Home - The Way We Are: The Way We Are

When I made a commitment to seek the truth behind global warming, I found myself compelled to confront some unpleasant human truths - including some within myself. I didn't really want to believe that some people were blatantly lying when they clearly knew the truth about the climate crisis, especially given the consequences; this is far from a 'victimless' crime.

I suppose we all know that there are some people who willingly and knowingly lie, cheat, and murder in order to attain money and power. What I did not want to accept, and what I believe many us do not want to accept, is that this could happen in our society, and could have happened on a large enough scale that our democracy - and our planet, our means of life - is endangered.

Why these people do these things is not the point. If we are honest with ourselves, many of us have been tempted to do, or have done, bad things in order to improve our situation - or to dodge our insecurities. However, mature individuals know that these things are wrong, feel shame when we do them, and often consciously choose a better, more honourable path. Not everyone shares these scruples, and, of course, these people are attracted to positions of power.

Balance in All Things

It could be said that The New Green Economy story is about our material side, and this story is about our spiritual side. For we have both, and emphasizing one over the other leads to an obsessive, unfulfilling life when done personally, and disaster when done by a society as a whole.

We have grossly overemphasized the material side of our humanity. This is reflected in our obsessive pursuit of more, and that each of us seems to be addicted to something. We have workaholics and alcoholics, shopaholics and sexaholics, people addicted to legal and illegal drugs, people who gamble away their money and family and friends, people who lurch from relationship-to-relationship, people who watch TV for hours every day - people who are just never happy with what they have.

The problem, I have come to believe, is that we humans have a duality that we refuse to recognize: we are both material and spiritual beings, and we must honour both aspects of ourselves.

Duality

Our material side leads us to seek things such as physical comfort and security, and physical pleasure. These are natural desires and there is nothing wrong with them.

Our spiritual side leads us to seek spiritual comfort and security, and spiritual pleasure. Again, these are natural, normal, and a desirable part of human nature.

Unfortunately, some people are psychologically unbalanced and they seek their comfort, security, and pleasure at the expense of others. These people seek to dominate others in various ways, and never have enough. The reasons for the lack of balance are not important: it could be due to upbringing, defective brain wiring, or some other cause. All of us have this capacity to some extent, and it is time for us to acknowledge that we do - and that it is not socially acceptable to express it.

People who seek to dominate others will seek out areas where power is concentrated: political office, union boss, Chief Executive Officer. Not all these people are sociopaths, of course, but we should be wary of two things:

• Positions where power is concentrated
• People anxious to occupy these positions

It is simply not healthy to want power and control over others, except to protect oneself from those who would do harm if not restrained. If we create positions of power, broken people will seek them out for their own purposes. Therefore, these positions must be severely limited in the power that their holders can exercise, and must be as transparent as possible - wide open to public view and accountability.

The Meek vs the Arrogant

There are many ways to generalise people; all diminish individuality, yet are sometimes helpful. At this point in human history, we can divide people into the Meek and the Arrogant. The Arrogant seek to impose their values, their beliefs, and themselves upon others. They may do this through laws, taxes, shaming, and even wars. The Meek accept others without judgement, and while we may seek to persuade others of the rightness of our views and ways, we do not impose them upon others.

To borrow a Biblical phrase, the time has come for the meek to inherit the Earth. The way of arrogance has caused immeasurable suffering throughout the ages and now has all of humanity and many other species hurtling toward oblivion. The meek live within our means; we do not impose our ways or debts upon others, now or future; and we no longer accept those who arrogantly attempt to do so.

To be meek does not mean to be mild.

The Way We Are

• Time For Men to Be Men
• Material Beings in a Spiritual World - Coming Soon
• The Meek and the Arrogant - Coming Soon