Did it ever occur to you that human thought may be the cause of most of the challenges we face in the world today? Some problems are the result of natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts and cyclones. Most, however, are caused by people, and the way they behave towards one another and the environment. The problems of crime, wars, substance abuse, deforestation, pollution, depletion of the ozone layer and so on, all arise from the way people think, feel and act. At the core of this is an identity which is fragmented, rather than being a natural part of the whole. If you stop to think about it, it is undeniable that we all live in one socially, economically and ecologically interdependent world, but so much of the time we act as if only our own interests matter. Curiously, this is just as much the case for ‘good’ people as it is for the ‘bad’ ones. We find ourselves putting our country (and our trading advantage), our community (and our local quality of life) and our personal career (along with our status and salary) ahead of others. This is an extractive way of relating to the world, where people want to know what they can get out of a situation rather than what they can contribute. Politicians stand for particular causes, but we find few statesmen who stand for the world.
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