Empathic Civilisation ~ Homo-Empathicus

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Jeremy Rifkin ... he is an extraordinary man, both highly respected and controversial in academic circles, but a man who's ideas imho are always worth pause for consideration.

The following is a fascinating "holistic" theory/book he recently put forth at the Royal Society for the Arts that I humbly urge you to take the time to review. It is both beautiful and sobering.

Thankfully the presentation comes in both short and long form ... should the short video peak your interest, the long one will surely give the mind a great deal to ponder and extrapolate.





The transcript, which allows to digest the information with leisure:
'The Empathic Civilization': Rethinking Human Nature in the Biosphere Era

About the Book:

Never has the world seemed so completely united-in the form of communication, commerce, and culture-and so savagely torn apart-in the form of war, financial meltdown, global warming, and even the migration of diseases.

No matter how much we put our minds to the task of meeting the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world, the human race seems to continually come up short, unable to muster the collective mental resources to truly “think globally and act locally.” In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness. The very way our brains are structured disposes us to a way of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world that is no longer entirely relevant to the new environments we have created for ourselves.

The human-made environment is rapidly morphing into a global space, yet our existing modes of consciousness are structured for earlier eras of history, which are just as quickly fading away. Humanity, Rifkin argues, finds itself on the cusp of its greatest experiment to date: refashioning human consciousness so that human beings can mutually live and flourish in the new globalizing society…

As the forces of globalization accelerate, deepen, and become ever more complex, the older faith-based and rational forms of consciousness are likely to become stressed, and even dangerous, as they attempt to navigate a world increasingly beyond their reach and control. Indeed, the emergence of this empathetic consciousness has implications for the future that will likely be as profound and far-reaching as when Enlightenment philosophers upended faith-based consciousness with the canon of reason.

Right ... I realize that it's all a great deal to digest, I am still wrapping my own mind around it myself.

There are many permutations to this discussion, including the globalist undertones. Valid as those may be what fascinated me the most is the physiological evidence of our interconnectedness ... hence the authoring of this thread in this forum and not a conspiracy one.

Ultimately and as is often the case ... when science and spirituality are pursued to their logical/causal ends they often point to the same thing. And this imho is the very case here ... we are indeed one, both spiritually and scientifically.

I will eagerly elaborate on many of the above elements as time and mind limitations permit, including the yet unelaborated interconnectedness of the stated theory with the existential concepts of singularity/transhumanism/futurism ... but the presentation and train of thought stirred the old noggin' and so I shared.

Cheers!

reply to post by schrodingers dog



We're one, alright

so-called 'esoteric', 'paranormal', metaphysical experiences have demonstrated to me repeatedly an undeniable interconnectedness

Yet when we're being less than totally serious -- when our egos are out to play --- we strive to deny the interconnectedness, LOL

It's almost as if we're determined to be seen to be --- separate and individual

But we're one. Whether or not we like it

The fascinating aspect to the discussion imho is the evolutionary "hard wiring" development of the human brain ... namely that as human communication/transportation has improved, so has our empathic reach.

This of course has huge implications relative to the manifestation of the internet. Indeed our physiology is bound to evolve and adapt to its dynamics. I can attest to this notion on a personal level to some extent ... I (as am sure many others do) often sense personal and even general consciousness when interacting with others through a computer screen, dare I see even sense (sometimes overwhelmingly) their emotional state.

This of course is anecdotal evidence and could simply be the result of observational and shared social interaction, still ...

We are not one, the idea is that you progress your spirit and gain "oneness" with whatever God is fashionable at the time.
This pyramid scheme of spirituality is a lie! Gaining "oneness" is losing any part of your identity that makes you who you are, we are nothing more than emotional batteries.
We shed our unique traits to better fit the mouth of our collective Godlike consumer.

Stay different! its the only way not to be consumed.....

reply to post by strangleholder1


It may not be as negative as you presume.

Oneness does not mean we become automatons, thinking and doing the same.

Oneness means to have a shared and common reality/goal, and that is to achieve happiness, progress and prosperity for all.

There are many roads to achieve such aims, more so when we are given free will to achieve it, be one an academic scholar or a skilled and much sought after garage mechanic and respected member of a society.

BUT WE MUST NOT HARM OTHERS in order to achieve that aim, or in the end, we will never be free of the guilt stepping over others' sun bleached skulls as we wallow in presumed joy, amazing tech progress, and luxuriating in wealth. There will be no peace in our lives as we will be constantly haunted by what we had done to others.

And how we will be able to achieve such aims is to learn from our ancestors. Knowledge is not something that is dictated by the wise, but the total sum of our forefathers experiences, mistakes and corrections to the right path.

Be it biblical, koranic, buddhistic, hinduistic, spiritualistic or learning from life's mistakes, we will realize we - white, black, short or tall, etc, etc are one race, with one goal. It is that conciousness that makes us all ONE, no different from another, even though our paths to it may differ....

There comes a problem through.....

Children will always need to make mistakes and suffer in order to gain empathic wisdom. We dont know how much suffering it takes to teach these lessons.... it could be all that was created throughout all of unwritten human history must come to be in some form for a sentient species in order for it to evolve to a point that one generation will understand.

In a world with such advanced technology children will not be allowed to make mistakes. When a car engine can distroy a city block.... when the power and concealablity of wepaons reaches a point were you cant stop gangs of youths from waging destructive wars. With the assidtance of technology the lesson itself may now be impossible to learn.

Advanced technology has no place being in the same playpen as learning, growing, and suffering children. So there comes a point when those who have evolved into the empathicus species must leave or subjegate the rest.

Utopia is not devoide of empathy.... The man in the video is ignornant of another vast amount of empathic knowledge that is universal empathy. There are an infinite amount of planets evolving in various stages suffering along many of the same inevitible paths that we have taken. No matter where you are.... every starsystem were your gonna want to set up your perfect society is going to be neighbor to a screaming writhing ball of slime.

[edit on 30-5-2010 by Wertdagf]

Great thread SD, starred and flagged.

I feel that as we evolve in consciousness, we are becoming tel-empathic and telepathic as a species.

I am seeing more and more of this occuring within my circle of friends and family, both local and even on the net.

Things such as synchronicities, shared dreams, and 'flashes' where people instantly are aware that they are both thinking of the other, or aware of what another is feeling or going through, even though they may be physically seperated by many miles.

I feel this is part of the evolution of consciousness which is underway, and that these things will become much more pronounced in the coming months and years.

Amazing times we are living in right now.



[edit on 5-6-2010 by DimensionalDetective]

Great thread, sdog! I absolutely love it! Even the short version lays it out so clearly that it's hard to deny. Thank you so much for posting this.

strangleholder1, my hand looks and acts VERY differently than my hip. At first glance, they seem to be entirely different. But when we look beyond the initial visual picture, we see that they ARE indeed a part of the same whole. They are one, even though they are totally different.