Global Consiousness - We All Share One World

In today's world, all nations and all people are more inter-connected and inter-dependent than ever. An economic downturn in one country rapidly impacts upon its neighbours, which - in this era of globalisation - means all of us. Military spending is declining as a percentage of GDP, social justice networks are growing steadily stronger and global politics has moved on from the entrenched conflict of the cold war.

Environmentalism is uniting the world's youth, as mankind faces problems such as pollution and climate change that know no borders. Underpinning this change in consciousness is an acknowledgement of the co-dependence of the diverse forms of life on earth. Better understanding has brought about the realisation that every species has its own role to play in an ecosystem, and that a threat to any part of the system is in fact a threat to the whole system. Far from being something to be afriad of, diversity is now seen as something to be treasured.

Some would say that the conflicts going on in the world prove that mankind has learnt nothing from millenia of historical struggle. However, we believe that a worldwide change of consciousness is underway. The recent invasion of Iraq, for example, sparked the largest ever anti-war demonstration, involving well over 10,000,000 people in dozens of countries worldwide.

As the world quickly becomes more characterised by material abundance than by scarcity, last century's metaphor of life as a Struggle for existance¹ is looking increasingly inappropriate. Social Darwinism, popular amongst the ruling elites a century ago, is now a highly unpopular view, and insights such as the evolution of altruism have sprung from a deeper understanding.

Now connected worldwide by communication technology as never before, more and more young people are making personal connections internationally. More experience makes them less willing to accept simple stereotypes. They are questioning their parents' worldview of life as a perpetual battle, and are trying to think and behave more altruistically. Nowadays no government or corporation can afford to ignore the new force know as 'global public opinion'.

The old, national and regional top-down systems of military, financial, legal and political domination are fast becoming untenable in the face of younger, decentralised but increasingly coherent chaordic grassroots alternatives. The social justice movement and the solidaity economy resonate more deeply with the human spirit because they are based on consensus not control, on cooperation not on conflict.

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