Consciousness or Extinction. Our Choice.

We, humans, will evolve to be more cooperative or we will go extinct.

Pain works, it is probably going to get worse (climate change and disasters, disease, systems breaking down, fear based polemic ideological fighting) before it gets better (or we go extinct).

Power has mostly used the fear based Thomas Hobbes “Leviathan” model of control holding back inherently “bad” human nature or in some cases the more idealistic marketing of “better angels” (sorta Shakespeare, embellished by Lincoln) for constitutions framed more or less along the lines of Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposal that humans have a natural goodness. Both Hobbes and Rousseau have merit (“Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”, or “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.” — Terence).

And, we are capable of evolving.

Nothing is more radical than the idea of “love your neighbor as yourself” put into consistent action (in the United States many people would attribute this fundamental to Jesus but it’s fairly ecumenical, radical and mystical and grossly underestimated for how radical it would be in practice). Whatever the source of the concept, the pragmatic and visceral adoption of humanity collectively dropping our defense and weaponry due to a mutual understanding of interrelatedness would be a great leap of evolutionary consciousness.

If this gets read by anyone they are likely to consider it abstract, esoteric and unrealistic. To me we will make this leap as a species or go extinct — probably sooner rather than later. “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” R.E.M. — Berry, Mills, Stipe, Buck.