From the incredibly thought-provoking book "God's Debris" which is available for free download over the internet................http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/
“Think about this,” he continued. “As we speak, engineers
are building the Internet to link every part of the
world in much the same way as a fetus develops a central
nervous system. Virtually no one questions the desirability
of the Internet. It seems that humans are born with the
instinct to create it and embrace it. The instinct of beavers
is to build dams; the instinct of humans is to build communication
systems.” Rationality can’t explain our obsession with the Internet. The need to build the Internet comes from something inside us, something programmed, something we can’t resist.”
“Humanity is developing a sort of global eyesight as
millions of video cameras on satellites, desktops, and street
corners are connected to the Internet. In your lifetime it
will be possible to see almost anything on the planet from
any computer. And society’s intelligence is merging over the
Internet, creating, in effect, a global mind that can do vastly
more than any individual mind. Eventually everything that
is known by one person will be available to all. A decision
can be made by the collective mind of humanity and
instantly communicated to the body of society.
“In the distant future, humans will learn to control the
weather, to manipulate DNA, and to build whole new
worlds out of raw matter. There is no logical limit to how
much our collective power will grow. A billion years from
now, if a visitor from another dimension observed humanity,
he might perceive it to be one large entity with a consciousness
and purpose, and not a collection of relatively
uninteresting individuals.”
“Are you saying we’re evolving into God?”
“I’m saying we’re the building blocks of God, in the
early stages of reassembling.”
Now I include this exchange not to blaspheme, but to consider some modern developments in my own life that lead me to consider the possibility that this may be true.
Since I started this blog a few weeks ago I have received some of the most wonderful suggestions, links to songs, poems, books, jokes, etc. and each of these things has then spurred me to read something else, which then led me to write about these things, which then led to more links and suggestions. What a wonderful cycle!!! This is the power of connecting with people over the Internet. Although I would love to have conversations with everyone I know about "the healing power of laughter" the fact is many people I interact with on a daily basis have other agendas. So the irony then becomes, the anonymous people I meet on the Internet actually provide me with wonderfully powerful suggestions and encouragement, while I remain strangely distant with the people I work with and spend time with every day.
What is the reason for this? Occam's Razor might suggest that the problem is with me. Perhaps. But on the other hand another explanation may be that the internet is allowing people to mobilize, unite, share ideas, music, literature, psychology, etc. etc. and this trend is bringing people together like never before. Over the last ten years, roughly twice as many people in the world use the Internet than the year before, (some people place the number much higher than this) which even by conservative estimates means that the world is indeed flat as Thomas Friedman and many others have suggested.http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm
This and all of my reading, interactions, counseling, teaching, and learning have led me to consider a most amazing idea that perhaps, just perhaps, that despite what we hear on the news every evening, is it possible that THE WORLD IS GETTING BETTER?
Now I understand this a radical suggestion in the wake of Iraq, global warming, disappearing oil, etc. but lets consider some other evidence.
I'd like to start by talking about a man named Norman Borlaug, who may just be the most important man who ever lived, but who is ironically a man many people have never heard of. By conservative estimates Borlaug has saved a billion lives in his time on earth, but the number may actually be much higher than that. Check out this article in Newsweek titled "He only saved a billion people."http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19886675/site/newsweek/
Borlaug figured out a way to feed the world. In a large part because of Norman Borlaug, the percentage of people experiencing hunger around the world dropped from 60 percent in 1960, to 14 percent in the year 2000. That is literally billions of people. For his work Borlaug was one of only 5 people to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He's in pretty good company there, the others to reach this pinnacle were Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, and Elie Wiesel.
So why the hell haven't we heard of this guy? Perhaps because on the night he received his award Paris Hilton had made headlines, seriously. Beyond Paris, Lindsey, & Brittney, (I don't even have to list their last names) the idea that "if it bleeds it leads" has become a mantra for reporting the news. Violent news stories capture people's attention, and murder, rape, and celebrity Dui's, have become more interesting than a man who has saved the lives of at least one out of every 7 people currently living on the planet. But nonetheless men like Norman do exist, and there are millions of us who would love to hear his story. Despite reports of how people have become lazy, apathetic, and uninformed, I have spoken with thousands of people online who utterly defy this idea. You out there who read, write, think, paint, volunteer, and serve your fellow men, and I know there are millions of you, I salute you. Optimism in the face of adversity is how people can change the world, and have always changed the world. We can chose not to read the news and we can chose not to watch Paris Hilton, and ultimately we can chose that life offers millions of things to be optimistic about. When I start doubting that sentiment I think of Norman Borlaug and the billion lives he saved. Then I read some wonderful blogs from people who haven't given up the fight. It gives me hope and it make me laugh and it makes me think, and ultimately I make the choice to focus on what is good in the world.
