What The World Needs

a reply to: Peeple

There are two philosophies that I think will save the world.

The first is the awareness of the "metamorphic effect of power" coined by David Kipnis in his behavior psychology book, "Power Holders" and his book, "Power and Technology." You've heard the expression from Lord Acton, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Well, it's even worse than that! It turns out there is a fatal flaw in human psyche when it comes to people in positions of power. In Kipnis's book he focuses not on the worker, consumer, or citizen. But instead he focuses on the CEO, corporation, and government official. He focuses on the power holder and not the masses under control. And his results are astounding! It turns out when people assume positions of power it changes the way they think.

The people in positions of power eventually experience a growing sense of contempt and hatred for the people they have power or influence over. This is why the leader of communism or all governments eventually turn on their people. Kipnis coins this effect the "metamorphic effect of power". When your psyche changes there becomes a point where you don't see the people you have power over as human beings, but insects or automaton machines not worthy of shred of respect with having no moral consequences if you squash them like ants under you foot. The only way not to be changed by metamorphic effect is to be aware of it's existence.

The second philosophy has to do with delusions of identity. Consider the following passages from the Bible:

John 3:1-10
[QUOTE]Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?[/QUOTE]

Romans 10:9-10
[QUOTE]that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.[/QUOTE]

Corinthians 5:17
[QUOTE]Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.[/QUOTE]

There are many ways to interpret the words in the Bible. Words are pointers to some meaning. Everyone experiences the meaning of words based on their life experiences. So what does it mean to die and be born again is full of many interpretations. Here is what I think it means.

Who are we? What is important is to realize we are not just like each other, we ARE each other. None of us invented sex. It is just part of what it means to be a human being. Everyone is capable of having sex. The same thing is true with human character. None of us invented or owns our human character. Most of us have ego delusion. Everything we think is who we are exists in other people. Our way of looking at the world is not unique. What makes us happy and what makes us sad is not unique. Since you are not really uniquely alive as your ego delusion would have you believe, who you are lives on in the human race. As long as the human race is thriving none us will actual die.

Once you realize we are all the same, once you recognize your own ego delusion, you die and are reborn again to experience what being a human being really means. This new way of experiencing what it means to be a human being is like the golden rule on steroids. Seeing other people as yourself changes the way you experience and appreciate God. You are never alone because everyone around you is a friend. Knowing you will not die because you will live on in other people is very liberating. You attain a new found faith that no matter what happens everything is going be alright because everything you love and appreciate is going to live on in other people.

Combine having an awareness of the metamorphic effect of power with an understanding of ego delusion and you have a recipe for changing the mindset of the World from to the current barbarism to one having a shred of hope. This is not a quick-fix solution. The solution outlined here might take 100 or 200 hundred years before it migrates over the billions of people making up the collective human mind.