During another age of crisis, Eleanor Roosevelt said it well: "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." When it comes to ideas, one of the biggest is finding where our crises fit into the storyline of history. Helps sharpen the lens through which you're seeing and understanding them.
But lets get it straight, up front....! This may not be the best of times, but surely not the worst. The brutality and mayhem of ancient and medieval generations was usually as close as your own front door (if you had a door). Plagues, raids, pillaging, raping, torture, and witch burnings were commonplace. With few if any authorities to turn to for redress. And so our species suffered and died by the tens of millions who today could be saved.
Two world wars...several holocausts...weapons of mass destruction...but aren't these even worse? Well, in quantity, yes; but not necessarily in quality. The real difference between the madness of our times and previous times has to do with our MO (modus operandi). Then, history could easily finger the forces at work. The village shaman...the local king...the conquering general...the emperor or pope or mountain god. Whereas today, our fingers can search long and hard, but rarely if ever find any one operational source for our troubles.
Oh sure, go to any barbershop or beauty salon, and you'll hear the names of the latest villains of choice. Brutish neighbors...corrupt cops...scandalous clergy...pay-to-play mayors and governors....and of course whoever happens to be president this year. But these are just this year's conveniently chosen needles in the haystack. The stack itself is right before your eyes, and yet its role and reign in all this remains virtually invisible.
You see, the madness of our times has become different than in any other times. Humanity -- in all its triumphs of science, medicine and arts -- has perfected its own complexity. Has created a haystack with a million million inter-woven strands impossible to single out. Global banking systems...global stock markets...global data banks ...global credit cards...global satellites. Very little left that is local. That we can put a name or a face or an address on. In fact, these global entities have become tentacles without a head. They exist simply because now they exist!
Behold, then, the mighty works of man. The Bible used the metaphor of the Tower of Babel, and the warning that pride goeth before the fall. Today's pride seems to have crafted a tower of mechanisms not even its creators can climb. Let alone control.
Returning to our haystack. Remember the good old days when needles had a name. And could still be found? However, getting mad and burning down the whole stack -- maybe that's a fire no one should start. Here's a crazy idea instead: How about working together to re-pitch the hay? "Together" being the operational word.
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Ahh but we have a president who thought we could get together to pitch the hay, but he found out the hard way it takes two to play.
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