For the past two years I’ve been suffering the Chicken
Littles telling us how the world is going to end and everything is going to
doom us. Well, it’s been more than two
years, but acutely for two years. All
over social media, even in general conversation there’s this thread of
irrational fear of the End of the World ™.
And yet, the world isn’t ending. In fact, by every rational measure things
continue to get better, despite whatever horrible thing was supposedly
happening or going to happen. The sky
doesn’t fall, the sun comes up and life goes on, usually a little better than
the day before. Maybe we’re too tired and stressed to really appreciate it, but
the truth is there nonetheless.
All this worry and panic and hysteria just end up being
self-torture (and torture of others who have to endure the emotional outbursts)
and unnecessary stress and fatigue. But
life goes on quite well nonetheless.
Oh, you say, but there are Real Problems. Sure.
The world has always had problems.
The fact that we have the luxury to examine some of these problems and
blow them far out of proportion in our own lives speaks to how few “Real
Problems” most of us have.
There have always been problems. Some of them big. None of them probably directly involving
you. Because while the world has
problems, they’re fewer and smaller in magnitude than ever before in human
history. The world is wealthier than
ever before in its history, and that wealth is spread more broadly than ever
before – a higher percentage of humanity is in the middle class or higher than
at any time in human history. A higher percentage
of people are free from war, disease or extreme poverty than at any other time
in the history of man.
In fact, for all the hysteria and focus on “problems,” the
world is on the cusp of eliminating extreme poverty in this generation. For most of human history, extreme poverty was
just the norm except for a very few. The
whole world was poor. Pretty much
everyone suffered serious diseases – most people didn’t make it to thirty. Dying in childbirth was a very real and
common “problem” for women, even wealthy women.
Wars were common, prevalent and far more destructive in terms of
casualties (both soldiers and civilians) than now.
Yes, the world has the capability to effectively wipe out
civilization with immensely powerful weapons, but since those weapons were
invented and used (only twice in combat), the magnitude and severity of wars
has steadily declined and the world’s wealth has increased exponentially.
And this wealth manifests not just in bank accounts, but in
what is available and what humans are capable of doing. The massive increase in wealth has allowed
record percentages of students to graduate from universities, a luxury that
wasn’t available when poverty was the norm.
This wealth has allowed every country to massively extend the length and
quality of human life. Electricity and
indoor plumbing are the norm, even for “poor people.” Access to music, books, cinema, television,
Internet, email, text, news, and other information and entertainment that used
to only be available to a small number of wealthy is near universal.
Wealth isn’t just money, it’s the sum product of
society. Higher wealth means more
expression in all its forms. Look at the
abundance of entertainment, much available completely for free on YouTube or
through streaming. The world music
scene, movies, television, videos, all the multitude of expressions (who the
hell heard of things like Tantra or meditation even 40 years ago?). Universities, online learning, libraries, so
much information available from so many sources, much free or very
affordable. Think about that – you can
teach yourself a new trade, network with other students, and get yourself work
with that new trade, all for very little money – at home, in your free time. In Asia.
This was humanly impossible just a generation ago. You can teach yourself a new language, talk
to people in the other country, then go visit (or move to) that country, on
less than a middle-class income. Even in
the 1980s, that was entirely out of reach for the average person.
People freak out about the environment, but the fact that we
can spend time and energy tending to the environment shows just how far the
world has come economically.
Environmental awareness is a byproduct of wealth – poor people don’t
have the time, energy or resources to pay attention to these things.
Wealth isn’t making the planet less livable – it’s what’s
allowing the planet to be sustainable and thrive. There are six billion people on this planet. Because the planet is wealthy enough to
afford that size of humanity. If the
world were as poor as it was 100 years ago, there is no way the planet could
sustain even 1/5 that population. And it
wouldn’t – 100 years ago most babies died in the first year and most people
didn’t make it to 40. Plagues, famine
and wars regularly killed off people when the population would get too
high. It is the unprecedented wealth
that has allowed humanity to grow, sustain and thrive, and for the planet to
continue to live and grow. (And we are
even able to clean the place up – the world environment is actually
significantly more clean than it was a generation ago.)
But people don’t take a step back to look at the bigger
picture. Instead we tend to focus too
much on small imperfections and blow them out of proportion. We convince ourselves that a small problem is
a big, insurmountable problem and panic.
Then when the sun keeps coming up, we quietly move on to something else,
never learning the bigger lesson.
And I’ll admit I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ve spent my life losing sleep and panicking
over things that mattered little in the short-term, and mattered none at all in
the long-term. I woke up from this
illusion of panic only a short while ago in relation to my life. I used to wet the bed just like all the
Chicken Littles. And it brought me
nothing but unnecessary sleep deprivation, personal anguish, relationship
strife and general unhappiness for no good reason.
It’s because I went through all this and learned the lesson
that I can say that the world is really a happy place, but we humans are a
terribly unhappy species. And the
paradox is the wealthier the world becomes, the more happiness there is, and
the more unhappy we humans become. It’s
like we long to be poor and miserable and seek to return to the wretched lives
of our ancient forefathers, no matter how stupid, irrational and
self-destructive that is.
Happiness is all around.
Being happy is simple, but because of our human nature it is not
easy. Humans are not good at stepping
back and embracing the joy of interconnected abundance. Instead we actively seek out disconnection
and disparity. We try to be unhappy.
Buddhist teaching speaks to the human nature that seeks out
unhappiness. I’m not here to push a
religious philosophy, only to say the sooner one learns to accept the
self-defeating, happiness-defeating nature of humans, the sooner one can learn
to un-learn human nature and embrace happiness.
Because once one is free from the self-destructive patterns
of human nature, happiness is easy.
Whatever your current position in the world, abundance is prevalent and
happiness is everywhere. We are blessed
to be humans on this planet in this time.
Humanity is blessed. And whatever
your circumstances, you are blessed. We
all are.
I am a voice for happiness.
I am walking that path and I want to show the world the way.
The path of happiness is peace, stillness, grounding, gratitude,
abundance, interconnectedness and a conscious un-learning of our toxic human
nature that leads us to unhappiness and death.
The world is not going to end. In fact, it is getting better every day. Humanity is getting better. You are,
too. Embrace it. Learn to love this world and this life, to
love humanity and embrace your connection to the abundance of humanity and the
universe.
Humanity is going to be growing and thriving for a long, long time. Your time, however, is considerably more limited. It’s time to be happy now.
Join me.
