The most striking and remarkable feature of human existence is its duality, a condition that was created, I suggest, millions of years ago when the human mind adapted because of the sere and extreme conditions it faced.
It created two compartments, the conscious and the subconscious, and made it possible for human beings to simultaneously be capable of creating a sophisticated technology and burgeoning scientific establishment, while retaining and demonstrating the savagery and immorality that is the major obstacle to our realizing our potential for civilized peaceful existence.
This duality causes us to embrace and accept the ethos of competition that is the fundamental cause of poverty and crime; and, be unable to cooperate – the necessary prerequisite to creating peace on earth and goodwill among men.
It causes us to wallow in the comfortable and cosmetic mud of soft, popular lies, even as we reject considering inconvenient truths.
It causes us to dither and procrastinate, and lames and destroys the capacity for decisive, incisive action necessary to overcome problems, even those as urgent, clear cut and pernicious as global warming.
It is time for a change, not the change that we can believe in, that will create the catchy slogan that will win an election, but the change that will precipitate and support societal functioning.
William E. Virtue, Pembroke Pines, Florida
