The Global Era

Back in the 90s when I was in my 20s and living on my own for the first time, it dawned on me that the world was having a nervous breakdown. This became apparent by what I was seeing in the work place, what I saw on television, and what I was going through in my personal life. This was fascinating to me. Over time, I got used to this reality and eventually became desensitized to it.

Well, I’m no longer desensitized to it. I feel like I’m viewing things with fresh eyes all over again. So what do I do with this new perception? I don’t know.

The one thing that strikes me is that we are an incredibly intelligent yet fucked up species. It’s almost like our intelligence is both our greatest gift and greatest curse. Our imaginations and memories are particularly problematic – if we could only stop thinking about a better world and be happy with what we have, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into the mess we’re in.

Of course, this is nonsense as well. I mean, science is a wondrous thing and nobody wants to go back to being a serf. It’s just that changes in the last 500 years have happened so rapidly and, as Dr. Andrew Weil has pointed out, human evolution hasn’t had a chance to catch up. Our brains just aren’t hard-wired for the kind of impersonal, isolated, selfish lifestyles we’ve created. So we need to start dealing with that.

We are already out of the Postmodern Era and into the Era of Globalism. One world ready or not. If there are martians observing us from above (as I’m sure is very possible), they are observing with total horror and fascination, disgust and admiration. Probably having second thoughts about invading our planet for its natural resources.