I fear for our survival...

[CoffeeCat]

I always assumed that human beings were evolving and moving toward enlightenment. For decades, the next generation had a better life than the previous. I guess I always believed that we would always progress forward as a species--each generation being better than the next.

We've watched women's rights and civil rights blossom through the years. We've developed amazing technologies and many scientific and medical discoveries.

However, for the first time ever--I feel as if human beings are not moving forward. I
actually wonder if human beings will make it. Greedy people and corporations that care
only about profit are making decisions that affect all of us--and we're moving backward.

Remember in "War of the Worlds" how technologically advanced and powerful the aliens
seemed at first? But really, they were quite ignorant and foolish. The common cold did them
in. I feel as if human beings are like those aliens--so arrogant and so impressed with themselves--that we miss the big picture and how important it is that we take
care of each other and our planet.

Every day, I read articles about food being full of toxins, pharmaceuticals that kill
us, banks operating in ways that destroy our economy and now an oil company was allowed
to do business without any plan for fixing their own catastrophes. I watch as education
is cut and war funding is increased. I see rampant, vacuous materialism being encouraged
by credit-card companies who make billions off of our selfishness---while space exploration
is being cut. We are so pulled inward. So myopic. So traumatized. We're in a fetal
position, unable to reach out into the stars and realize that something bigger lies
beyond the end of our own noses.

For the first time ever, I feel as if the bad, the greedy, the pathological and the
unethical are winning.

I no longer assume that we will continue to evolve and progress toward enlightenment, and
I find that very sad.

[jgraz]

1. Meanwhile, the rest of the planet fears we actually *will* survive.

Eventually, the Earth's immune system will shake us off like a bad cold. The question is, how much of the ecosystem will we take with us?

[inna]

8. Old George would've been proud of you...

:thumbsup:

[FedUpWithIt All]

2. You are not alone.

:hug:

[Art_from_Ark]

3. I have been fearful of the future

since the late 1960s, after watching Water Cronkite's "The 21st Century" and hearing the song "In the Year 2525". With regards to the latter, I think Zager & Evans were optimistic in thinking that we would even make it to the year 2525, much less 9595.

[tblue]

4. I hear ya.

It's overwhelming when you think about it. I walked into the drug store the other day and looked at all the over-the-counter stuff we're told on the TV that we need to fix this or cure that. And I just thought, "We're told we NEED this." And just thinking about all the stuff you talk about -- the economy, the wars, the oil mess --will surely give us symptoms of something, so we treat the symptoms with drugs, which cause other problems that bring on other symptoms, and so on..... So, all I can say is you're not alone. It's hitting me especially hard now since I believed we'd be so much better off after the last election. But the problems are systemic and our leaders don't have the will or whatever it takes to begin to address them. We need an FDR and we don't have one.

[HughMoran]

growth comes in fits and spurts

there are long periods of flatline or even declines in society that fill the space in between progress. I have to admit that my optimism is at a low point as I witness some of the sheer idiocy of the right (and inability of good people to not see where it's taking us.)

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. What is transpiring is an unknown event.

We are poisoning our largest natural system -- that regulates all weather and all life -- with mind-numbing speed. There is good reason to be fearful of what lays ahead.

[tridim]

6. Maybe what you're feeling is a part of the evolutionary process?

Maybe it's a test?

Regardless, we're all it this thing together and it's beneficial to stay strong.

[aikoaiko]

7. It's true. The history of evolution is one of disasters (at least for some).

[Kablooie]

9. Cycles. Everything works in cycles. We were on an up, now a down.

It will hit bottom, and it may be painful, but we will surely begin to move our way up again.

But not forever, the down cycle will begin again, but it might not be in our lifetime.s

[staceysdn]

10. i thought that i was the only one.

we, as a society, need to put a stop to this.......we are all being left in the dark by the government and we deserve more.
we, the people that inhabit the lands, are being swallowed by oil...and greed.
we, as a whole, need to turn to alternative energy and stop the ruining of our planet.
A long time ago, i had a history course in college that debated the Industrial Revolution. I wish that i could turn back time and rewrite that paper. it would not read the same.
we are destroying the planet..........the question is, wow do we stop this avalanche of catastrophe???

[Delphinus]

15. Welcome to DU, staceysdn.

You have asked a good question - how do we stop this avalanche of catastrophe?

[flvegan]

11. Is enlightenment the term you meant to use?

Most people are sadly too selfish or too stupid to understand the term, hence my question.

[stillwaiting]

16. And too fearful. Way too many of us are scared, and it is impossible to focus on higher

levels of understanding and empathy when operating solely from a place of fear.

Teabaggers and working class conservatives are scared out of their minds. Purposely so by their rulers.

[CoffeeCat]

19. I meant to use it...

...but I must admit that I'm not sure if I have the right
definition of enlightenment. Maybe there's an official
definition.

By enlightenment--I meant thinking at living at a higher level
of consciousness. At peace, and using logic and compassion. So
much of what we think and how we feel is dictated by what society
tells us we should think and feel (organized religion, mass marketing,
peer pressure, a corporation media).

If we have the strength to be in "self" and to be guided by that
part of us that is nonjudgmental, at peace and centered--we're
moving toward an enlightenment. That's what I meant. Don't
know if that's right or wrong--it's just what I feel we should
be striving for.

There's too much fear, anxiety, denial and inauthentic baloney
that prevents us from reaching this state. IMHO of course...

[G_j]

12. To be hopeful in bad times

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

— Howard Zinn

Mis estimados:

Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.

I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now. It is true, one has to have strong cojones and ovarios to withstand much of what passes for "good" in our culture today. Abject disregard of what the soul finds most precious and irreplaceable and the corruption of principled ideals have become, in some large societal arenas, "the new normal," the grotesquerie of the week. It is hard to say which one of the current egregious matters has rocked people's worlds and beliefs more. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

…You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet ... I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is — we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement. I cannot tell you often enough that we are definitely the leaders we have been waiting for, and that we have been raised since childhood for this time precisely.


…This comes with much love and prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth,

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

http://www.kporterfield.com/healing/estes.html

[Delphinus]

14. Two wonderful quotes.

Thanks for reminding us of them.

[cutlassmama]

13. K&R

Let mercy come

[tavalon]

17. We aren't good for this planet

Unless we radically change our ways, we need to go so that some other species can take the helm.

[lonestarnot]

18. Dominionists intend to dominate all the dead stuff!

[mike_c]

20. you lost me with "evolving toward enlightenment..."

The only thing we're evolving "toward" is producing more and better offspring. That's what evolution is, and how it works. That's all it does. Anything else is just misconception.

[CoffeeCat]

21. Well, I'm not seeking to convince you...

...but it's just my opinion that human thought does have an "evolution."

We've evolved as human beings, in many respects. We've made leaps in civil
rights and in women's rights. We're far less prejudice than we've ever been.

I think human beings are evolving emotionally and into a better consciousness.

That's what I meant by evolving toward enlightenment.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

22. I still believe there is hope.

If the Democratic Party continues to partner with the GOP in its war on the non-rich, we might just have enough outraged people to seize control of the party and go to war with the GOP. If that happens, we may just end up with a sane, civilized country.

Barring that, we may need to party like its 1776.