UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Against the backdrop of a stressed-out world, Life Detective examines the one clear message humanity seems to be getting from God, Allah, Buddha, aliens, science, the Beatles, or whatever almighty source of power and wisdom you honor: love one another, human survival depends on it!
“Imagine”. That is what John Lennon suggested we do over 50 years ago. I consider myself one of Lennon’s “dreamers”, still hoping “the world will be as one”. Lately, humanity seems to be struggling with getting along and the resulting threat seems . . . existential.
“All You Need is Love” . . . But What the Hell is That?
Sometimes I wonder if we are being challenged by a higher power, or if Evil’s forces continue to push on in its cosmic war with Good, or if it simply the way of nature. Imagine the scenarios on the development of humanity and the leading guidance to ensure optimum human survival:
- The Christian God created the earth and humans and gave us lessons for how to live with each other to achieve eternal life in heaven. Consider what Jesus said when asked which was the greatest of the Commandments:
- “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Although I cannot speak from personal knowledge or experience, Islam appears to have similar teachings:
- “You will not enter Paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you love each other. Shall I show you something that, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace between yourselves.”
- Among the teachings of Buddha:
- “Radiate boundless love towards the entire world.”
- “Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child.”
- Do you consider earth’s origins from a more scientific view or even that it is possible that aliens have visited earth and imparted knowledge (like my hero from Ancient Aliens, Giorgio Tsoukalos)? Ponder the words of a Professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at an Ivy League school and what he said about how aliens would have managed to have survived for millions of years:
- “So, to make sure they survived as a whole, they would have embraced all of their population as one, sharing resources in an equitable and just way. They wouldn’t eradicate competition . . . they would have created, in the long term, a society still with some level of disparity — for their scholars understood that sameness is dystopic — but with a sound baseline built on dignity, mutual trust and respect.”
So, what is the love that is necessary for the betterment of humanity and its long-term survival? It doesn’t seem to mean that you actually like everyone – that might be impossible. I submit it means something closer to doing right by others, sometimes sacrificing personal wants to get along. It means compromising on one’s own wants to ensure “dignity, mutual trust and respect” toward fellow humans.
“Yesterday“, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away
For those of us over 50 living in the U.S., Canada or Western Europe, we’ve had a pretty good run in the post-World War II universe. We’ve had some challenges in the period of “Pax Americana” (American peace), but most of our biggest fears: widespread war, nuclear Armageddon, financial calamity, or plagues had been avoided. It seemed we were making slow progress towards “a more perfect union”. Sure, we had some of the same old problems with money, jobs, relationships, and other stuff of life, but the catastrophic stuff seemed to be avoided and largely became minimized worries in our daily lives. Even the worrywarts among us had to admit to the truth spoken by Mark Twain when he said: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
Recently, that has changed. In reviewing data from 2020, The American Psychological Association concluded that we are facing a national mental health crisis. We may have been headed toward an increasingly stressful world for decades, but as one journalist put it “It feels like the heavens, the world and our fellow citizens have been dumping all over us during the last two years.” Pandemic, war in Ukraine and now in Israel, inflation, and more gun violence have put the human collective in a “high alert” state. One mental health counselor stated: “It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed with what’s happening in the world right now.”
“Give Me Love”, Help Me Cope with this Heavy Load
Life Detective’s “gut instinct” that there is a collective stress in the population thus seems validated by data, science, and other observers. This reality reinforces another gut feeling: humans are linked not merely physically, but metaphysically as well – or at least in ways science can’t yet explain. The common stresses of recent reality translates into a sense of shared discomfort via a connectivity throughout humanity.
Life Detective started today’s investigation to answer how we as humans are interconnected and why “love one another” should be humanity’s Prime Directive. After all, it seems to be a major teaching of leading religions. The investigation led to a practical consideration of how humanity survives, or in other words, how humanity can achieve eternal life. And as a result, Life Detective has a new theory: perhaps all of the religious and philosophical teachings on how to achieve “eternal life” were never talking about our individual lives, but our contribution to the survival of the single, shared life of humanity.
When one equates the “life” in eternal life with the life of humanity, declaring “love one another” as the Prime Directive makes more sense. The result is a simple overlap of two concepts: humanity’s physical survival and the spiritual eternal life of each person. “Love one another” posits that each person’s role in the collective is to promote the common good such that humanity lives on in eternity. To sum up, just as our musical tour guide for today’s exploration the Beatles concluded in the Abbey Road song “The End”:
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make
COMING UP: The Path to “Love One Another” – Relationship Circles