BONDING AND CONTINUITY

Central to any meaningful analysis of past and future is that of bonding and
continuity, between generations and amongst ourselves at different periods
of our lives and culture. We derive from the past and exist in the present
and dream of the future. It is not true that only the here and now counts,
when the here and now becomes the past and the future. Life is an ongoing
process, the present 's possibilities and potentialities are revealed by the
future. It is hope for the future and commitment to one's dreams that
motivate people. Many now recognize that continuity is not just in time, but
also in matter and spirit and that we are connected energetically to all
living things on the earth, and perhaps even the universe. 

Feeling this sense of connectedness to our past and future, and to each
other will result in more ethical actions toward all of life, including our
natural environment. Vaclav Havel points to the Anthropic Cosmological
Principle and the Gaia Hypothesis as providing meaning in the postmodern
age. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle maintains that from countless
possible courses of evolution only the one which enabled life occurred, and
that we are here not as an accident but mysteriously connected to the
"entire universe, we are mirrored in it, just as the entire evolution of the
universe is mirrored in us" Havel presents the Gaia Hypothesis as a basis
for faith and hope as well. This is a theory that brings together proof that
the dense network of mutual reactions between the earthy inorganic and
organic surfaces that came to form a meta-organism-a living planet, namely,
Earth. "Our destiny," says Havel, " is not dependent merely on what we do
for ourselves but also on what we do for Gaia as a whole. The higher value
is life itself. " In the search for meaning, these two principles, are
inspiring in showing that we are not alone but connected to something
greater, deeper, higher. This transcendence is the awareness behind
spirituality.

CONNECTEDNESS TO ONE'S LIFE AND ALL OF LIFE IS, PARADOXICALLY, THE IDEAL
LIBERATION

Faith and connectedness to one's life and all of life is, paradoxically, the
ideal liberation, the unity with the life force-- the movement through it
--the understanding and grace and miraculous that comes with surrendering to
it. If life is felt as the source of being from that wisdom and transcendent
meaning, then it is possible to affirm life with all of its contradictions
and nature in all her sublime manifestations. The vote on the Northern
Ireland peace agreement, is a positive, and people on both sides will begin
to trust one another, trust comes from contact, working together, serving
together. The bitterness will not end soon, but even looking at the
immediate past we know that many Protestants and Catholics loved one
another, and that reality snowballs into the macrocosm and shall result in a
growing peace. A peace that is the result of contact, connection, of
interloving. Wisdom and patience and connection can bring about change to
ghastly parts of the past. This contact can redeem the sadness of history
and memory. Only this connection will allow us living meaning in a universe
that may not contain any other. 

LIBERATING THE THE PAST FROM TEH FUTURE CAN BE DONE BY A TURNING BACK TO
CERTAIN TRADITIONAL VALUES AND CARING FOR THE ELDERLY

Reinventing one's past or annihilating one's past is in vogue, but blackouts
cannot really be done, and are only very destructive. History can be hidden
but not un-made. I am thinking that liberating the future can be done by a
turning back to certain traditional values. Indigenous cultures and
traditions are part of the conflict of the future. Consider how the Indians
or indigenous have retained their popular allegiance, respect, and reverence
while the Western white has been villianized. This enduring popular
reverence is not due to the Indian's status as sympathetic victim of the
white man, betrayed and mistreated by the avaricious invader. It is because
native peoples are bona fides, authentics, reveling in intimacy with the
natural world --connected to it, understanding it. 

The conflict between indigenes and intruders is as real today as ever. Their
spiritual interpretation of the natural world is unsurpassed. The reversal
analyses central to Daly's work is equally applicable to native peoples. For
example, the American Indians were portrayed by history and the press as
brutal, savage and illiterate. Yet we know that everywhere indigenous
assisted white settlers, while the settlers exploited them until battles did
ensue. Pilgrims landing in Plymouth , Massachusetts in the United States met
English- speaking Patuxet Indians. American Statesman Ben Franklin was
impressed by the Iaquoisan democracy. The legacy to America of Crazy Horse,
Sitting Bull, and Geronimo, is their vision of the transcendent, their unity
with nature. Indian suffering over the abusive settlers' unjust destruction
of the land and the tribe adds poignancy to the loss of a connection with
nature that many people want reclaimed for all of us. As Vaclav Havel stated
on July 4, 1994 at Independence Hall, on the occasion of his receiving the
Philadelphia Liberty Medal "We may know more about the universe than our
ancestors did, and yet it seems they knew something more essential about it
than we do." 

This point was reinforced at the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June, 1992. The Earth Summit, as it was
called, gave international recognition to indigenous groups whose rights are
commonly ignored in their own countries. The International Year of the
World's Indigenous People of 1993 reinforced the rights of indigenous people
and the needs of indigenous children especially. In the Andean countries,
the native Indian groups such as the Aymara, Guarani, and Quechua continue
to struggle for places in societies where their languages and traditions are
ignored in favor of Spanish and other ruling class languages and values.

In addition to revering our ancient cultures and peoples, we must make a
greater commitment to caring for the earth, its children, and the elderly,
in housing, health care and human services, as a way of liberating the
future from shameful neglect and ingratitude of the past. 

"TRANSCENDENCE IS THE ONLY REAL ALTERNATIVE TO EXTINCTION"

The realization that we are connected to the earth and cosmos and each other
is central to human development. "This awareness endows us with the capacity
for self transcendence. Politicians at international forums, " Havel
continues, " may reiterate a thousand times that the basis of the new world
order must be universal respect for human rights, but it will mean nothing
as long as this imperative does not derive from the respect of the miracle
of Being, the miracle of the universe, the miracle of nature, the miracle of
our own existence....It logically follows that, in today's multicultural
world, the truly reliable path to coexistence, to peaceful coexistence and
creative cooperation, must start from what is at the root of all cultures
and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and mind than political
opinion...It must be rooted in self-transcendence. Transcendence to be in
harmony even with those distance from us in time and space because we are
linked to it...Transcendence is the only real alternative to extinction."

CONCLUSION

The past, present and future are subject to internal and external pressures,
pressures resulting from tensions and malfunctions of our history, that make
it necessary to revise our values in the course of future development.
However, past experience shows that these internal pressures are not by
themselves enough to spur change. External pressures, such as those of the
natural environment force our society to assume new models, we know we need
a new path, but we are not sure which path to choose. The future will derive
its orientation from these tensions. 

Science and technology demonstrate that knowledge and the technological
complex will be a central power of the future. The capital of human
knowledge is remarkable and will be linked to a revolution of cultural
movements forcing fast paced changes in values and ethics. These
technological advances, such as bioengineering and the internet , are viewed
as both a dangerous threat or as the greatest hope for realizing democracy,
liberty, community and self- enhancement. As Edward Cornish, president of
the World Futures Society wrote in a report entitled "The Cyber Future"
"Progress always creates new problems...when you change one element in a
system, you suddenly discover there are alot of things out of joint, that
don't fit so well." So, the only solution is to keep progressing, and
inclusive human development achieves that, most obviously through education,
and freedoms of thought, expression and guarding the dignity of humanity.

The technological complex must be shared and our societies must train for
democracy, human development and adaptation to change. In getting our
priorities balanced, the key ethic, and value, must be meaning, an awareness
that mankind is not a means to an end but the meaning itself. 

 
 
Vanessa
 


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%