TIME IS RUNNING OUT

In a late essay, Dr Albert Schweitzer wrote that 'technical progress and extension of knowledge do indeed represent progress, but not in fundamentals. The essential thing is that we become more finely and deeply human.' The author of this penetrating study of the modern world and psyche would doubtless agree with this sentiment and, given his emphasis on what he calls 'being' and his contention that the outer world is ultimately an expression of the inner - something we all too easily forget and neglect. The book is a passionately argued case for the necessity of taking the next step in evolution beyond the ego so clearly reflected in the structures and motivations of global capitalism, and in particular of the American ethos. The author points out that the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness makes no mention of equality and solidarity, and that the American dream is based on self-interest, opportunism and individualism expressed in commercial ventures and consumerism. For John, this materialistic concept has 'no underlying moral substance whatsoever' and discounts the essential message relayed by sages that we need to transcend the separative ego to dis-cover our real identity as one being. Just today I read this quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj: 'The consciousness in me, the consciousness in you, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.'

John argues that it is a deluded notion 'that satisfying the needs of the ego is the meaning and purpose of life' (p. 104) and yet this is exactly the implication of the globalised neoliberal order so dominant since the 1980s. There is also a huge ecological cost to the planet as well as a psychological cost to ourselves in terms of mental distress and rising rates of suicide, especially among the young. This amounts to a massive loss of soul which, when exported around the world, acts as a 'cultural weapon of mass destruction.' In reflecting on lessons that we can learn from Ladakh and the account given by Helena Norberg Hodge in her landmark Ancient Futures, John quotes the journalist William Pfaff to the effect that 'our progress is your destabilisation, the destruction of your cultures, the creation of millions of culturally alienated, dislocated, displaced persons, ripped from the own past to become integrated into a radically materialistic ethic. (p. 73) I witnessed this first hand last September when going round the indigenous section of the British Columbia Museum where the destruction of indigenous cultures and languages was spelled out in no uncertain terms.

By disconnecting ourselves from the perennial teaching of sages and our spiritual essence, we have created a deep identity crisis characterised by loss of connection, as the atheist Johann Hari also points out, while missing the connection to our central being. John describes this in terms of the (spiritual) vertical continuum of depth and wisdom and the complementary (material) horizontal continuum of width and breadth where all the technological emphasis is on extending the second while disregarding the first. I agree with him when he writes that at this critical juncture 'there is a far more urgent need to move up the vertical continuum of depth and wisdom than along an already overextended horizontal one of human "intelligence".' Other writers like Iain McGilchrist have being conveying the same message of imbalance, but in different terms.

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States provides a telling outer indicator of the inner state of the US electorate and culture, representing as he does the realisation of the 'American dream' outlined above but not reflected for the majority of the population in a country that prioritises military expenditure and global supremacy over the welfare of its own people. The state of US education is such that 130 million people are to some degree functionally illiterate. The system as a whole, as also in the UK, is centrally devoted to 'wealth creating' concerns at the expense of the necessary 'refinement of the spirit' which is the essential object of education in the arts. Without cultured people, culture itself perishes, utility triumphs over beauty, and the civilisation itself goes into decline. Arguably, the recent emphasis on character education is a step in the direction of being, although without using that term explicitly. John tellingly quotes a French philosopher on the decline of Rome, where he speaks of the 'gradual absorption of the educated classes by the masses and the consequent simplification of all functions of political, social, economic and intellectual life, which we call the barbarisation of the ancient world.' (p. 66) What we are now witnessing is a corrosive form of technological barbarisation.

In considering the prospects for a turnaround towards a less egotistical culture and a corresponding steady-state economy, John comments that the preconditions are not in fact in place, except in small community microcosms like Tamera and Findhorn. He draws on the work of William Ophuls in Immoderate Greatness - Why Civilisations Fail, also featured in the book by Andrew Fellows reviewed in the last issue. The key factors are biological exhaustion, entropy, excessive complexity and moral decay. Our economic system converts ecological wealth into economic benefit until inevitable limits are reached and a final stage where 'frivolity, hedonism, cynicism, pessimism, narcissism, consumerism and materialism suffuse the people. Politics is increasingly corrupt; life increasingly unjust.' In an exchange with the author, John debates the prospect for the necessary consciousness revolution to take place. Ophuls feels that there are insufficient numbers, even if 'we will ultimately conform our way of life to ecological and spiritual reality' (p. 156). So they agree – as I do - on short-term pessimism and long-term optimism, but, almost certainly not without a necessary systemic breakdown on the way. However, this does not excuse us as individuals from working towards this necessary spiritual revolution in our own lives and spheres of influence, aligning our inner compasses with love and wisdom. Moreover, it is not simply a question of numbers, as David Hawkins points out in his work: spiritual power is ultimately far more potent than material force and violence. We need to begin to take this power much more seriously and help others to tap into it if we want to have a chance of co-creating a new world.