Friday, October 16, 2009

Thank Whatever Higher Power Exists For The Internet...

Thank Whatever Higher Power Exists For The Internet...

...because that is the only thing that's saved us from complete reversion to serfdom, and it may be what saves this planet from the collective insanities that human cultures have inherited from the past.

We're all a product of what's gone on before us, in times of ignorance of the vast majority of Earth's people. But now, thanks to the internet, the ignorance - and the fear it engenders - is shrinking.

How different it is today. No company or member of government can long hide anything. Their betrayals and their best deeds are all sent 'round the planet at the speed of light. The whole world finds out everything quickly. The light of the world's eyes shines upon their darkest secrets and they have nowhere to hide anymore.

Interestingly, the more we see of the greedy people in high offices around the world, the more obvious it is that the ordinary working folk the world-over are in the same boat. That fact, it will be the thing that changes it all, mark my words.

It is the global connection and understanding of ordinary Everyone that will lead to concerted cross-border action. Imagine the impact if we had truly global trade unions, global concerted action on behalf of the environment, global product comparisons, global technology sharing - technologies for clean energy. Global charitable giving, where those of us in security and abundance can send whatever is needed to our brothers and sisters anywhere without hindrance.

The very idea of regional governments could eventually become obsolete, as we simply go online - and log in and see where what we make or have extra of is needed. We could see instantly when someone has an idea anywhere in the world that could solve a problem that challenges us - such as how to get more efficiency out of a solar cell, or the piece of the puzzle that lets us build a wind turbine that lasts twice as long or gets three times as much energy out of the same winds that our old turbine is running in.

When we merge the ideas of self-interest with the idea of global need, and have the inter-connectedness that the internet provides, we can finally find that giving ideas to the whole world makes our personal world better and more abundant, and that is true for any region on Earth.

In the end, we're all human, we're all basically the same, and we all live or die by the health of this one finite world we live on. Our differences are trivial in the face of an entire universe that awaits us growing up enough to fill it with life and abundance.

When we finally learn that love thy neighbor as thyself means that if our neighbor's lives are better, ours will be too, we will be heading in the direction of paradise.

The growing interconnectedness of the world's population online is going to continue making the similarities of common people the world over more and more obvious - and it will do the same for every action of those in positions of governance, who are supposed to govern through a philosophy of service to mankind rather than service to self.

Every day, the folly of failing that principle becomes more glaringly obvious, and there is no turning back from the light, the light of the entire world's eyes upon us all.

Now I know what it means to embrace the light, to witness. Because in witnessing, it becomes painfully clear what the results of generosity are, and what the results of greed are. It is literally being written in history every day.

Dan Stafford