Fritjof Capra, in his classic “The Turning Point” (1982), states that we live a “crisis of perception” in our civilization. Thomas Kuhn, in his work “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1962), describes the historical cyclical phenomenon he called “paradigm shifts”, in the field of sciences and human values.
It is urgent to unleash a revolution, involving the whole planet, of a systemic, multifaceted nature, on all fronts of human action, encompassing from major decisions, in the scope of national and international policies, to the implementation of social inclusion and economic survival measures.
The monster of war seems like a wound that never heals, and terrorism becomes increasingly dangerous, as revealed by the spread of nuclear weapons technology that haunts our future.
The cultural, religious, economic and political problems and conflicts of today are complex, just as the urgent issue of the acute imbalance in the self-regulating functions of the ecosystems. However, scholars of various areas of knowledge agree that we have plenty of techno-scientific means to overcome all the problems that threaten the human species and the biosphere.
However, without the political will of statespersons, without the awareness of the masses, including the so-called “educated” populations of Earth’s most developed and wealthy nations, the survival of humankind will not be possible.
The tribal mentality of nationalism is incompatible with the growing closeness and interaction among diverse cultures, in an overpopulated globe with scarce and severely threatened natural resources. We must see ourselves as Marshall McLuhan’s “global village”, a single community, interconnected and interdependent, but we must eradicate the primitive belligerence of disputes over territory, inherited from our phylogenetic past, from our “excessively” animal neurophysiology.
We all are (or should be) conscious of it. Overwhelmed by information, we use fast-advancing technologies and science, but we stubbornly behave like self-centered primates, dividing ourselves into ethnocentric groups, whether linguistic, geographical or religious and cultural.
If we do not stop judging ourselves as superior to one another and believing it is possible for any human group to survive to the detriment of others, sooner or later, we will all fall into the abyss.
Having all the resources and intelligence to save the planet, it becomes clear that the issue is not merely logical, but psychological – as Stephen Covey highlighted. The problem lies in our psyche and in our culture of using thought processes to justify primitive emotional manifestations. Either we change our feelings, or the cognitive disorder that has been corrupting the deliberations of governments and important corporations, relating to the personal choices of billions of individuals, will continue, dragging us all toward the precipice of self-destruction.
Call it humanism, spiritualism without religion or ecological consciousness, we will have to take this leap of perception and interpretation of reality, toward truly feeling and relating as brothers and sisters in humanity, awakening to the inexorable need of cooperative and solidary coexistence of all people and peoples, on this same speck of cosmic dust we call planet Earth.
Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar
Founding president of the Quantum Leap Institute
(Psychography of the Spirit Eugênia-Aspásia)
Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil
April 18, 2019
See the Portuguese version: Ruptura paradigmática civilizacional urgente – Documento de participação do ISQ no HLPF 2019 da ONU
(Translated by: Marcone Vieira and Belle Trag)
