As the human population continues to propagate, our world grows smaller. The Disney theme ride does in fact have a point. Whatever distances exists between different locations on the globe, the travel, communication, commerce, and inter-civic relations are now more closely connected than at any time in human history. The old adage that a butterfly can flap its wings in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean has never been more applicable than in our time. I believe this historical drama of a growing interconnection has unique significance for the future of our species.

Relationships developed through travel, international diplomacy, cooperative transnational crisis assistance, and mass media gradually break down stereotypes and lay the ground work for tolerance, mutual respect, and co-existence. Trade, for example, greatly enhances co-dependence. Commodities sourced in one country are often packaged or manufactured into products in other countries and sold through retail outlets around the world. The supply chain forces an interdependence that can only be broken at the expense of each link. Moreover, the demand side of the equation is also part of this interdependence. The capability of underdeveloped countries and of the poor in developed countries to purchase from this global supply chain is intrinsic to future global economic growth. But these issues have been discussed elsewhere and more effectively than here. What more specifically interests me is the mindset required by this paradigm shift in global interdependence.

At some point, perhaps in a distant utopia, we must come to realize that we humans are more alike than different, that tribal/cultural fragmentations are hindrances to collective responsibilities to each other, that only mutual cooperation can preserve the planetary environment for our posterity, and that the internecine violence engendered by our lust for power, possession, and prurient gratification is an expression of our primate nature and not of our human potential. I believe that many, perhaps most, people already concur with this realization. But our institutions and governments are slow to change. And great masses of the world population have little or no access to the reins of power and its more humane use. Some are merely struggling on the edge of survival or trapped between the violent and extreme positions of opposing powers. Even in America where we are free of the type of violent civil strife that we witness in so many places (Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, and so on), are we really free of the violent rhetoric and poisonous opposition of political rivalries fighting for power, influence, and control of the disposition of national wealth. Our political parties are as divisive and violent in rhetoric as opposing factions in other parts of the world are in physical confrontations. (Reference: “Words Have Meaning.”)

Nations may harbor civil wars within; neighboring nations may engage in wars or destructive hegemony that can brutalize civilian populations; governments, like our own, can stagnant into endless political disputes where election to the seats of power is valued over good governance. An American citizen, for instance, may easily justify a feeling of powerlessness before the gridlock debacle too often practiced in Congress. Yet apathy is just as crippling as power mongering and perhaps as culpable. How many Americans vote according to party affiliation, rather than policy initiatives? Identifying with a political brand is like eating the same bowl of corn flakes every morning without thought. Both the Democratic and Republican parties interchange positions while selling the same brand to the electorate: “the Party of family values” versus “the Party of the common people.” The actual discrepancies within this branding are numerous: Democrats pass mandated healthcare under the auspices of private insurance companies, as originally proposed by Republicans; Republicans expand mortgage availability to lower income households (remember subprime mortgages)as originally proposed by Democrats; a Democratic President signs a bill advanced by Republicans and strongly supported by Wall Street to repeal the Glass-Steagall law that would have prevented the recent financial crisis; a Republican President presented to Congress an immigration reform bill that would have included a path to citizenship as advocated by most Democrats. My point is that party politics change with the wind. Nineteen century liberalism is twentieth century conservatism. Twenty first century liberalism is markedly more conservative and its twentieth century counterpart, conservatism, more extreme, even anti-government, than during the preceding decades. To vote the “Party line” is nothing other than mindless “group think.” In fact, it is a form of tribalism that functions to reduce an electorate to an irrelevant mass of followers. There is a cultural minefield here we have yet to transgress before we reach the mindset we need to have to match the paradigm shift that is occurring around us. So how do we confront the challenge before us?

As an individual, I cannot change the world—not even through social media or my blog. But I am accountable for the course of my own life. And so are you. The promise of the future is what we create in our personal lives. The only thing that is inevitable is the past already lived. Each of us can be constructive, thoughtful citizens of the world. You may feel like a single drop of water in a small reservoir, but you can become part of a downpour that overflows that reservoir and spills out into the world. The starting point begins within each one of us, in a singular moment of awareness. Find a quiet place in your home where you can feel your own heartbeat; watch moment-to-moment a sunset’s unfolding hues; look deeply into the eyes of one you love; and experience that awareness which anyone of us can share and which defines our humanity. In that moment, we are truly one. The words “love thy neighbor as oneself” become real. We are in truth not only as distinct as two blossoms on the same tree, but rooted as well to the same life source. Each of us shines with an indefinable beauty and a mysterious presence that disassembles all barriers and exposes each to a collective consciousness, a common awareness. The most amazing part of this awareness is that it reveals what is eternal in our nature, what binds us to the world and to each other. Given this mindset, how would it be possible to view others only as adversaries? How could anyone of us presume our needs greater than the needs of others? How could we live as if life was a zero sum game when universal loss is the only result of such a contest? I believe it is possible for humanity to rise above the fray it creates for itself, once individuals recognize that we are one and that realization becomes the operating mindset of a new generation of men and women.