apt, therefore, to ask the question about the future of humanity.
 What happens next? From this... |
...to this ...to this? |
| From what we have aspired, to what we have achieved, to what will come next. Staring into the deep future is about getting us all to ponder the single question that future generations - our descendants - would want us to ask: what happens next? Videos from top to bottom: Charlie Chaplin's last speech in The Great Dictator [1940], Vincent Price talks humans into The Monster Club [1981] and Quantic Dream's Kara, a prototype game idea for the PS3, provides a disturbing look into the future. |
Just where are we headed? And do we even care? The tween culture that holds prominence - believed to idolise immediacy, speed and to see future implications as something to divert to a later date - at least feels more open to accepting one another's differences than the old guard, if the widespread critical response to the Malik practical joke is anything to go by. But at what intellectual cost do we delegate responsibility to future generations too quickly?
How to cultivate more love in life
In my "Be One with the Love Within" post, I mention how we all need time to find our authentic self, through a mixture of wisdom, ancient and modern, and our own personal experience, through a lifetime of trial and error, as constant inspiration for our emotional, physical and psychological well-being. This takes time. It takes a lifetime. But most certainly it takes more than the very basic of our formative years to discover who we are - because not only is this a lifelong task, the answer to that question will change over time.
The only way to get through that journey of uncertainty and darkness, is to shine your own light, to walk your own way. On this theme, in the book The Pillars of Consciousness, author Osho explores the four major streams of Eastern wisdom - Buddha, Zen, Tao and Tantra. Attempting to bring a deeper understanding to complex philosophical concepts using humour and the art of storytelling, the book promises to pave the way for readers to be, as Buddha is purported to said, a light unto yourself.
Sharing wisdom in this way is one method of passing on what has been lived before, so we can ignite our own personal journey. Storytelling is a very powerful element of humankind; the creation of the comic book superhero is one such example. Superheroes inspire the young. We cannot fly or see through walls like Superman, but we can emulate his goodness and honesty. We cannot climb a building or swing on a web like Spider-Man, but we can still do selfless good deeds.
Captain America can defeat an entire army single-handed. We can’t. But we can share his passion for duty. And though we have neither the means nor inclination to dress like a winged rodent and strike terror in the hearts of criminals, we can, much like Batman, endeavour to improve ourselves, physically and mentally, to be the best we can possibly be. And perhaps even correct the odd injustice along the way.
If we can improve and somehow move forward the way people share their stories and ideas - especially with the new technologies - that's going to be pretty major for human cohesion to shine. But to be able to cultivate this "light", we need time. There is risk in sudden spiritual upheaval, just as in anything. You can't go from chaos to clarity in one small step.
It is tempting after having seen what a mess the old guard have made of our world, to want the new guard to take over as quickly as possible, but in passing the torch of responsibility too quickly, the flame is in danger of going out. The solution is not to brush aside everything that has gone on before, but to take the wisdom of past mistakes, and out of them forge a better philosophy that shies away from dogma and dominance. Unless the transition is gradual ans sure-footed in inner wisdom, then the younger generation is condemned to repeat the mistakes of the old.
In this way, the change we are seeing now will not really be a change, but an extension of what went on before, and the misery will continue. As the poet Philip Larkin once wrote, we shall hand misery on to the next generation, to "deepen like a coastal shelf". In his powerful poem "This Be The Verse" he warns us that although we do not mean to "fuck" each other up, because we are filled with the faults of previous generations, that is often exactly what we do.
This means that we need to go within ourself to heal, and no longer be a match for the toxicity passed down to us through the unnatural divisions placed upon us by the dogma of religion, politics, economics or any other outmoded institution that has infected humanity down the centuries. Without being completely nihilistic, therefore, the point is that although the younger generation are indeed the greatest potential for change (as has always been the case), none of us are born knowing it all, because the wisdom of those who have lived the longest will tell us that we will never know it all! No one really knows. Even experts need advice. It's our life experience that adds weight to our knowledge and our actions.
In the same vein, there can be no true love without living; we must reproduce feelings out of our own experience. Whether that be tragedy, or great joy, it only comes when we go out and live life. From experience comes the understanding that the important thing underlying real cultivation (and everything we do) is love, or the absence of it. Above everything we enjoy that creates rather than destroys: the kindness of strangers, the support of family, or the understanding of a loved one, and under everything that destroys rather than creates: appearances that can be deceiving, bullies that harm others for no reason, or mindless violence, there lies the core connection (or disconnection) with love.
