To Be or Not

Many time periods have been interesting to those who were living in them. Things aren't going to change overnight, even if they change rapidly. Some issues are enormous, fundamental and long-term, such as male dominance, social victimization, or urban sprawl. Meanwhile other critical issues play a smaller part, such as disposable packaging, youth crime, family arguments that lead into gunfire and screeching tires. Some things definitely must go because they affect our survival prospects like military overkill, dangerous chemicals, or fast population growth. Many matters are debatable such as alcohol-abuse, risky scientific research or biased nationalism. We might say goodbye to such things as war, secrecy, faceless social disaffection, and public powerlessness. Soon enough it could be goodbye to dangerous stress, tobacco, burgers, serial killings, muggings, and smog. Times change. Many of today's accepted virtues might one day be judged as crimes against humanity and nature, which leads to the question: What kind of world do you want to live in?

Our ancient habit is to stumble backwards into the future. We feel that we as individuals make little difference, as if history and the future just happen at us. Obscure plans, which have guided people forward in the past, have now rendered themselves useless. There are no known maps to show pathways into the future.

We'll need to consider back to our hearts, common sense and basic human capabilities. We'll need to consider the deep issues at stake and make deep choices about them. This idea of disaster is actually an aide. It activates resourceful survival instincts. The human race needs to change course. There are so many causes of large-scale disaster that it would need whole libraries to contain it. While there is no way of knowing whether such possibilities could become real, it is valuable to consider options and to make ideal adjustments, without fear, to help structure research and planning and to consider worst-case effects. We need to make a list of likely models and dimensions of disaster, to value responses to them and also values helpful factors that are to our advantage. This is risky business, but no government likes entertaining out in the open. Yet, it has been done secretly in and governments.

We witness inhumanity, abuse, and scandals in daily news broadcasts, and we come upon many similar questions in the details of our personal lives. As it may be, the next government might make a difference, or media might expose the corruption of it all, or maybe an influential person might crack it. Still, it turns out that only a minimal difference is genuinely made.

In the last decades of the 20th century the world situation has grown more and more complex and distressing. If we accept the idea that the present direction of civilization is decaying unless we change it, then we understand that we are part of this decay. Questioning the state of the world keeps us awake at nights, a sure recipe for burnout and loss. So, the tendency is to settle into one's corner, and forget about the big questions. Nevertheless, we keep returning to a basic truth. The way things look; civilization is likely, during the coming of the century, to suffer greatly, unless things change. Humanity could even become extinct together with many other species. It's difficult to rest easy with the possibility of our children saying to us: "Look at the world you've left us!" Procrastinating and dodging tactics have been successful in recent decades, yet world problems have not gone away. Various changes need to take place within coming decades, not just legislation or fooling around with interest-rate settings, something fundamental. We will decide on restorative world changes by choice. A redemption factor or changes foisted on us by circumstances, in states of emergency. The council is out, and the future is dauntingly in the balance. While there are great visions of hope, the "Old Order" still remains, constantly dressing itself in new clothing.

Many people will already be convinced of the need for world change, or will at least be open to the idea. Nowadays in new age circles the terms Ð''world transformation' are thrown around with enthusiasm, mixed with varieties of apocalyptic catastrophe. Not many have thought how world change and the awakening of humanity might actually come to pass. Many invoke geological, climatic or astronomical catastrophe, massive social rearrangement, spiritual distribution, and foreign intervention, without fully grasping how such marvel might actually affect us all. If our incomes, comforts, children, or annual holidays are hit by such a change, how will we feel?

Rain falls on good and bad people alike. There might be no descent of good-hearted hosts or superstars, and there could be an almighty showdown. One characteristic of our time is that the events with the greatest impacts are those, which are unexpected, such as the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Nevertheless, as real-estate agents describe neglected houses, this property has great potential for renovation.

Many people anticipate some sort of catastrophe in coming times. Some people pin their hopes or fears on it, while some, in quiet anticipation, try not to think about it. Others ignore it all, or they inveigh against the "bad" people. Whichever case is true, it's still worth examining the value of crisis. The great thing about crises is that they confront us with hard facts. The cutting edge of a crisis usually concerns one basic issue and it also brings up many other interrelated issues, rushing much wider and deeper questions. People and environments do often get hurt in crises. Crises usually bring up many uncomfortable questions which we have avoided facing. A person's marital, career or health crisis often brings up much larger doubt about the purpose and course of their life. It becomes a gift in disguise, an opportunity for change. Crises accumulate when we ignore obvious signs, facts and clues that life presents us with. If beliefs and realities seriously diverge, a crash becomes