Social Evolution is About Personal Evolution

Posted by Heartmind _Featured_, Consciousness Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

In the same way that we must question our personal intentions and behaviors to grow, so to do we need to question the social intentions and behaviors of our current society. The two are never separate.

Growth and moving forward begins the moment we summon the courage to create change in our lives. Courage is a universal phenomena. It is something we all muster up in times of challenge. The challenges and travails we endure as individuals we also endure as a collective society and no longer do I see personal growth as solely “personal.” It is our narcissism that keeps us solely focused on our individual troubles. Yet I believe this narcissism is born from the standards of our cultural ethic. It is not something we can really blame ourselves about. Yet without awareness of this we fail to see that our individual problems stem from the fact that our cultural ethic condones a life of isolation, fear for survival, the need for comparison, as well as a multitude of other ways of being that diminish our quality of life. And in the same way that we are numb to the disastrous effects that the corporate state is having on the planet, so to are we numb to the fact that this corporate state and the life it espouses is detrimental to us as individuals.

Our cultural ethic tells us we never have enough and that the only way to secure our personal need is to compete against each other. This fear driven ethic is simply not working anymore. We may not see that there is a way out. And if we are wealthy enough we find ways to not have empathy for those who are suffering. But without questioning and inquiring into the possibility of a new way of life, at both the individual level and at the social level, we condone a spiritual death that eventually consumes the entire soul of humanity.

What I am attempting to do with my writing is to encourage you to think for yourself and question standard cultural assumptions. For example, question to yourself, what is “progress” at the social level? Is progress all about how we create greater sums of profit? But hasn’t profiteering off the destruction of our ecosystems had devastating global consequences? The dominant cultural ethic suggests to us that our advancements in technology, medicine, and production out weight the consequences of their proliferation. Yet, a race that is not mature enough to use advanced technology destroys itself. A race that does not allow its greatest medical achievements to reach everyone, because it is a for-profit industry, leaves millions bankrupt and or dead prematurely. We need to look at this reality if we are to grow as individuals.