We Have Found the Enemy and He Is Us
“I’m not going to take this anymore!!” screamed an eccentric New Yorker out his window in a mid-sixties movie called “A Thousand Clowns.” Jason Robards’s character was railing against a mind-numbing conformity with the humdrum routine of the workaday world.
Half a century later, the cry might be, “I need a drink (toke, fix)!”

We feel astonished that in the twenty-first century, this advanced era of human development, we are witnessing a world crisis, the likes of which we have never experienced. All of our major institutions — education, politics, economy, medicine, marriage, commonly held social values, infrastructure, commerce — are failing. And beneath this devolution is the insidious and crippling decay of our relationships with each other.
A pit-in-the-stomach sensation, swelling to a numbing terror in the middle of the night, now pervades our consciousness. How do we endure the fear, the emptiness, the sense of desperation and helplessness? How is it that mankind has become so demoralized that more and more of us seek the oblivion gifted to us by psychoactive drugs?

From the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Humankind has inhabited the earth, for a mere fraction of a second on the calendar since the Big Bang. However, as we measure time, we have been here for millions of years. We could only emerge out of nature, however, after it prepared itself for us.
Out of the Big Bang exploded the inanimate level of nature. Following the establishment of minerals, water, soil, sunshine and the cycle of the seasons, the flora of the earth had the resources to begin developing into the vegetative level. And in turn, the animate level emerged into a world that provided its sustenance. The earth was then verdant and lively and the natural environment became harmonious — an interdependent, altruistic, interconnected and unified system. Mother earth was ready to admit man to this Eden and nurture him. She had set the template for man’s survival and happiness.
Man feels his own existence, remembers the past and can use its lessons to direct his future, moves forward with a complex intelligence, speaks, and has within him an attribute called ego. Through these human qualities mankind advances, while animals remain in the state in which they were born. The measurement that most clearly depicts the evolution of this fourth level of nature, the human species, is the development of man’s individual and collective ego, because this is the attribute that has shattered the template.
The means for our advancement is fairly straightforward. We feel a desire and we take action to satisfy it. This is the essence of ego and the force behind our attainment of advanced civilizations.
So far, so good. But the question remains: Out of what did the chaotic and dangerous state of our global environment arise? Ego is self-centered. It stealthily and relentlessly gives us permission to hurt or exploit others in order to sate our greed. The acquisition of pleasure as we satisfy our desires ignites a stronger desire for more pleasure. Humanity has swaggered forward in this mode to the present, into the meanness and ugliness of a world in chaos.
The hopelessness and helplessness grows and our inner suffering reaches such heights that are desperate to find relief.

A Quick Fix for an Enduring Despair
A quick and reliable method for respite from inner demons probably began the first time a cave man ate the fermented berries picked many days earlier. He surely must have thought, “I’m on to something here!” For millennia drugs were part of religious ceremonies, helped maintain energy during hard labor, and were a casual mode for relaxation.
In more recent history, among the amazing advancements of mankind, came the discovery of analgesic drugs. Morphine diminished the agony of the wounds of war and medical research created and made available these same soothing potions for all sorts of physical pain. However, regardless of the purpose for their use, psychoactive substances activate the brain’s limbic system, or pleasure center, educating users about the delights of release, of elimination of anxieties, of expanded consciousness. And so quick and easy! Thus began the use, extraction, refinement, production and marketing of mood-altering drugs — by Big Pharma and by Big Cartel — because we began to understand that we could use them to obliterate our inner torment. But such short-lived relief, a most bothersome complication.
So an abundant supply became vital, spawning the creation of a variety of mind-altering products by small and large distillers, growers, and creators of delivery systems. And to manage the products and all of their consequences, a lucrative industry developed — drug testing, interdiction, privatized prisons, treatment centers, Big Pharma, the DEA. A system of huge profit on the backs of those who simply want reprieve, even if only briefly, from the aching and unstoppable angst of our times.
And then, predictably, we declared war. “The War On Drugs.” We began waging an unwinnable battle against things inanimate — pills, joints, injectable solutions, crystals, vapors and all other manners of delivery systems. Rather than efforts to decrease the suffering of mankind, eradicating the inanimate became the objective. And the suffering increases as the social consequences of the very system that is waging the war spreads throughout our societies.

The Modern World — An Emerging New Paradigm
So here we are in the twenty-first century, shouting out our frustrations, numbing our feelings, and separating ourselves further and further from each other. What’s different, though, is that the world is now different, and we can’t figure out how to function within it. It is integral and we are still thinking in linear The advancement of mankind has marched forward because early on we understood that only by gathering together could we survive. Connections among individuals became connections among tribes, then cities, states, nations. The inevitable end point for inhabitants of the earth is globalization — our current exciting, disturbing, confusing and bursting state of being in the world. This “new world” is no longer just ourselves and our near neighbors — flat, so to speak. Due to advances in transportation, communication, and the birth of the internet, the world is now integrated and “round.” We are literally in touch, in real time, with every one and every place on the planet.
We now share our individual anguish with seven billion others. Instead of sealing ourselves off from each other in a haze of oblivion, how do we take full advantage of our interconnectedness to move from miasma to clarity, and create a world that works for everyone?fashion.
We Have Found the Enemy, and He Is Us
The monumental shift that will catapult us into the round world is the creation of a mindset in every individual on the planet that we are all part of one whole — interconnected and interdependent — and that all of an individual’s choices either strengthen or shatter this unity, thus our well-being.
Impossible? Not really. Of course, the forces of education and communication need to be mobilized on a global level, and that requires a collective will and sophisticated implementation. But every journey begins with one step, right? And the one step we can all take is to begin changing our own, individual mindsets.

Consider this.
It is in the space between feeling a desire within us, and the execution of the action to scratch that itch, that we humans decide how we will direct our actions, what will be our choice. In as little as a mere second we can determine the trajectory of our deeds, thus charting the future course of mankind. Yes… truly!
Regardless of the choice, our deficiency will be filled. But before acting, there is an important scrutiny. Am I so self-absorbed that I am willing to harm or exploit others to satisfy my own egoistic desires? Or am I able to figure out a way to satisfy myself and at the same time guard the integrity of the common good?
This is the correct use of the ego, called setting an intention — aligning with the trajectory that is moving toward connecting with one another or toward the one of separation and inevitable extinction of our species. The space between these two vectors, called “receiving to receive” and “receiving to bestow,” is widening at an alarming rate. And in that huge gap lies the angst of our times. The I-want-to-run-away-or-kill-myself torment that propels us to the liquor cabinet. Or the pill, or the needle, or the joint.
We learned at our mothers’ knees: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It may sound trite, but consider the possibility of a world where the predominant inner landscape of mankind is tranquility rather than terror, and we are shouting out our windows for all hear, “This is a wonderful world!” All day long opportunities are presented to us to care for the well-being of each other — exercising personal choice toward or away from connection — as we go about our daily lives. Hard work? Yes. Worth it? We can save ourselves and each other by it.