It is the strength of this connection that will decide whether the next generation is ready to take on the responsibilities of the world. It is true that a majority of young minds today have not been subverted by dogmatic religions as in the past, and that we have many more questioning minds and many more young people in tune with themselves. Sadly, it is also true that there is a large a percentage of young minds now damaged by war, either by directly participating in it or being the victims of it by being forced into warfare. Another large majority of the younger generation are being subverted, so it's claimed, by our ever increasing technological advancements.
While war is a complete disconnection, technology can disconnect as well as provide great opportunities for connections in ways not previously possible. But many fear, however, that the speed with which progress is developing over our technologies means that we are skipping the necessary period of acclimatization to the effects of that change.
Burnout naturally will ensue, and many other dangers (psychological, physical and emotional), not apparent on the face of it. Complaining about this ever shortening baton race is one of the most successful songwriters of his generation, Ryan Tedder, who has said that technology has helped create some terrible artists.
There are artists nabbed off YouTube who probably should not have record deals. They did not have time to develop, so anything they sing you don't believe, because they haven't lived it. They've just racked up 15 million views on YouTube and been signed. I won't work with artists under a certain age at all. I don't care how good you are. We could write I Will Always Love You but guess what? If you're 15 or 16, no-one's going to believe it.
There's also the issue of parents, and providing responsible - what is termed as - digital parenting. Children need to learn how to be safe online, and it's not just about protecting from online predators, children need to know how to deal with and avoid with cyber-bullies, the damages of websex and sexting - and even online marketing campaigns aimed at sexualising children at a very young age. This takes a great degree of awareness of self, that requires time to form.
Digital parenting should not overtake real parenting; because as adults we can suffer from overload from all the online and offline advertorials about the edu-taining software that is a "must-buy" for your child. It goes without saying that advancements in technology have benefited our lives in many ways, it depends on how responsibly we use technology. Studies have shown that computer tablets, for example, are helping children with autism develop communication skills because they are "predictable and neat". However, it's not so much the edu-taining gadgets we need to buy, just that little extra time to give guidance and love. As parents, if we just informed ourselves we wouldn't be intimidated by new technology, and education IS the key to using them properly - or at least being made aware of the dangers.
It's up to us whether we create a generation of brains dumbed by the Google effect, where Twitter and other social media networks are like the state surveillance agency of celebrities staffed by gullible volunteers - a Stasi for the Angry Birds generation. There is the danger, too, that individualism has been thrown out of the virtual window; we follow the digital crowd, where it's hard for young, forming minds to cultivate their own inner voice in what can increasingly become an echo chamber of merging voices.
Wisdom is not only a bar against the risk and realities of technology; wisdom is a path to happiness, too. In that sense, children have their own wisdom in abundance - because it comes from the spirit before it's tainted by the imprint of others. We often think with wisdom comes responsibility, seriousness and that a wise mind should have no mind for fun or happiness.
But those who seek true wisdom, seek it in all things, and always try to keep a youthful, inner exuberance. For cultivating ourselves isn't about silencing the child inside; it's about protecting our inner child. We need to be good parents to ourselves as well as to our children - because in turn that will make us better parents. Being happy is not a frivolity, nor just the vanity or vain luxury of youth. Being happy is essential for a rationally working mind, just as much as for an intuitive one.
How to cultivate more love in the world
“Promise nothing. Just do what you most enjoy doing. Sign nothing. Just do what doesn’t require a signature of any kind. Offer nothing. Just share what you have with those who express an interest in it. Expect nothing. Just enjoy what you already have. It’s plenty. Need nothing. Just build up your reserves and your needs will disappear. Create nothing. Just respond well to what comes to you. Seduce no one. Just enjoy people. Adrenalise nothing. Just add value and get excited about that. Hype nothing. Just let quality sell by itself. Fix nothing. Just heal yourself.”
— Thomas J. Leonard
There are many other criticisms, arguing that today's technology has helped create a younger generation that needs its information summarised and mashed into easily acceptable sound-bytes. Such a culture reliant on technology and its magic tricks - our increasing over-reliance on big data, for example, although it has been shown to save lives - can tend to force us to over-simplify things. Over-simplification of life and people can be a dangerous thing, it removes the uniqueness out of life. It can also make us see people as numbers, and products, rather than individual people, with their own quirks and quips.
Not everything in life can be seen, touched or measured - and thus not everything can be "owned", even if only superficially. Claiming dominion over things - when we are all going to physically die anyway - is an exercise in futility. Nature has loaned us our bodies, it's the earth that really owns them.
