WITH THE VALEDICTION OF THE DECADE,  the pathos of the 21st century has been a crisis of the existential. Here the spirit of modernity, born from the blood, sweat and smoke of the Industrial Revolution, has reached its annihilating edge: from spiritual bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, to liberty and abundance, followed by selfishness, declining into complacency, then apathy, dependence, and at last delivered unto bondage once more. Thus the dignity of modernity, with its exaltation of reason, independence and the entrepreneurial spirit, has yielded to the post-modern horrors of moral relativism: executive greed, corporate psychopathy, police brutality, political corruption, global depression, ecological meltdown, religious fanaticism, bioterrorism, pre-emptive warfare and the imminent threat of nuclear holocaust. 

 

Yet such problems are not illnesses in and of themselves, but are merely a unified network of social symptoms: a syndrome of civilization emanating from an underlying source in the metaphysical groundwork of the human condition. And now, if the cause is not addressed - if the course is not corrected - then in in the wake of "business as usual", humanity faces more merely war, more terrorism, more depression, but the imminent threat of planetary collapse synchronized with the grim reality of human extinction. 

 

Even still, the threat is precisely that: a threat; it is no promise - for the future is not the province of prophets and seers, but of artists and innovators: a future not to be predicted, but created. Thus to the degree that humanity proves willing to wake to the forces aligned against it, to distinguish the threat from the hope so as to choose from among them, then through living in fidelity "to rage against the dying of the light", the future need not be the prefecture of a world in ruins, but rather the spiritual fountainhead from which an authentic planetary civilization can emerge. 

 

Nevertheless, before any attainable semblance of such a vision can manifest, a critical shift in the planetary consciousness, elegant in its simplicity but radical in its implications, must occur: one which realizes that while no problem can be solved from the same level of thinking which created it, as society struggles to prevent crime by violating the rights of citizens, to fight terrorism by terrorizing the terrorists, and to end war by waging war, the vicious cycle of post-modernity is nothing less than a product intrinsic to the paradigm itself. It is a collective neurosis wherein individuals attempt to extricate complications both individual and collective born from an entirely superannuated and wholly irrelevant mode of short-term, materialistic, morally relativistic thinking with even more of the same short-term, materialistic, morally relativistic thinking that resides at the core of the condition. Consequently, it is for this reason that, until humanity is willing to deepen the range of its intellection and evolve to the world accordingly, it remains condemned to the same wheel of suffering which has plagued it for the last ten millennium. 

 

Thus the imperative for human unity must now be embraced on a planetary scale. The only question remaining, then, is in what form will the nature of this New World Order, as the politicos have christened it, take? Under the current paradigm, with its emphasis on standard of living over quality of life, to the extent that the pattern of extensive growth holds true to itself - one which precedes by route of conquest, colonization and consumption - then as the gap between rich and poor progressively widens, society will inevitably devolve away from that of a democratic republic and ever closer towards a corporate plutocracy: a New World Order wherein the majority of the planet's population live and work as serfs, limited in mobility and freedom, with the sole purpose of functioning as a resource to be exploited by government and corporate interests.

 

Initially such a system will persist, but not indefinitely. For in time, provided the accelerating rates in the consumption of planetary resources, as the human strain on nature continues to mount, in the wake of an ever-diminishing supply of natural provisions, the New World Order, unable to provide for the masses, must inevitably collapse in on itself. The future gives way to anarchy. Chaos prevails. The threat of mass extinction encroaches. 

 

Yet this is not the only scenario. For were a New World Revolution to occur, one wherein a single humanity found itself united neither by economy nor bureaucracy so much as the sharing of a single global culture: a planetary civilization premised on sustainability through to an international commitment to the quality of life as prior to and exceeding in value the standard of living, then the real possibility of a single, fully integrated global civilization becomes achievable. Thus by virtue of a wholly volitional and conscientious transition away from post-modern paradigm of extensive growth, and forward toward a Promethean vision of a sustainable world, with its emphasis on intensive growth, being the never-ending pursuit for ever-deepening degrees of consciousness, connection and communication between individuals, families, community, states and nations, then the first global culture can become a tangible, manifest reality. 

