Q: The result is that there are many who describe our species as “civilized” in spite of the fact that we're still building, and actually threatening the use of, weapons of mass destruction in a global community that has found it impossible to create a way to simply get along. And I keep wondering: Is this civilized?
There are many who describe our species as “civilized” in spite of the fact that we're still killing human beings intentionally as a means of teaching human beings that killing humans beings intentionally is not okay—and we fail to see the contradiction. And I keep wondering: Does this make sense?
There are many who describe our species as “civilized” in spite of the fact that we're still claiming that a loving God does not want people who cherish each other to marry each other if they are the same sex as each other—or even if they are not the same sex, but are of different races, religions, tribes, or cultures. And I keep wondering: Is this our definition of love?
There are many who describe our species as “civilized” in spite of the fact that we're still brutally killing and eating the flesh of other living creatures, pretending that those creatures are not sufficiently self-aware to experience “suffering” in the way that they are raised and how they are slaughtered—or that it doesn’t matter even if they do experience suffering, because humans have domination over them and get to do with them as we want, how we want, when we want. And I keep wondering: Is this how we define the human species as humane?
There are many who describe our species as “civilized” in spite of the fact that we're still smoking and ingesting known carcinogens, ignoring how huge numbers of us are suffering from what we are doing to ourselves, and that we're still abusing alcohol and drugs, pretending that these are substances we can handle—all the while we’re not handling them at all, but seeing these things alter our very personality, the root of our being. And I keep wondering: Is this a measure of our intelligence?
A: These conditions presenting themselves in such an unavoidably visible, dramatically obvious way are what make this The Perfect Time for Advancement.
Fifty years ago—even twenty years ago—before the vast expansion of the Internet and the explosively global reach of social media, those conditions existed with far fewer people noticing them.
Q: I see what you're saying. The “time is right” for humanity to really be able to do something about all this now, because now everybody can know, everyone—not just a few people here and there in activist organizations, academic institutions, or government offices—can be aware of what the problems are, and how widespread they are.
Can you imagine 1.6 billion people not even having access to clean water, in the first quarter of the 21st century, on a planet whose inhabitants consider themselves to be evolved?
A: So you’re seeing that you can’t solve problems you don’t know about—and that knowing about them and talking more and more about them is something you can celebrate, because it creates the perfect climate within which conditions are finally addressed and solutions can be created.
I have enormous hope that the human venture will become one of the most successful and joyous expressions of life in the cosmos. I’m clear that we are but One Decision Away from creating this.