Do things seem to be falling apart?

I help people deal with anxiety. Many are anxious that the world seems to be falling apart, that few companies own the food-money-health-pollution-chain.

To be honest I don’t care if one person decides everything below the sky, if that person truly cares for the earth and the living beings on it - this is, after all, the vision most religions embrace and millions wish to believe.

However, historically, power seems inevitably intoxicating and fear and greed seem a fundamental part of our nature.

When a post says "ten companies decide what we eat and drink" some say “I choose wisely and eat only what is good for me” which is great for them, like saying “I have found a life raft” when not only the Titanic is sinking, but also the ocean and what contains it. Some are scared and upset. Some nod. Some shrug. None of this will make any difference.

If we don’t want to trade a massage for a carrot, we need something like money. With money comes capitalism. For everyone. There is no other system - call it democracy or dictature or communism, if money drives it, it is still capitalism. There is nothing else.

We should talk more about "free" markets. A lot of people who like the idea of having the option of “success” by making lots of money speak about “freedom” and how “free markets” are “self regulating” and “keep prices down” because the consumer “votes with their wallet”. In reality, what we see is the opposite. Another oligarchy. A totalitarian globalist state. 1% controlling 90%.

The challenge at the moment, for me, is that we are watching the 1% pee freely in the global pool, until most of us are poisoned and dead. They are probably hoping that there still will be enough great stuff for them to survive, or, they are buying into the vision of moving to Mars. I wonder what makes them think it will be any different? Put a bunch of peeing dogs in another pool, and you get another pool full of pee. The 1% don't seem to realize they too, are humans - we are one. Surprise.

The challenge of communism is that it doesn’t work, because of people. Power corrupts fast and will corrode any system from the inside. Our current situation is no different - when the few get to decide for the many, they will always decide for the few, and not the many. Regardless of which flag it flies under.

Large systems usually collapse, because of this. And so will this one. It is natural. Plato foresaw it in The Republic 2.000 years ago, and the fact that we have had numerous advanced societies over 11.000 years ago that have disappeared, supports it.

I don’t worry about what small group of successful business entrepreneurs happen to control the manufacturing and distribution of food at the moment. I do care that they also control the ingredients, how it is manufactured at the cost of health, how this also controls the salaries of those manufacturing, and the interest rates, and the electricity, and pollution, and thus the quality of life of 99% of this planet, and the life expectancy of the same planet. Because they have no idea, and if they did, greed and fear and a culture applauding “success” will keep them busy.

The challenge currently is that some are able to launch satellites into space to expand their personal empires, some are excavating the deep sea, some are mining every mineral in poor countries, some are building larger yachts and there are almost as many private jet planes as commercial in the air. Governments support this, believing it will maintain power balances. Everybody wants the snake oil for themselves.

Those of us who should care, don’t. Very few have a dialogue beyond polarized and uninformed. We are on a sinking man made Titanic in a disappearing ocean caused by ignorance on a planet that will be inherited by simpler and smarter organisms.

I propose something simple, affordable, efficient and radical. To take one step back from every polarized opinionated island which no man is, and look through a lens of love for the planet. Just that. Love, faith and learning - embracing every different wonderful aspect of life on this planet, including all different faiths and personal success.

- Manufacturing with love for the planet will be sustainable.

- Success with love for the planet will not marginalize, yet allows rewards.

- Health care with love for the planet will improve health.

- Capitalism with love for the planet is not dangerous to some.

We can still have diversity, and some very rich while others less so, but there is no need for anyone to go hungry or without water and decent food, or even time to make a meaningful time of life - even if we double the population. Not if we rethink how we do it. Buckminster Fuller stated this over 50 years ago. It is still true. If not for fear, and greed and ignorance - the three horsemen of our apocalypse. The opposite is love, faith and learning.

The challenge is, that this is so simple and true that it is easy to shrug off in many ways claiming intelligence, pragmatism and logic. It won’t stop us suffocating together with millions of smartphones tweeting it.

Love for the planet and every part of it, faith that we can create a paradise overnight if we choose to and learning for every individual to make sure it continues so - and this learning requires an ongoing, never ending dialogue.

What happens if we stop polarizing and bickering, lift our heads and take responsibility for this life. Now.