Our global society is a mixed blessing. The benefits are many, but the price is enormous.
Reforming this social system to maximize advantages and reduce costs is imperative. With compassion and persistent effort, these reforms can lead to fundamental transformation.
This system consists of many components. Each element shares responsibility. No one element controls a system. Control is a simplistic, mechanistic, cause-and-effect concept. Systems analysis posits a complicated, hard-to-predict interaction of various contributing factors.
Everyone reinforces the system. The purchase of almost any product or the payment of almost any tax supports the system. No one is innocent. Personal responsibility is a major reason for our current condition. All of us are seduced or mystified by the system in one way or another. We are all guilty and we are all victims.
Consider global warming. Who’s responsible for so much CO2 in the atmosphere? Auto manufacturers, oil companies, Madison Avenue, the government, individual consumers, our materialistic culture, economic insecurity, passive citizens? All of the above as well as many other factors – and the system. Different groups of people, various institutions, our culture, and we as individuals all play a role.
In relatively democratic countries, this reality is easy to observe. Even a powerful elected leader is constrained by the potential consequences of political mistakes and is easily influenced by effective grassroots movements. Public opinion polls bear great weight. The general public holds considerable power.
Corporate and public policies are a major contributing factor as well. If key administrators or elected officials get out of line, the system replaces them. The system is self-perpetuating,
So it’s wrong to scapegoat any one institution (such as capitalism), group of people (such as "the rich"), a political party (such as the Republicans), nation (such as the USA), or group of nations (such as "the West"). The proper perspective is a humble, nonjudgmental attitude that refuses to demonize "enemies."
To accurately assign responsibility where it belongs, we need to understand our global social system and how it operates. Reviewing the history of this system can help us understand what we’re up against.
The Birth of the System
Our global social system has emerged over thousands of years. Prior to 6,000 years ago, humans lived on plants and wild animals for 500,000 years. Pre-agricultural tribes that lived in lush environments, like the West Coast of the Americas, were peaceful, equalitarian, and cooperative.
Intensive agriculture emerged in the following areas at the following times: Mesopotamia 3500 BC: Ancient Egypt 3200 BC; Peru 3000 BC; India 2700 BC; Greece 2000 BC, and; China 1750 BC. The fact that farming was invented in these disconnected areas at roughly the same time suggests that massive climate change was a major reason.
Prior to the advent of agriculture, enormous sheets of ice melted across the northern parts of the planet, including North America, Europe, and Asia. This melting caused long dry seasons in most areas of the Earth, which led to the growth of annual plants that die and leave behind seeds and tubers that procreate new plants.
This development enabled hunter-gatherers to begin storing seeds and tubers for planting, which led to the formation of small, settled villages that attracted more settlers. As villages became more populated, they grew into cities, agriculture became more intensive, and complex societies, or civilizations, emerged. Using a division of labor, these societies stored enormous surpluses for use during dry seasons and for sale and barter throughout the year. When population density increased to a certain point, hunting and gathering was no longer sufficient.
These developments aggravated insecurity. People could no longer rely on the abundance of nature and they faced threats from organized forces that might seize their means of survival. This fear (as well as greed and the lust for power) led to organized military forces, stratification of social status, concentration of wealth, military conquests, and the growth of empires. The ability to control and protect surpluses became crucial. Certain segments of society, such as standing armies, could now rely on farmers to feed them.
Fear of those who monopolized military power – their own rulers as well as foreign forces – led to dependency on, submission to, and worship of the powerful. As has been well documented, human beings have a strong tendency to identify with the aggressor when they are dominated. And the development of writing, which enabled recording history and composing religious texts in a light favorable to the most powerful, helped to legitimize centralized power. In all of these civilized regions, humans began to learn how to either dominate or submit.
The fear of strangers from other societies led to a generalized fear of the "other." From this perspective, those who are different are objectified and isolated. Individuals no longer see themselves as part of a diversified whole. This process contributed to the development of abstract concepts of duality: body/mind; good/evil; subject/object; nature/culture; biology/society.
Nevertheless, many of the egalitarian, cooperative values of earlier hunter-gatherer societies persisted, even under brutal regimes, as did the memory of the "Golden Age" or "Garden of Eden." In Mexico, for example, under Spanish rule in the 18th century, communal property, mutual support among families, and collective obligations remained vital.
