By Mark Antony Rossi

It takes an extraordinary amount of energy to believe in our species. Humanity is a deeply flawed sentient entity willing to kill its finest messengers. Our history is a metaphysical zigzag of stop and go, progress and regress, high and low, making any realistic charting of a collective character a guessing game. Even with a system of organized beliefs most roll the dice before drafting critical decisions.

Throughout the ages we clung to the desperate dream of Freedom. And every time we achieved a measure of freedom, we quickly traded it for a minor slice of security. Like overgrown children we demand rights and reject the responsibility incumbent for the maintenance of a civil society. Instead of exploring mutual cooperation to bring strength to a worthy cause, too many mire in self-defeating conspiracy theories created to blame anything but the mirror.

The struggle to improve the human condition remains an intractable dilemma due to simple-minded political or religious formulas devised to provide needed social structure. Yet destined to fail since their foundations are continually based on our worst fears and prejudices. How can we grow as a people when constantly bombarded by divisive propaganda crafted to seduce certain groups and separate them from others. Unity is stillborn in the bowels of dishonesty.

Nationhood helps little. It’s just another rallying cry for rogue sentiment disguised as mainstream values. When we gather the strength to admit our deeper need for approval—it is only then our eyes open to the possibility of productive communication with people who do not look, think, or act like us. That lucid opportunity is called a point of clarity because it views difference as it should be viewed: different; not dangerous. Enemies cannot exist in a landscape of lucid thinkers. Friendships are forged through interpersonal interaction and are the true basis of building a better society.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed but what is certain is our species requires a new set of leaders who see past technology and terror and talk in terms of transcending difference by transforming difference into a currency of curiosity and conscience. The same urgency to learn about the Cosmos should be put into learning about each other. A Manhattan Project harnessing personal connection as a social fuel designed to propel humanity to a place seldom explored in daily life: the face to face encounter.

Imagine what we could learn about ourselves and each other by choosing to not hide behind culture, color, cinema, computers and the convenient excuses emulating from reckless freedom. The future will be written by who survive apocalypse. And apocalypse is terribly misunderstood. It doesn’t need chaos. It doesn’t need catastrophe. It doesn’t need four, six or eight horsemen.    It only needs your permission. Don’t give it. Don’t give in. Don’t give up. Welcome that different family to your neighborhood. It starts there.

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