Changing the world is one of those concepts that divides society. Your views on it characterise you as a naive, woolly-thinker or a hard-nosed, selfish cynic, depending on who is pointing the finger.
It’s a topic that most writers are interested in, whether they admit it or not. Stories have always changed the world. They transmit ideas or information that infect other minds and are then passed on virally. That was the whole point of stories in the earliest days of humanity.
I’ve written here a few times about the 2012 meme – not in any literal sense, that ancient prophecies have somehow signalled the end of the world a few months down the road. I’m interested in it more in the abstract sense – how, when a lot of people start to believe a great change is coming, they bring about that change by altering their patterns of behaviour.
I’ve been looking recently at how various 2012 groups have been springing up all over the world – getting involved in environmental issues, or tackling poverty or community problems. This appears to be gathering speed.
But today I want to draw your attention to evolver.net, which describes itself as “a new social network for conscious collaboration. It provides a platform for individuals, communities, and organizations to discover and share the new tools, initiatives, and ideas that will improve our lives and change the world.”
It’s there for creative collaboration as much as the whole world-changing thing. It’s not a place for cynics. Don’t go there. It is about the future, and it is unmistakably utopian. But then a lot of writers are utopian too, even when they’re writing about the most miserable, darkest visions imaginable.
I’m a cynic, but I do appreciate those individuals that truly believe they can make a difference. Sites like evolver.net are great and I wish them the best….they have lofty goals. They do have the power of cooperation in their hands. Even I, the one who would deny Humanity’s facebook friend request does not underestimate the power a focused group can achieve for good.
The future is far from being written in stone; It`s spelt out in words, our modern day runes that define, and try to pin down the shape and substance of the world of tomorrow.
As a lay-Buddhist the power of thought in all its manifestations: written, spoken, pictured, sung, played is an energy that crackles and surges around the Planet.
Harness that wild wind and who knows what we may accomplish. Utopia? Shangri-la? any good person would hope for, but the horrors of past experiments in collective thinking must
not be forgotten, the most resent being the capitalist, the communist, the fascist thought patterns we have taken up and that have shaped the human landscape of our present . I imagine the joys of peace, and freedom from disease, and poverty we may create for the folk that come after us.
Abstract thought`s power has ever been fickle; a builder and a destroyer of whole worlds and of single personalities.
I believe that we may be at the dawn of a new age that realises, utilises, and visualises this melding of frontier science with ancient beliefs . For me, the idea that the very nature and structure of reality is dependant on thought gives me hope in the infinite possibilities of our brave new tomorrow. Matter, energy, and thought : indivisible.
Such high hopes, and longing for change can only be couched in such dramatic and wordy thoughts. We are what we think. Let`s lay to rest the ghosts of mankind and stop haunting ourselves . Here`s to the future and what a future it may be………………….