When the Wind Blows

There are moments in history in which the course of events is suddenly and radically altered and in that short time span an Old World dies and a New World emerges out of the ashes. While it is tempting to think that all change is for the better and in furtherance of some evolution towards order, a brief look at human history over the last 3,000 years will show that this is not always the case, at least in the short term (500 or 1,000 years). The fall of the Roman Empire, for example, led to the Dark Ages in Europe from which the continent did not emerge for a millenium. The political, social, and economic structure that the Romans had created and spread across the known world was replaced by fuedalism, a decline in literacy and culture, and poverty. While it must be admitted that the Dark Ages possess an alluring fascination and romantic appeal it was probably not a sentiment shared by those who had to live through it.

Life in the Middle Ages was "nasty, brutish, and short"

A similar decline took place in Asia with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. A marvelous civilation with a history that stretches back 5,000 years was reduced to a fractured nation buckling under mass starvation, political turmoil, and foreign occupation. Established rigorous civil service exams that dated back thousands of years and that tested literacy, math, law, military strategy, and the Classics, were replaced by corruption and cronyism. Society crumbled and hundreds of millions suffered.

The Chinese Civil Service Exam

Witnessing the increased turmoil in the world over the past decade I fear that we may be entering such a moment of radical upheaval. Increased social and political instability, the outbreak of numerous regional wars, economic crises, water shortages, radical climate change, frequent and unprecedented natural disasters, and the real possibility of nuclear terrorism have brought us to the brink of collapse. All these paint a picture of a coming apocalypse. But perhaps not in the Biblical sense.

In Old Norse mythology, Ragnarok is the climactic battle in which the world is destroyed and from which a New Age emerges. While I'm sure some Vikings took this quite literally, I believe that, in accordance with the general patterns of myths, the transformation represented is a symbolic one.

One possible outcome

The destruction, then, may not mean literal destruction but rather the end of the present Consciousness and the emergence of a new, higher Conciousness. It is, essentially, the death of one way of understanding and perception, and the birth of a new one. So perhaps it's not that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012 (the date on which the Mayan Calendar ends) but rather that the world as we know it will end. And that may not be a bad thing.

Turin looks to the Future

Human consciousness has, for the last few thousands years, remained largely constant. People today have the same general understanding of phenomena and their place in the Cosmos as their ancestors in the 3rd century B.C. had, with some slight variations to account for regional and cultural differences. On the whole, though, most people have a framework within which they view themselves and understand their relationship with external phenomena. That has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years. It is for this reason that The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet still resonate with Modern Man - for he can see himself in the characters he reads about from ancient times.

Odysseus and the Sirens (12th century B.C.)

Ulysses and friends meet the Sirens in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (1937 A.D.)

For the past 5,000 years of recorded human history there has been a phenomenal increase in knowledge. The past century alone saw the advent of aviation, space travel, nuclear power, and electronics. Mankind now has the ability to create tools that can take him to the stars. And it has come at a price.

Hiroshima, 1945

For while knowledge has vastly increased, wisdom hasn't. In general Modern Man is not much wiser than his medieval peasant great-gandfather. If he were, then the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching would be common knowledge. Instead, he harbors the same limited understanding about the effects of his actions except that now has unprecedented power. He is a cave man with an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile.

"Nuke those Commies!"

In short, he fails to see the interconnectedness that surrounds him and how he is inseparably linked to his environment; instead only focusing on short-term tangible results. So he starts wars for profit, pursues strategies that provide short-term material benefit, and analyzes every situation in terms of how he, himself, can gain. What he fails to see is that what he does to others, he does to himself.

You are Here

While knowledge comes from our own analytical ability, wisdom comes from an entirely different source. It comes from the depths of the Universe and gives us an understanding of the relationship that exists between events. It implies an understanding of Cause and Effect - seeing how current circumstances are the the result of past causes and how choices in the present will manifest as effects in the future. Not suprisingly, when we have the wisdom to see Cause and Effect, we make very different choices.

Given our abundance of knowledge and our severe lack of wisdom we have reached a point where we will have to change what we do or risk self-destruction. The current volatility and instability on this planet is a manifestation of the internal lack of harmony in our own minds. The planet is sick because we are sick. And we are not separate. As a race we have to learn to see beyond obvious, short-term effects and look farther ahead, to see the real consequences of our choices - and how they last for infinity.

Ripples travel to the edge of the pond

Soon we will be faced with a stark choice: change or die. I believe we will change and that a New Age of higher Consciousness and awareness will be ushered in. I suspect it's always been part of the plan - part of the Universe's game of self-discovery and development. But when the wind blows, I fear it'll take everything we've got to make it through.

When the Wind Blows (1986)