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Thought of the month ...

April 2009: Albert Einstein said "No problem can be solved with the same consciousness that created it." Can we solve the problem of a global economic, environmental and societal crisis with the same consciousness that created this problem? The mere goal of "recovery," that is postulated by many seems to indicate that we have not understood the scale of the crisis. Recovery to what? The same consciousness and state that brought humanity into this self-inflicted global crisis that appears to challenge the existence of humanity?

A fundamentally flawed economy, which does not respect and support the importance of a healthy and sustainable planet as our home; which is not tailored for a prosperous humanity but rather the prosperity of a few; which needs constant growth in order to thrive and thus contradicts the basic conditions on a finite planet; this flawed economy brought us into an environmental and social crisis that now threatens economy itself. There is no separate "economic" crisis, or "climate" crisis, or "extinction of species" crisis, or "social" crisis. There is only one pandemic crisis impacting all economic, environmental, and social aspects, and this crisis is rooted in a flawed and fundamentally unsustainable economy of pathological cancerous growth and poor practices.

Already today one billion people are without access to sufficient clean drinking water and more have to drink water that has lost its naturally beautiful taste; one billion people are undernourished and many more do not have a choice between the poor and unhealthy food they can afford and the tasty products that are out of their reach; many millions of women are without equal rights, and many are negated even the most basic rights; at any time, millions of people are suffering from wars, and many minorities of different colors, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation in different places on the planet are suppressed and deprived of their right to pursue happiness; and many people exceeding billions by number, have to live in poverty in malfunctioning and often sickening urban environments deprived of the inherent beauty our planet had, and still has, to offer in so many places. Despite the UN's Millennium Development Goals, it stands to fear that most of these numbers will continue to grow, in a worst case scenario catastrophically.

In the film "Independence Day", the U.S. president, in his speech before the last battle against the intruders, has the vision that this external crises of an alien attac, which is challenging the survival of humanity on Earth, will transform humanity in its roots: "Mankind - that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests." The current slowly developing, self-inflicted global crisis is of a scale comparable to the one in "Independence Day", although yet to be illustrated with effects as dramatic as the special effects in the film. But we see already signs that the final words of the President's speech may set the course of humanity in dealing with this crisis: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!" We can only hope that this universal crisis may in fact alter humanity as a whole and enable us to develop the new consciousness that according to Albert Einstein is required to solve the problem.


If you have a story, thought, or picture worth to be considered as story, thought or picture of the month, please feel free to inform me about it by sending an e-mail to hpplag@unr.edu.