We all need purpose. Something that justifies our existence. Be it big or small, the vast majority of people that have existed searched for purpose. The masses need something to do or somewhere to focus their energy.
Until recently Conflict filled that role. Putting one’s life on the line for their country and its citizens gave people that sense of purpose. For most of human history many people were needed for a war-effort. This resulted in a large portion of the population being directly or indirectly affected by war – either by being a soldier, family to a soldier, or worked supplying those soldiers with weapons or rations.
That has changed in the modern era. Military service still provides purpose for the men and women who serve, but advancements in technology over the past few decade have resulted in a need for less actual troops. With a smaller number of troops there is a smaller percentage of the population directly affected by military conflict. So few people are directly affected that war is ignored by large swaths of the general population. War is rarely covered in the media. Modern war is largely kept out of the public psyche. Gone with it is also the sense of purpose that was once so widespread.
After WWII we needed a way to pacify the masses. Consumerism became the system that kept people content. A Buick and a third of an acre to build your own personal kingdom was a good way to keep people content. That mentality still largely carries on today. We are currently at the the tail end of this era. An era where consumerism serves as a distraction to purpose.
A lot of us strive for the next level of financial achievement. We search for satisfaction in the stuff we buy and own. Most people on that route will at some point realize its emptiness. A consumerist foundation can only take a society so far. It does not give one any real sense of purpose. Instead it only serves to diverts ones attention away from their desire for actual purpose and meaning.
This system has three major snags. The first, it requires the ability of everyone to reasonably participate. The second, it is quite unfulfilling – as in it is a poor value to rely on to give life purpose. The hedonic treadmill will never deliver one to satisfaction. The third ultimately being that it is environmentally and ecologically unsustainable.
Seems all Consumerism can do is keep us chasing the ever-changing carrot on the stick. Even when we catch the carrot we are only satisfied long enough to put another carrot on the line.
Easy credit and cheap goods cannot last forever. At some point the debt will be called in. At some point a large enough percentage of the population will be unable to participate. At some point the environment will start to collapse. The rampant depletion of resources and the waste created by the manufacturing of those goods will reach a tipping point.
We can’t continue to destroy ecosystems for materials, burn fossil fuels to produce and distribute goods, and dump massive amounts of waste in our water and air and expect to continue. Exponential growth in a finite system is impossible. We are only beginning to see the affect we can have on the delicate balance of nature.
We are now at the precipice of the era of Chaos. The era of Chaos is defined by our inability to find objective truth. When we can’t agree on evidence and facts then we have no chance of fixing anything. The spreading of Chaos and division with the United States has actually been the predominate strategy of our foreign adversaries since the end of the Cold War.
I call this the era of Chaos because the old systems and institution seem to be losing trust and credibility. When we don’t know who to trust or the motives of institutions then we are left in a state of uncertainty and Chaos. We can’t find purpose because it is hard to trust anything we see or hear. When we can’t tell fact from fiction how can we properly direct our attention and energy? Without being resolute in our beliefs how do we find purpose?
Chaos can only last so long. The good news is that Chaos is not new to history. Often large changes in society come on the heals of chaos. Chaos is the natural transition state between what was and what will be. Things break and before they can be fixed there is a period of uncertainty, confusion, anger, and violence – Chaos.
The final era is one of heightened collective consciousness – an enlightened era. The era of Cooperation. It will occur when the people rise above and transcend the current divisions that created the current era of Chaos. It seems there are only two directions here. We can further devolve into Chaos or evolve into cohesion.
I don’t know how we reach this enlightened Cooperative era. Most of us that are alive today are so consumed by our current polarized and divisive culture that to see beyond it and image something better is difficult. For some it may be impossible. I am so consumed by it that I won’t even make a prediction on what that Cooperative future would look like.
We are connected more now than ever before in the shared history of our species. We’ve never had the chance to fully realize the one thing that sets us apart from all other animals. Our ability to cooperate. We now have the ability – and likely the responsibility – to cooperate like we never have.
I believe that few people actually want to see America devolve further into Chaos. Almost all of us want what is best for our loved ones and for future generations. We disagree on how that future will be structured, but most of us the goal is a future of prosperity and opportunity. The path to that future of Cooperation is through empathy, compassion, and understanding. We have a long way to go, and it can be tough at times to put any faith in that future. I do believe we will get there. I hope I get to see a little bit of it in my lifetime.
I appreciate your attention and I hope you found some value in this.
Thanks for reading.
Billy's Briefs 