We are charged with looking after our bodies, and the better we do this, the more our quality of life in the present will rise. Not only does it celebrate life but, more often than not, it is the best way of reflecting on life. And when that term is over, our bodies will be recycled back into the carbon cycle in due time. Death comes as the end for all; the point is not how long you'll live, but how you well you live. Only by living well do we attain wisdom, and living wisely means a life well lived. Subsequently, the only thing we really have to "own" is the present now, and to be present in the now is the only way to cultivate a better future for ourselves - and the world.
One way to look at the recent "pains" we have experienced globally, on an economic and environmental scale, are in terms of a readjustment to our outlook. Society is changing in Britain. Whatever your view, there is no doubt that there is a major change in the manner in which our economy operates and in how its recent recovery has come about. It echoes, at the micro level, the change of the individual.
Modern society is charged with being very narcissistic, but it also has become an avenue for people to pursue different avenues, to be more innovative and creative in how they approach life. It has given us umpteen forms of expression. A few experts in this field note that this also stems from more people wanting to be independent.
Britain now has more people working for themselves than ever before, and it's more than just financial freedom people are after - it's the freedom to go after a job you love to do. This is part of bettering our lives, because we are adding value to who we are - not by what we do per se, but by the joy it brings. In Britain last year, when asked on a scale of 0-10 whether if they were satisfied with their life, the response was an average of 7.5 - and this is predicted to rise.
Meanwhile, we all need to accept that - old and young alike - we are ALL instructed by our biases, and new science suggests that these might not be as easy to get rid of as we used to think. In part two of this mini-series, we touched upon how our belief of the insignificance of the future is one factor why we seem to act so irresponsibility over our eating and sexual habits. According to a professor from Duke University in North Carolina, Dan Ariely, this is one of our most important biases, but we have many more. These biases affect us all, whether we are choosing a cup of coffee, buying a car, running an investment bank or gathering military intelligence.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for information that confirms what we already know. It's why we tend to read a newspaper that agrees with our views. There's the hindsight bias, the halo effect, the spotlight effect, loss aversion and the negativity bias. This is the bias that means that negative events are far more easily remembered than positive ones. It means we feel the pain of financial loss much more than the pleasure of a gain. It means that for every argument you have in a relationship, you need to have five positive memories just to maintain an even keel.
The area of our lives where these cognitive biases cause most grief is with anything to do with money. It was for his work in this area that Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize - not for psychology (no such prize exists) but for economics. His insights led to a whole new branch of economics - behavioural economics. Professor Kahneman realised that we respond very differently to losses than to gains. We feel the pain of a loss much more than we feel the pleasure of a gain. He even worked out by how much. If you lose £10 today, you will feel the pain of the loss. But if you find some money tomorrow, you will have to find more than £20 to make up for the loss of £10. This is loss aversion, and its cumulative effect can be catastrophic.
One difficulty with the traditional economic view is that it tends to assume that we all make rational decisions. The reality seems to be very different. Behavioural economists are trying to form an economic system based on the reality of how we actually make decisions. Ariely argues that the implications of ignoring Kahneman's research are catastrophic. He believes that if the regulators had listened to behavioural economists early on, we would have designed a very different financial system, and we wouldn't have had the incredible increase in the relative markets or the financial catastrophe - which has made us so much narrower in our vision, and in the cultivation of our human relationships.
Like our pursuit of wealth, some say we should pursue our passions in life (and our relationships) with less hubris, impatience and intolerance to risk to cultivate healthier connections in our lives. And not just in our personal lives. In public life, especially in politics we have seen the unfortunate results of extreme pride or self-confidence stemming from a passion. We have seen how politicians and rulers have exhibited a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of their own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially after holding a long position of power. This hubristic trait, this excess of ambition, pride - improperly cultivated - will ultimately always cause the transgressor's ruin.
Naturally if we allow power or money to make us happy, then letting go of power, or being unable to afford the latest gadgets or follow the latest trend is going to make us less happy and less productive as human beings. There is an insightful saying that if we cannot get in front of our superficial desires, then we shall always be the slave of those that promise to supply us with them. We have become addicted to a certain way of doing things (however negative) because we feel it rewards us with what we think we want. So what are we to do? Can we gain an understanding of our biases, and begin to clear the way to really cultivate ourselves and better our lives?
Dr Laurie Santos, a psychologist at Yale University, has been investigating how deep seated these biases really are. Until we know the evolutionary origins of these two systems of thinking, we won't know if we can change them. As part of her research, Dr Santos taught a troop of monkeys to use money. It's called monkeynomics, and she wanted to find out whether monkeys would make the same stupid mistakes as humans. She taught the monkeys to use tokens to buy treats, and found that monkeys also show loss aversion - making the same mistakes as humans.
