The State of the World
by: Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Medical News - January 3, 2003

It is most typical in our world today to deny reality in any and every way we can. When our world seems to be falling apart many cope by pretending that it's not, thus reality sneaks up from behind even though clear trends are well visible. There are painful realities to be confronted in life on individual and collective levels. It is unfortunate but true that people prefer to deny both their feelings and reality and this lands us in a whole lot of trouble. David Reynolds, an American exponent of Japanese Morita psychotherapy said, "People deny reality. They fight against real feelings caused by real circumstances. They build mental worlds of shoulds, oughts, and might-have-beens. Real changes begin with real appraisal and acceptance of what is. Then realistic action is possible." What is coming in the future, where is the world headed and what effect is it going to have on our own and our children's lives? It seems we are collectively walking a most treacherous road and the great hope lies in us being honest and open about it. Some people mistakenly believe that Americans are the best-informed people in the history of the world. But how can this be when they are experts at distancing themselves from any real unpleasantness. It is assumed by many that Americans behave as though they bear no responsibility for the deep human suffering around them, and thus no obligation to try and alleviate it. Life really is not that amusing these days and Americans seem to be the least informed about it or the least caring. After all the stock market is up over 10,000 but no financial market is going to change the fact that something's going on with the basic fabric of our society and the global environment of the world. The Institute for Innovation in Social Policy at the Fordham University Graduate Center in Tarrytown, N.Y., which publishes the Index of Social Health every year, showed the social health of the nation taking a "steep" dive. There are now more homeless people in America than ever before, more families without homes or food, increases in child abuse, average weekly earnings are down, affordable housing more scarce, health insurance coverage is diminishing, and the gap between rich and poor, already at obscenely high levels, now more obscene than ever. "It's the greatest number of homeless since the Great Depression," said Patrick Markee, a policy analyst with the Coalition for the Homeless. On climate levels we see icecaps and glaciers melting at surprising rates as temperatures continue to warm. And approximately one in seven, almost a billion people are going to go to bed hungry. On every level we see deterioration. The level of violence and terror around the world has also increased with perhaps the worst horror now being reported out of Guatemala City where approximately 700 young women have been abducted, brutally tortured, raped and killed, consistently in that sequence, for no apparent reason in the last three years; and the authorities are still at a loss to find who is destroying the very fabric of humanity in the area. Western society and western medicine together with capitalism is demonstrating itself in a nasty way even as economies are saved for yet another year as America borrows yet again another cool trillion from the future. Suicide bombing has become almost an everyday occurrence on the world scene, and rape and robberies have become so numerous and common that reporting them is not worth the paper on which to print the stories. Everything is upside down in today's world. As Michael Ellner put it, "Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality." Governments pretend there is no problem with global warming as the UN reports that 150,000 die from the heat in 2003, pharmacies compete with the local pushers, and on top of it all we find that most of the drugs we take do not work. In such an upside down world is there any hope for the future? If our major institutions are failing us and we continue to drug ourselves out on our favourite electronic addiction called TV, what can we expect for the New Year and the years that are coming? The head is reining supreme over the collective nature of our hearts and thus the soul and the body of humanity are at risk. The state of the world can be painted any which way the spin makers want but those who have eyes to see perceive the deception. Reality is frightening and it is falling like an avalanche on the human collective. No wonder drug sales are up. Of course the worst news is what is happening to our children. Way back in 1995 Daniel Goleman reported in his groundbreaking book Emotional Intelligence that a sea of change was apparent in our children. They, our love and hope for the future are doing quite badly and are suffering from an "emotional malaise which seems to be a universal price of modern life for children," Goleman said. All around the world we are seeing a steady slide in the quality of life for children with them suffering from increased feelings of isolation, withdrawal from the world, unhappiness, anxiousness, depression, attention deficits, learning disabilities, and deep increases in aggressiveness. Urie Bronfenbrenner, the eminent Cornell University developmental psychologist said, "external stresses have become so great that even strong families are falling apart." Such comments about the state of the world are valid and can be very discouraging; however fear is the one thing that will bring our downfall if we allow it to take over our thinking. "I believe we all need to remember our circles of influence are bigger than we imagine," wrote psychologist Dr. Margaret A. MacLeod. There are many reasons for hope though for anyone who is willing to appreciate the wonder that is present in our lives. When we have life and love we can transcend the darkness and actually even do something about it. If we do right for ourselves and our loved ones it is likely that we will make a positive contribution to the world. We remain the primary force that affects our lives one way or another but the world is calling us. It's in need of heroes, lots of them who can work together to beat back the forces of darkness by being warriors of the light. We cannot sit back in peace like the Tibetans waiting for disaster to strike; for the list of human insanities in government, medicine, economics, and ecology to fall like an avalanche cutting off the lives of our children. The great hope of the human race lies in people getting together to effect changes on the inside and out. Any small group of highly individualized beings that work together as one integrated entity become spiritually very powerful, they can change the world. In this lies our true vision of hope, the dream of a light so bright that the darkness and insanity can no longer prevail.

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