What’s Wrong With The World Today?
The world is changing rapidly. The technologically, the last 100 years have seen more change than the last 1000 years before it. Mindsets within an established governmental structure are shifting faster than ever before in history. The ability to adapt has never been more important than in today’s world.
Stress Levels Are Through The Roof
And with any need to adapt comes the inherent stress of that change on the body. We are seeing higher obesity rates (linked to stress through higher production of cortisol which causes weight gain), higher rates of heart disease, and higher rates of depression as well as anxiety-related disorders.
Out of Control
The world feels out of control and to the average person, it feels as though we are powerless to change it. Part of this sense of helplessness comes from the fact that we are taught to accept the things we are told, pretty much on faith. We are not taught to question our assumptions or to think for ourselves.
We Don’t Learn How To Think
Our basic education system is designed to create a mindset of conformity and structure and to teach us to “follow the rules”. It is not designed to teach us to think. For that skill, you have to go to college. Why? Because if you think for yourself, you might disagree with the people in charge and that makes you hard to control. The problem with this is that in today’s culture, our children are getting the message to question and indeed to challenge authority through music, television, video games and other popular culture mediums – and they are getting this message in the absence of any education on how to think for themselves. This is a very dangerous combination.
Manipulation by Fear and Anger
What happens when people don’t learn to think and are encouraged to blindly defy authority is that they are easily swayed by anger and fear mongering. A thoughtful person, for instance, would realize that there is no reason for the Homeland Security Threat Alerts except to control the level of fear in the average person on the street. When people are afraid, they are more compliant with authority – looking to it as a parent that is supposed to take care of them. When people are thoughtful, they might want to know why the terrorists hate us in the first place (a question I waited to be asked and answered after the 9/11 attacks which never was).
Many People Refuse To Engage Their Brains
Yes, we’re not taught to think. But even to the extent that most people are capable of engaging, many refuse to do so. Part of this, in my opinion, is the result of 50 years of television. We have trained ourselves that when we are not at work and expected to be thoughtful, that we turn our brains off by watching the pablum put out by the majority of Hollywood. This doesn’t serve us.
Engage Your Brain and Take Control of Your Life
It is only through critical thought and true reflection that we have the ability to change. And it is only through changing ourselves that we can hope to create change in our circumstances. In the challenging economic climate, it is a world of innovate or die. If we don’t learn to stop blindly following the crowd and instead start to forge a new path for ourselves – one made with conscious choice based on consider thought – we as a culture will find ourselves looking back several years from now wondering “what happened?”
A Macro Look at the World: Part I – Revisioning Business
A Macro Look at the World: Part II – A Return to Tribalism in America