As recently as the 16th century, from the Golden Gate to Monterey Bay in Northern California about 10,000 Native American hunter-gatherers lived peacefully in an incredibly lush environment in 40 different small, independent tribes of about 200 people each. When Spaniards first arrived, fish were so plentiful they merely had to throw rocks into the water to kill them. When flocks of birds flew over, they blocked out the sun like an eclipse. Societies that lived in such abundance were generally peaceful.
At the outset of the 20th century, after taking away the right to land that tenants held during the Middle Ages, Europe witnessed a transition from traditional towns to modern cities. These cities involved an enormous increase in nervous stimulation, frequent interruptions, and a move away from a slower, quieter, warmer, more habitual and unchanging life-style rooted in deep, lasting social relationships between individuals who recognize and appreciate their uniqueness. This process of modernization expanded automatically, beyond the control of even the most powerful individuals and governments.
Humans developed our intellect to protect ourselves from being uprooted by the unpredictable currents of city life. We learned to react with our head, which detaches us from deep experience, rather than the heart. We rationalized these developments by glorifying natural science and the calculating mind. We came to "objectify" everything and everyone, thereby losing touch with subjectivity and spirituality. We developed a hard, unemotional way of being in the world. Punctuality became paramount. Tenderness and idealism faded. We learned to treat others like strangers, mechanically and rationally, based on their economic value. We homogenized our world and failed to see or value the differences in individuals, groups, and things. These conditions persist.
Our secular cities liberated us from oppressive agrarian bonds. We now feel a certain sense of freedom. But modern society fails to really affirm and value authentic individuals. So we learn to discount and suppress our own individuality in order to conform. We shut down our feelings, play games, wear masks, and hold ourselves back so we can cope with the avalanche of stimulation – and then feel worthless, inauthentic. We feel like strangers to one another, even our neighbors. We become indifferent, often carry an undercurrent of hostility that can explode at any minute, and mistrust each other, for we know that we can easily get sucked into an unhealthy relationship.
Individuals distinguish themselves by developing their own distinctive, superficial characteristics. One’s self-esteem depends on being recognized by others as special. Having strong opinions and being loud and assertive helps to get attention. Individuals exaggerate themselves in order to be seen by others, even to see themselves. We develop special skills so we can’t be displaced by the competition.
Businesses specialize as well. They lure customers by appealing to discrete, new needs that are often manufactured, often by tapping unfulfilled, largely unconscious desires to belong to a meaningful community.
This thorough specialization results in extreme inter-dependence and reduces humans to specialists with one-dimensional skills. As people become more one-sided in their work and their politics, they become more one-sided in their tunnel-vision thinking, unable to appreciate the richness of many-sided awareness. We are carried along by shallow stimulations and seductions of all sorts.
This modern, indifferent life-style has resulted in increased isolation. We often feel more alone in a crowded city. The constant hedonistic pursuit of pleasure produces a jaded, desensitized attitude. Individuals in the modern world are becoming evermore isolated and nihilistic, without communities of conviction that infuse life with meaning.
Modernization has thus produced a complex global social system and we, as individuals, are part and parcel of that system.
The System
A system, like the solar system or the digestive system, is a group of elements that work together as an integrated whole to perform a particular function. The components of a system interact to create a reality that is greater than the sum of its parts. Systems adjust to maintain stability.
Modern societies are social systems consisting of formal public institutions (such as education, government, economy, media, religion, entertainment, sports, and science), informal social institutions (such as families), a common culture whose ideas and values are embedded within individuals, and individuals who act to help perpetuate those societies. All of these elements are interwoven into a self-perpetuating social system that reproduces itself in the hearts, minds, and bodies of everyone who is socialized into modern society.
As individuals, we participate in interlocking networks. We depend on one another and belong to various social systems.
A nation is a unified social system, a coherent whole composed of many social systems that fit together. Without this harmony and sense of common identity, nation-based societies would disintegrate.
In recent decades, the world’s various societies have become increasingly integrated into a global social system. As the planet has been globalized, we have witnessed the consolidation of a system that shapes, manages, and modernizes the entire world. Throughout the world, wherever you go, societies function in much the same way, and constantly more so. And they cooperate to protect each other’s interests.
