Heroes Not Zombies

I’ve been getting pretty upset at all the terrible stories of selfishness and cruelty in the world these days. Whether it’s acts of war in some countries, mass shootings in America, or stories of women raped and/or murdered as they walk in their own neighbourhood, it seems stories of violence are everywhere.

On top of that there are increasingly bitter divisions in many societies, a huge rise in anger and abuse towards people both in person, but especially on the internet.

Inequality has gone through the roof and while more and more people go hungry and live in fear of soaring fuel bills and inflation, a significant minority seem to possess insatiable greed, grabbing ever more just for themselves.

On top of all that we are facing climate change with both more and more extreme weather events and disastrous loss of habitat and diversity.

It’s all enough to make you despair, because who, in power, either through politics or wealth, is actually trying to change the system which is favouring all of this?

But then I see something like the forest fires south of Bordeaux, and I see neighbours looking after each other, opening their houses to each other, providing food and shelter. I see dozens of firemen from eight countries across Europe speeding to France to help the French “pompiers” get the fires under control.

I see the same instant and generous help in floods, again with ordinary people saving neighbours, providing food and shelter.

And I realise there is a strong, natural instinct to care in human beings.

The problem seems to be that our current mechanistic view of reality has created an economic and social system which encourages greed and enables narcissists to rise to positions of power. Somehow those with power and wealth repeatedly exhibit the worst of what it is to be human, while neighbours, families and friends at a local level are those most likely to help others, and to act on our instinct to care.

We need a system change and we need a change of world view. We need a system which privileges empathy, care and tolerance in those who gain power and wealth, and we need to return to a view of reality which allows us to see that everything is connected, the Earth’s “resources” are limited, and that neither human beings nor the living planet are machines.

Can we shift our dynamic away from privileging individualism, selfishness, greed and competition towards the creation of systems and societies which nurture and support uniqueness, empathy, generosity and collaboration?