DECEMBER 27, 2017
ONE CHANCE LEFT ?
What Was and What Is
Where we stand and how we choose to live shape our destiny. During the twenty years after World War II most of the youngest adults from well-to-do American families saw progress and limitless possibilities for individual improvement and economic advancement as their birthright. The standard view was that anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could move ahead and succeed. Any setback in that vision of life was frequently viewed as failure and chalked up either to individual inadequacy or lack of personal drive.
Regardless of their personal circumstances many of the oldest Americans know that finding success and opportunities is no longer as easy as it was in the middle of the last century. The availability of well-paid employment for unskilled work is disappearing. Cheap housing relative to income is almost impossible to find in major metropolitan areas. Everywhere basic costs of living are more than millions of citizens can pay.
Favored Locations
The wealthiest citizens have always populated certain select neighborhoods in the most favored metropolitan areas. These days in metro areas like San Francisco those select areas have expanded to include neighborhoods that were once only occupied by working class households or by very poor households. These places may now be considered prospective “financially gated” communities. Only those with great wealth or very high household incomes are allowed to move there. All others must go somewhere else for housing. One may view this as segregation of the wealthy — no others need apply.
In “financially gated” communities the appearance of diversity may still exist since those who bought their homes many decades ago may still be living there without a mortgage or rent that must be paid. As other local costs rise over coming decades and job opportunities are fewer it is likely that many of their descendants will be forced to sell and to move to less expensive areas. As others have in the past they will be leaving home to find a way to maintain their “middle-class” way of life.
Two Views of Our World
People holding different positions in life often — but not always — have widely different views of how we are related to one another and of how we may best get along together over the long run. Simply put: regarding human relationships there is the “competitive” view and there is the “cooperative” view. Each has some “truth” to offer about how the world should be arranged to produce the “best” outcome for everyone in our shared “progress” from birth to death. An agreement to primarily govern ourselves through “competition” leads to one set of outcomes. An agreement to primarily govern ourselves through “cooperation” necessarily leads to a different set of outcomes.
The Competitive View
The “competitive” view sees life as a struggle for survival where only the strong and the wise win and rise to the top perch from which they may govern and control their less able and weaker brethren for the benefit of all.
The Cooperative View
The “cooperative” view sees life as a shared pathway where the common efforts of all are put forward to achieve the best possible outcomes for everyone.
The Great Stumbling Block
The perceived need for ever-increasing wealth, power, and status by individuals, by organizations, and by nations exists as a primary factor of the destruction that we endlessly seem to bring upon one another.
One Chance Left
Endless violent conflict, nuclear war or accident, and depletion of the natural abundance of the earth are among the tragedies awaiting us if we fail to learn how to live together in peace and harmony.
The power brokers and leaders of the world use distraction and division to keep the attention of citizens away from their most important task:
To take care of one another and to live in peace.
We probably have one chance left to get this right.
Go ahead. Be brave.
Give a chance to hope , love, and goodwill.