 

It is in the wake of such a vision that the evolution of homo sapiens has entered a cross roads. In a world where suddenly the solutions to the problems of the last 10,000 years are no longer relevant, there emerges new life conditions to stimulate new modes of thinking. For the fact remains that the world humanity has constructed for itself - fractured, divisive and laden with conflict - is nothing less than a reflection of the state of the consciousness through which humanity is given to see the world: fractured; divisive; conflicted. To transcend the illusory dissonance of self versus self that inevitably explodes into sectarian violence between self and other, it requires that humanity first obtain for itself a new metaphysics upon which the basis for a world of distinctions without division can be deciphered. 

 

As principles abstracted from Relativity Theory, Quantum Physics and General Systems Science, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the Weltanschauung of the new science promises nothing less then that of a revolutionary shift in the planetary consciousness: a new paradigm for a new era. 

 

 1. That while appearances are deceiving, the fact remains that independent of all sensory impressions, the cosmos is a unified field of information and energy whose metaphysical nature expresses itself in terms of holism and synergy; 

 

2. That insofar as wholes are irreducibly complex events, every entity can be modeled as a uniquely identifiable field of interdependent 

qualities that co-emerge simultaneously, together, as a 4-dimensional phenomena that is both above and distinct from the synergy of its subsystems; 

3. That since the dynamic processes of life emerge within equally dynamic, self-organizing framework of nature, the very meaning of life as it stands defined by its context is that of an externally informed, yet internally directed conscious evolution toward growth, renewal, transformation and, ultimately, of self-transcendence; 

 

4. That since the failure to distinguish truth and the mere image of truth is the source of all human error, hence human suffering, hence iniquity in the world, there exists no disparity between reason and ethics; for in all instances the most intellectually sound, and therefore the most holistically integrated, synergetic course of action is the ethically imperative course of action; 

 

5. That to the extent thoughts determine passions, passions: actions, actions: habits, habits: characters and characters:  destinies, the quality of life for any given individual exists in direct proportion to his capacity to live responsibly with the facts of  ones self as well as in synergy with the facts of one's life conditions. 

 

In light of the aforementioned the agenda becomes evident: it is a quest for planetary integration. As such, the mission is contingent upon the creativity of the human spirit as it manifests globally across cultures, and in all world quarters. Yet creativity is not a matter of nature so much as nurture. The rapidity with which cultures evolve is a consequence not to the genetic wealth of the species so much as the stealth with which the human mind can conceive of new memes. So while the body of homo sapiens remains a testimony to Paleolithic life conditions, the reigning climate which now prevails where there once stood forest and plain, mountain and valley, savannah and veldt, is a product of human hands and of human mentifacts. That the natural instincts of the stone aged nomad are now obsolete when presented with the life conditions of the space aged industrialist, the future of homo sapiens intimately depends on its ability to pose new answers to the questions of existence and to implement his solutions with a creativity, versatility and vision. 

 

However, regardless of how resourceful the solutions humanity conceives are, the sustainability of its vision rests on the precedent of a future in which there exist natural resources from which a new world can be forged. As a matter of principle, to value environmental resources divorced from a sense of reverence for the awesome ecological and geological forces that conspire to create them is to view the world through the same fractured lens of consciousness that lies as the heart of the crisis. It is in this manner that the quest for human continuity is contingent upon the leading edge of human evolution emerging to embrace their role not only as artists and innovators, but as planetary guardians by first seeking a direct experience of oneness between self and other, qua the sacred interdependence of all life, so as to inspire the imperative to live in synergy with the beauty and power of the universe. 

 

And yet paradoxically so, it is only through the knowledge of such a unity that one can grasp that the building of a planetary civilization calls for a celebration of equifinality: of oneness achieved through difference. That with diversity comes enhanced adaptability, the future cannot be synthesized from one type of mind anymore than a body can be synthesized from one type of cell; a society from one type of man; an ecology from one type of species. That the core of all cultural excellence is spiritual genius, the prodigy of the soul is a mind empowered with the ability synergize local visions of the human condition into an elegant unity that preserves the dignity of each - all while synchronizing every tradition to the surrounding life conditions with an elegance, grace and precision that remains authentic to their original narratives. 

