God Shock and Simple Reunion

Simple Reunion

I must simplify!

The lifestyles of the West and the wealthy are not sustainable. The planet cannot support the lifestyles of those of us who overconsume. And if those millions who currently live in poverty, who can be called under-consumers, join the ranks of overconsumers, our habitat on earth would collapse.

Yet we deny the eradication of poverty worldwide at our own moral peril.

It is my moral responsibility to consume less; to find a level of consumption that is sustainable and to do what I can to help under-consumers consume enough.

We all should enjoy that standard of living that is just at that right level of consumption which would give us all a chance at a long, happy, healthy life without deprivation. Hopefully, we would find that level of consumption sustainable. Needfully, it must be.

If we were to find that level of ‘just enough’ consumption, we would find that many in the world live over that level, certainly most of the wealthy and many in the West. Most economies of the world are based on consumption of resources both natural and human.

Perhaps we could balance out the consumption of natural resources with that of human, the former being nonrenewable and the former next to infinite. It is our dependence on external ‘things’ that is unsustainable. Our internal human resources are infinite.

If we want to be happy, to live in joy, we need to tap those inner resources. External resources will never be enough to satisfy us. They are only useful for providing the platform on which we can access the true treasure of humanity, the depths of our consciousness.

God Shock

When Covid-19 arrived and the world slowed down significantly, we saw the result. Fuels were consumed at lower levels; air and water became cleaner. Consumption of nearly every kind diminished and the environment was given a respite from human busyness. But, how quickly that busyness rebounded.

Most of us just picked up as close as we could to where we left off. What magnitude of ‘God Shock’ do we need to wake us from this slumber of consumption. It is as if we are ‘sleep-consuming’, using up resources while we slumber in a cloud of delusion as if this could go on and on.

It can’t. It may take another asteroid to shock us into reality. At least that would be over quickly. Maybe another, more serious pandemic. Maybe another global war, conventional or nuclear. It could be a natural disaster or several in conjunction. Or it could be human-made like climate change, it could be sudden or it might be so slow that we don’t react to it even though we take notice of it.

Either way, God Shock is coming. We will be thrown out of our boots. It’s said that humanity is at its best during disasters. Would that we could be better before the great, looming one comes. It might reduce our suffering.  It might save our habitat.