The temperature of our planet is rising, and I’m not talking about global warming. I’m talking about the rising social anger temperature and its potential to create a social, civil, and economic collapse. Collapse is the corrosive erosion of social, civil, and economic systems that support human civilization. It happens over time, and once that collapse begins, reversing it is extremely difficult and complex. It requires a change in the consciousness of the species that initially created those systems. As we’ll see below, human civilization has begun the process of collapse.
Growing hatred of “other” created by disinformation, growing invisibility and disenfranchisement of the poor and middle class in countries around the world, massive and growing wealth inequality, increasing political polarization, political extremism, rigid tribal political fundamentalism, growing distrust of governments, distrust of science, distrust of covid vaccines, racism, mass shootings……the list is virtually endless. And all of the above have been created by the #1 threat to the future survival of humanity: the collective, immature, unevolved ego-consciousness of society and humanity’s unconscious primitive early childhood conditioning.
Yes, you heard me correctly. The most dangerous threat to human civilization’s future and humanity’s survival as a species is the collective, immature, unevolved ego-consciousness of humanity and its primitive early childhood conditioning.
Let’s take a look at primitive ego thinking and why it’s so dangerous and why it needs to be evolved, matured, and “tamed.”
Primitive Ego Thinking
Here is a brief list:
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- the need to be “right.” If we have a personal, subjective opinion that is not supported by science, facts, truth, confirmation (i.e., by reliable sources, not misinformation and conspiracy media), the need to be “right” will create immediate anger and judgmental aggression toward anyone who dares to disagree with us. The greatest danger of the need to be “right” is its ability to shut down discussion and the ability to intentionally search for the truths always embedded in both sides of every issue (no one is smart enough or dumb enough to be right or wrong 100% of the time.) The massive unyielding gridlock in Washington is an excellent example of immature primitive ego thinking and the need to be “right.”
- “what’s in it for “me” greed. Neoliberal global capitalism, i.e., intentional global deregulation of global markets, and the privatization of social resources such as electricity, water, mining of non-renewable planetary resources, massive growth in wealth inequality, and the current dangerous growth in global plutocracies, i.e., countries and societies quietly governed by the 1% wealthy elite instead of governments elected by voters in the commons. (I will take a closer look at the growing dangers of plutocratic influence in the U.S. in my next blog. More than sobering.)
- “illusion of separateness. In early childhood, our immature childhood ego works very hard to become a “self” and then protect that precious sense of “self.” I remember the day my son announced an insight that he had discovered in school that day. He proudly announced to me that he was a unique “self” totally separate from every other “self” in the whole world!
Little did he know in that childhood moment of insight that he was describing humanity’s greatest threat; our human separateness from nature, the universe, and the oneness or interconnected, interdependent essence of all aspects of reality. Today, we describe that primitive ego-sense of separateness from the rest of reality as the creator of global warming and global climate change.
Even more importantly, the illusion of separateness shuts down our ability to embrace empathy and compassion for “other.” When we embrace the connectedness of all of reality, it changes the way we experience the world. It changes us! We become more compassionate. More empathic. And like the wisdom embraced in indigenous cultures, we begin to see the sacredness of “spirit” embedded in all of reality. We begin to embrace systemic thinking and the interconnectedness and interdependence of our “self” with all other aspects of reality.
The only question now is, will we embrace systemic, interdependent thinking in time to save our planet? Or will we continue to toward social, civil, and economic collapse and likely extinction as the most invasive species that has ever existed on our limited planet?
Stated differently, will the cancer of immature, early childhood conditioning be terminal for our planet and our species, or will we learn to tame our collective primitive ego-consciousness and evolve into a more evolved species in time to create a viable and sustainable future for ourselves on this limited planet?
Given that we are currently heading in the wrong direction, we will look deeper into these critical questions in future blogs.
Teaser Photo By (Image: Lance Liotta Laboratory) – Cancer-Causing Genes Can Convert Even the Most Committed Cells. PLoS Biology Vol. 3/8/2005, e276 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030276, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1430234