Since human beings are purposeful creatures, social systems are devoted to a common purpose. To endure over time, a social system, whether an organization or society-at-large, must have a mission. Secondary goals serve the primary purpose.
As one can determine the purpose of a tree by its fruit, one can determine a social system’s purpose by observing its nature. Since the birth of agriculture, two central facts stand out concerning modern societies: 1) Wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and 2) Some wealthy individuals use their wealth to wield great influence on governments.
We can therefore deduce that our global society’s primary purpose is to concentrate wealth and power, which tends to result in enormous social and economic inequality. Wealth breeds power and power breeds wealth. Life is a never-ending competition, as people on all levels strive for more money and/or more power. More than any other force, this dynamic explains how and why our society works.
These conditions are not God-given. The system manufactures these realities to perpetuate itself.
The administrators of this system move smoothly back and forth through the revolving doors of corporate, governmental, media, university, military, and private foundation worlds. Many compassionate individuals try to guide these institutions from within to fulfill the institution’s announced, positive intention. They try to serve the common good. And many wealthy and powerful individuals on the outside pressure these institutions to do the same. But the most greedy and ambitious tend to rise to the top positions, which they use to benefit themselves and their peers.
Most of these administrators were wealthy when they entered these top-level positions and become wealthier while serving in them. They influence public opinion directly and use their money to curry favor with public officials, who know that well-paying jobs await them when they leave office if they serve these special interests.
These elites share common values and characteristics. They circulate in the highest circles and collaborate to wield controlling influence over all of our major institutions. The government, global corporations, the major media, the military, and police forces therefore work together to concentrate wealth and power.
This world is far from a land of equal opportunity. From childhood on, super-rich families use their enormous advantages for their own benefit and pass on those advantages to their children and grandchildren. The children of graduates of elite universities, for example, benefit from affirmative-action policies that make it easier for them to gain admission to those schools. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, they learn how to dress, act, and talk to make it clear that they "belong" in elite company and will be loyal to the system.
With a heavy bias in favor of the sons and daughters of the elite, the top-level administrators of our institutions carefully screen applicants to the corridors of power to assure that they operate within the limits of what is expected of them. This "old boys’ network" excludes applicants who don’t play the game properly. If administrators deviate too greatly from those expectations, they are quickly replaced.
So most adults live at more or less the same socio-economic level that their parents did. Any adolescent can resolve to enter the upper ranks, but only a few succeed. The number of seats in the theatre of wealth and power always remains far less in number than the number of people who want inside. The overwhelming majority never rises far above the status of their parents.
Absent intervention by the government, labor unions, or other social forces, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and corporations become more concentrated into monopolies and oligopolies.
With the overthrow of monarchies, modern societies replaced the biological inheritance of wealth and power with social inheritance. This change provides society with some advantages, like greater flexibility. But it also retains many of the former forms of injustice.
Only a few positions of power are left open for people who aren’t born into privilege. These openings serve as a safety valve to let off pressure. More ambitious and talented individuals generally concentrate on trying to gain what is denied to the great majority rather than challenge the prevailing order. This limited openness enables defenders to argue that the system is fair, and many people accept their argument.
Of equal importance, however, ordinary individuals gain benefits by accepting the status quo. They are bought off, collaborate, and reinforce the system in many ways. Without their passivity, withdrawal, and acquiescence, the system would collapse. If most of us were to unite, we could quickly change the system.
Given these conditions, individual administrators, the so-called governing elites, are not primarily responsible. They deserve neither primary credit nor blame. They are disposable and they know it. We are all responsible.
A Way Forward
How to reform this system, and perhaps eventually transform it, is a complicated question to be addressed more fully later. But one promising direction is suggested by the concise Charter for Compassion, which is rooted in the Golden Rule and concludes, "Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community."
The Charter offers a broad, inclusive, and non-ideological starting point for what could be a global movement to establish that our primary purpose as a people should be to promote the common good of the entire human family. If the people of the world were fully compassionate toward their brothers and sisters, we would unite to transform the world.
Until then, we must grow face-to-face communities dedicated to liberating all of us from our mainstream conditioning, so we can move forward with joy, love, and tenderness to generate the collective wisdom and courage that is required to give our all to the present moment, for the sake of the future.