Why the World is going insane and what you can do about it
Why the World is going insane and what you can do about it
The reason that we Humans were able to advance and become the dominant species on Earth was because of our greater ability to learn, communicate and collaborate with others.
However, these are now by contrast increasingly divisive times. And as the saying goes – united we stand, but divided we fall. The serious consequences are all too real with our increasing epidemics of loneliness, distrust, and uncivilized angry outbreaks.
Heed the Lesson from the ancient tale of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’
Just because western science has facilitated our ability to change and create things, does not mean we have the ‘wisdom’ to deal with the consequences of the now life-destroying pollution and increasingly-heartless dehumanization.
The modern industrial economy and our increasingly materialistic lifestyle, has cost us polluted air and water all over our planet and devastating global climatic disasters. Multiple species are falling extinct and people all over the world are increasingly being forced to become desperate ‘climate refugees’.
Perhaps the development of powerful computers and AI is really a Faustian-like bargain. Our increasing dependency to have to be online for almost everything costs us both our inner intuitive sense and the outer warmer, face-to-face heart-nourishing connection we vitally need. So despite the tempting distractions of the online world, it’s dehumanizing and makes us feel increasingly isolated, confused, and lonely.
Importance of ‘Emotional Self-Regulation’
When we feel overwhelmed, we feel weaker with less sense of control. When fear of being a passive victim is stirred-up by events and the intentional manipulations of self-interested political actors, it stimulates the primitive Fight or Flight stress center of the brain called the Amygdala. Once the Amygdala is triggered it takes over command, (“Amygdala Hijack”), and causes a reaction of over-powering fear. This literally drains the blood away from our thinking portion of the brain, (the “Pre-Frontal Cortex”), and takes our thinking capacity ‘off-line’. So when in a state of fear, we feel weak and cannot think clearly.
By contrast, when we feel anger - we feel stronger. When self-serving opportunists stir up our fears and then re-direct the emotional energy into anger, it feels like more of a desirable feeling of strength. And when people join with others in anger due to some outrage or conspiracy thinking, it amplifies the feeling into becoming intoxicatingly irresistible - as in the crazed destructive power experienced in “mob mentality”.
In order to properly process our emotions, we need to learn to detach somewhat and think through our feelings. As in the powerful insight from the psychiatrist, Dr. Viktor Frankl - “Between Stimulus and Response there is a space, and in that space is our freedom to choose”.
When you experience either fear or anger, you are just experiencing having the awareness of powerful emotions. It’s important to know that you always have a potential choice to think through and beyond those feelings, instead of being mindlessly controlled by them. For where your focus goes - the energy flows. This possibility of learning to be able to make wiser choices when experiencing strong emotions is illustrated in the old indigenous Cherokee “Parable of the Two Wolves”:
An elder Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is
going on inside all of us,” he explained to the boy.
“It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil. The other is
good. The same fight occurs inside you.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his
grandfather which wolf will win.
The wise elder Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”
If we humans are somehow going to be able to survive our dystopian societal breakdown and the multiple looming existential disasters, then we must learn to reconnect with each other and take more respectful care of our home planet!
As the first step, be guided by the wisdom of The Golden Rule and intentionally choose to connect and be nice to each other for a happier life!
My inspirational and empowering new book – “Dream it to Do it: The Science and the Magic” – reveals how to free yourself from the toxic emotions and illusions that entrap us, and instead participate in seeding a new and better vision for the world.
Copyright, Howard Eisenberg, M.Sc.(Psychology), M.D., Toronto, 2023.