Heroes Not Zombies

These last few days, I’ve been thinking about change. I was inspired do so when I read this quote from Darwin

I was also inspired by the writing of Marc Halévy who summarises four major changes in the Introduction to his “Petit traité du sens de la vie”, and as I started to write I could hear the sounds of Bob Dylan’s “The times they are a’ changin'” in my mind (little did I know that this month is the 50th anniversary of his release of the album of that name!)

In Part 1, I reflected on the ecological changes, especially the incredible population growth and consumption of non-renewable resources since 1800. Halévy says this change signals the end of the Age of Abundance.

In Part 2, I looked at the explosion of digital connections producing not just a web, but an entire noosphere. Halévy says this is the end of the Age of Ignorance.

In Part 3, I considered the replacement of the machine model with the organic one. Halevy refers to this as the end of the Age of Hierarchy.

So, here we are with the final part. Part 4. The end of the Age of “Abnégation”. What does he mean by that?

Well, where do we expect to find happiness and wellbeing? We have been through the eras where our happiness and wellbeing was taken care of by the Church, by the State, by the Party, or the University, or the Unions, or the Market. But now we know that happiness is found on the inside, not supplied from the outside.

With this realisation we can rediscover our uniqueness, and claim for ourselves our responsibility for our own happiness and wellbeing.

We can make our own quality of life autonomously, by changing our relationships with others, with institutions, organisations, Nature, and the world.

We now have the chance to become heroes not zombies.