The age of renaissance dawned on us in the 19th century with great promise that technology can bring joy and happiness to people and save the world from disasters - but instead we have an interconnected dysfunctional fractured world of culture wars and real wars - where the Doomsday Clock https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ indicates the closest we have been for self annihilation through Nuclear Armageddon.
The modern-techno-industrial-AI complex is driven by corporations who virtually run this world through its limited liability license enabling the influence of politicians and policy makers - to meet their need for more profit in the modern market society.
We are now seeing this as zero sum for this earth and its humanity in a world that took centuries since the 11th century Magna-Carta - to evolve as the democracies we are.
I would not have imagined when I wrote the article Life After Day After in 1984 in the Lanka Review that forty years later – we are in a worse place today with the existential threat of annihilating ourselves from a nuclear disaster.
The politics of the world seem to have regressed to a level of depravity where violence and war is the way to deal with our predicaments.
The left-brained egotistical posturing of the unhinged few with low emotional intelligence in power - in their zero-sum game is surreal to watch in a combination of amusement and fear.
Neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist speaks particularly of humanity’s existential crisis driven by left-hemisphere-dominated thinking to state - “We are in danger of destroying ourselves because we have forgotten who we are” in his book - The Master and His Emissary.
I cannot watch silently seeing the disconnection from reality and wisdom that underpins the geopolitical, technological and environmental threats the Doomsday Clock symbolizes as I write this - reflecting on my 1984 article.
This is my way of speaking out about things that matter – as the brave Martin Luther King Jr did which cost him his life.
I am not that brave nor do I have the inkling nor the will to take on the current powerful head on – but I can continue to speak and write in my own way – not to add fuel to the fires that burn out of control – but to find subtle ways to help people to step back – take a deep breath, say observe and exhale to gain the space to put things in perspective – move away from fear to – douse the fires to have conversations of accountability with those with diverse and opposing views – to find our common humanity in this ideologically polarized world.
Our common humanity arises out of love, kindness, empathy and altruism as we would not be here today if not for compromise and collaboration in vulnerability and trust - to work together to build the civilization we have.
We have just lost our way - enamored by the glamour of technology and profits in a narcissistic way - forgetting that we have so much power within us - when we focus on our breath to realize our power in our oneness with nature - in fact we are sacred nature - so let us find our nobility, fearlessness and spiritual grounding - truth, beauty and goodness - in that to increase that number from 89 seconds.
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LIFE AFTER THE DAY AFTER
LET
US WORK FOR PEACE
Lalith Gunaratne
It took me several days and nights before I could get over the sense of frustration and hopelessness that overwhelmed me after I saw the television movie The Day After.
I had this inescapable feeling that, wittingly or unwittingly, I had committed my destiny into the hands of some super-power who might decide to end it at a mere push of a button.
As the days rolled by, the initial shock of the movie was wearing off. This is only human. But, there is a need for us to be aware of the possibility of a doomsday, so our actions will gear towards encouraging a solution.
There has never been a greater time than now for the super-powers to come to the conference table, even if it is merely to rid the fears of the masses world over who share the same frustration and helplessness I felt after seeing The Day After. But, the future appears to be bleak. Giants in the Nuclear Game the USA and the Soviet Union seem to be locked in their position, that "might is right."
Sadly, the Geneva talks seem to be failing with the Soviet Union walking away in protest over deployment of new nuclear weaponry in Europe. Further, Prime Minister Trudeau's peace plan seems to be receiving half-hearted response from the two major super-powers and other nuclear nations.
This is the reason, solutions both immediate and long term must be sought, if we are to avert a nuclear war.
This is also the reason that any efforts such as that of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and numerous peace groups throughout the world are worthy of our support and admiration.
Lalith
Gunaratne is an editor o
f the Canada Sri Lanka Association Newsletter - 1984
“The money required to provide adequate food, water, education, health and housing for everyone in the world has been estimated at $17 billion a year. It is a huge sum of money ...about as much as the world spends on arms every two weeks.” - Global Day of Action on Military Spending
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