 

Even still, diversity in itself is insufficient. The stability of the future demands not merely the capacity to co-exist, but an organic synthesis of the co-extant. That human beings are intrinsically social beings, to the degree that the fulfillment of individual needs are predicated on the capacity to fulfill the needs of others, then the adaptation of such a planetary vision is not enough - for the future calls for of an ethics of synergy. The moral commitment to simply acknowledge the rights of others, then, is realized to be lacking - as recent lessons in economics and ecology now show precisely why. For rights in themselves are not fundamental. Rather, they emerge from the capacity of individuals to live within a framework of human responsibilities that makes the enjoyment of rights possible. As men and women, every individual is responsible to first become the change in the world one wishes to see, and to live more simply so that others can simply live. Thus through a conscious commitment to personal growth before material gain - to quality of life over standard of living - the future can be born from the willingness of individual souls to live in harmony with the souls of others so as to synergize their movements into the greater whole of the human spirit.  

 

To the degree every man is an individual, he is responsible for synergizing his own needs with those of others in such a way as not to be an ecological cancer. He accomplishes this by: 

 

1. prioritizing quality of life before standard of living; 

2. never consuming more than can be replaced; 

3. not reproducing beyond his ability to support; 

4. harmonizing his interests with those of the whole. 

 

To the degree that every man is a professional, he is responsible for synergizing his own livelihood into the stream of the surrounding 

economy in such a way as not to be an economic cancer. He accomplishes this by: 

 

1. abdicating the use of force and fraud in all business models and in all business-to-business interactions; 

2. harmonizing business interests with the needs of other professionals to also earn a living; 

3. ensuring that professional practices prioritize employee and consumer needs over shareholder profitability; 

4. ensuring that pay scales reflect not merely legal minimums, but actual value produced in consideration with the monetary requirements for sustaining life; 

 

To the degree that every man is a citizen, he is responsible for not to live as a sociological cancer. He accomplishes this by: 

 

1. protesting corruption and political abuses of power as radicals of consciousness; 

2. mandating that all leaders abdicate the hawkish policies of their predecessors in preference to relating to other nations with neutrality, diplomacy and authenticity; 

3. supporting legislature that incentivizes ecological responsibility without compromising economic freedom; 

4. demanding the legality of competing currencies be restored via the abolition of the immoral monopoly on credit enjoyed by central banking cartels such as The Federal Reserve and The Bank of International Settlements.

 

 

To the degree that every man is a human being, he is responsible for synergizing his own organism with the species in such a way as to not subsist as an anthropological cancer. He accomplishes this by: 

 

1. committing himself to the cause of reason, self-ownership and non-aggression in all relationships; 

2. defending human liberty as a necessary precondition for creativity, human ingenuity and cultural evolution; 

3. cultivating his own inimitable quorum of talents in order to make a unique contribution to humanity; 

4. fighting to preserve the imperative of human diversity by promoting a deeper appreciation for human cultures 

 

To the degree every man is a volitional unit of consciousness, he is responsible for synergizing his own awareness with the awareness of the planet in such a way as to not subsist as a metaphysical cancer. He accomplishes this by: 

 

1. striving to expand the boundaries of his awareness; 

2. celebrating art and innovation as spiritual practice; 

3. cultivating reverence for genius in all its forms; 

4. revering the sacredness of nature through the beauty and power of the universe; 

5. embodying a living commitment to self transcendence. 

 

The fact that remains is that evolution has intended each of its designs to thrive. Subsequently, the happiness that naturally coincides with leading a prosperous existence is not one that nature has engineered for evanescence. Rather, evolution has intended happiness to serve as the natural state of consciousness for leading a healthy, prosperous existence as an organism well adapted to its environs. For that nothing in nature has been designed for anything less than to thrive, Gaia has arranged that those specimens which fail to do so be driven into extinction by those who do. Mutatus mutandis, only in the maladapted is it that misery is the norm: the lion in the tundra; the dolphin in the oil spill; the hominid in the cubicle. Thus to the degree that human civilization fails to provide even a single human life anything less than the liberty to realize its full potential, then it is purely a matter of the empirical that humanity concede to the fact that, in its current form and under the current conditions, it is ill-fit for existence. Towards these ends, evolution has given humanity a choice:

 

CONTROL, ADAPT, MIGRATE - OR DIE. 

 

M.A. Carrano, Ex.P 

New Haven, CT 

November 13, 2009.