Santos' conclusion is that these biases are so deep rooted in our evolutionary past, they may be impossible to change. She explained that what we learn from the monkeys is that if this bias is really that old, if we really have had this strategy for the last 35 million years, she believes her studies show that simply deciding to overcome it is just not going to work. We need other ways to make ourselves avoid some of these pitfalls.
Other theories say that we can change ourselves, because even by just being aware of these biases can be enough to help limit their influence on our decision making. We can change ourselves, because life is constantly changing, and we are always in an influx of change - we just have to make ourselves aware of it. Cultivating ourselves means picking up and taking out our sabotaging biases towards change, and shining a light on our thoughts and actions as we move towards authentic betterment. You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate.
Our thoughts are sometimes those details staring us in the face that we miss. But the act of speaking does something to your brain that actually allows your eyes to see more clearly. If you want to see the trees, you have to not just think wood, but SAY it. In my "Love to Live" post, I mention a daily mirror technique, where looking at yourself and actually voicing positive thoughts in the mirror can have an influence on your behaviour.
In the same way, using the mirror technique, you can pinpoint your bias, say it out loud, and say that you will NOT let it influence you today. Or if you are biased towards doing what you are told not to do, then use reverse psychology on yourself. Do what works for you, the point is not the method, but the aim of awakening your consciousness to your subconscious.
Another argument attached to raising of awareness is that love can provide the evolutionary leap we need to overcome any inherent biases Santos says we may not be able to change (easily at any rate). Similar to scientific studies that have shown it was the human trait of sharing and community spirit that allowed our brains to evolve so differently from our primate cousins, some believe that the effect of "love" may help us on the route to the next stage in our evolution. Love makes us more than the sum of our biases.
Love's evolutionary leap
This description of love is a great ode to life. It may just be the irresistible appeal of the romantic ideal, but for many humans, it's the only truth that matters. Even if it were true that love is an "emotional lie", or a trick conjured up by the hormones fired in our brain to help us swallow the bitter pill of life more easily, it's one that could help us leapfrog our limitations to progress up the evolutionary ladder. Because the science says we are still evolving; it's just that we have a hand in that evolution to a greater degree than we've ever had before.
When the end comes, we will realise the rest was just peripheral, destined for the earth. Love is the only thing we can take with us, and all our attainments, all our efforts should be in the pursuit of that of wisdom. For that is what our journey is; it is up to us to get wise and attain personal wisdoms that bring that value to life.
Thus when our fears want to take us down, we remember to look up - into the sky of our potential and see how beautiful life is, and to be grateful for who we are, and for what we have. In doing so, we nurture the child inside, and as healthy parents will nurture our own children with that wisdom.
You love your own inner being, your husband, wife, child, boy or girlfriend, or any person you love, because the love you share is what keeps you from being unloved. It's this drive that keeps us fighting for freedom, to never quit life until our last breath, to always try and cultivate something better for ourselves and our loved ones. If you hold an unloved child within you, love it; never neglect what can make you strong and proud to be exactly who you were meant to be.
If your past made you afraid of life, or helped to further ingrain or trigger inherent biases, then your struggles to overcome these challenges can give you the strength for the present, and the future to come. As human beings, it's only natural we will have our fears, but we can make those fears our friends when we love who we are; we can make cultivation a daily thing to power the love within. It's with this wisdom that you gain the confidence to know whatever you're faced with you can endure. This life experience is what will make you strong, or wise to the potential of betterment every challenge can bring to your life, to allow you to discover your authentic self.
In turn this will help us all cultivate a better world. And even if our biases are so evolutionary ingrained that we may not be able to change our outer selves to connect with who we really are inside, at least by being aware of our cognitive limitations, we may be able to design the environment around us in a way that allows for our likely mistakes in public life. Ariely sums this theory by explaining that we are limited, we are not perfect, and we are irrational in all kinds of ways. But we can build a world compatible with this, which gets us to make better decisions rather than worse decisions, and to get on better with one another.
Irrelevant of which theory or science you agree with, what is accepted by all is that change is necessary - the situation we find ourselves in illustrates that we need new structures for a better society. To do this, some will want to burn their bridges to the past to build a better a future, while some will need to build a bridge to the past to better understand their future.
The secret is that none may do either without being present in the moment they are now - even if that "now" feels like on the brink of catastrophe, because a life in suspension also means a great awakening is possible. It is during that period the greatest cultivation is achieved, if only we open ourselves to its possibilities.
Always remember, the coming dark is our chance to shine.
End of Part Three | Read more in this series: -1 -2
Yours in love,
