Humanity’s Mass Enlightenment Event
I have come to the conclusion that humanity needs a Mass Enlightenment Event, “and I am unanimous in this.” But what does that really mean? What is an MEE?
It’s pretty much what it sounds like. It’s an event that lifts the majority of the population out of the dark ages of thinking and into a new era of prosperity and cooperation. I’m not going to explain why we need this, if it’s not obvious, then… Instead, I’m going to explore what that might look like.
Short of an “alien” species arriving from another galaxy and “beaming” humans into the next phase of evolution. Or, some catastrophe significant enough to create so much die off that the remaining humans would have to cooperate, and knowing humans, this would probably backfire. It seems very likely that humans will need to arrive at enlightenment by way of the long slow road — I know, right.
One version of that long slow road is through universal prosperity. Let’s take the model of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This model is limited, and arguably outdated, and like any model leaves out a lot of details and edge cases, but it’s still useful as a model. Do you remember the 2-dimensional “Food Pyramid” from the 90’s? Or the predatory pyramid of the “Animal Kingdom” which reinforces the western view of a dog-eat-dog world? This is a little like those, but it’s about human needs for living in prosperity and having well-being.
On the wide part of the pyramid, the bottom rows, you have things like getting your material needs met, procreation, emotional reciprocity, and stuff like that. In the middle you start getting into having your intellectual needs satisfied through education and exploration, and having an influence on the society you live in. And near the top you get into the elusively defined territory of self-fulfillment and enlightenment.
Supposedly we’ve known about this stuff for a long time. This model has been around, and expanded upon, and at least peripherally popular since 1943. So, what’s taking us so long? It’s not hard to identify that “the powers that be’’ [dun-dun-dun] don’t want us to reach even the middle rows. They certainly don’t want the common person to have any say in how society is run, or to stop struggling long enough to be able to veer away from feeding the political-corporate power and money machine. Simply put, the people in power like being in power. In fact, they don’t see any other way. If the majority of people had agency and independence they would very likely not tolerate the extortion that is happening that is necessary to keep those people in power. This is true around the world. That makes it sound like a grand conspiracy, but it’s really just “good business.”
Not often does society have an opportunity to see itself in the moment, from the outside. It usually takes decades for people to see with any objectivity and perspective what society is like. That is why we are warned that history repeats itself. Germans can look at Hitler and Americans can look at Columbus and realize the brutes they were, way after the fact. But right now we are in a peculiar moment. With the Covid-19 / Coronavirus pandemic raging across the globe, and notably in the United States. And with the narcissistic absolute lack of response of the White House politicians in the United States. Not to mention the current attempt at fascist takeover by the now late president and his cronies. And with the gut wrenching delusional arguments taking place on social media, about those above topics. It is easy enough to count heads of how many people stand on which side of the aisle of enlightenment and social good. And those numbers are terrifying.
It is quite clear that nearly half of Americans are completely delusional and out for only one person, and most of the rest are completely satisfied with the status quo. Which, in my opinion, is a most unacceptable status quo. I could create an inventory of things to highlight this, but it would be too much. Instead I’ll just say two things: Children going hungry and living on the streets. Our planet’s vital non-replenishable resources being decimated to line the pockets of the rich few…
We need a Mass Enlightenment Event.
So if those richest 1%, and the career politicians as a whole, are wholly unwilling to allow the lowest rows of Maslow’s Pyramid to be satisfied for everyone else — food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, higher education for the common person, health care for everyone, a vote that counts for everyone. You know, Second Bill of Human Rights kinds of stuff — then how are we, the Richest Nation In the World’s disenfranchised masses supposed to make this happen?
The longer slower road. Sadly. And admittedly not much of an “event.”
Don’t let that discourage you. At the risk of sounding trite; the tiniest spark can turn into a global movement when the timing and conditions are right. And there is no way to know when those conditions are right. Woodstock came to symbolize the culture of an entire generation. And there were many-many smaller fires leading up to that. The timing was right.
But the longest journey still begins with the first step. And if you have a hope of reaching your destination, knowing where that destination is, and what it looks like when you’ve arrived, is probably a pretty good place to start. To this end I return to the topic of enlightenment.
What is this enlightenment of which you speak? I could describe it in terms of religion and philosophy “Do unto others…” I could describe it in terms of spirituality and mysticism “We are all interconnected with each other and all other life…” I could describe it in terms of pop culture “Use the Force, Luke…” But instead I prefer to describe it in the vernacular of the day — Capitalism.
For any person, entity, corporation, society, or nation to actually reach enduring success. Success without constant struggle, such as warfare, fear of takeover, or exploitation, it is necessary to flip the paradigm. To achieve real success, you cannot only have individual success; success at the expense of others, success because everyone else fails.
You can only have real success by elevating everyone around you — family, community, nation, the world of nations, the planet itself — to equal success.
I’m not going to turn this into an essay on remedial common sense. I’ll save that for another day. I leave it to you to grok why this is so very obviously true.
And the first steps?
Elevate someone near you.
Spread the word.
