Unity Proposition: New Models for the New World

SHIFTING OUR REALITY

OUR WORLD IS shifting. Many historical reference points and assumptions that we held about society and its future are no longer valid. The global pandemic and social disorder that we are all navigating and its associated aftermath is driving outsized effects upon society that will be both long lasting and profound. As we come to grips with the disruptions that Covid-19 and other long-building stresses have triggered within our existing socioeconomic models, we have the opportunity to build new structures free from the legacy encumbrances developed over centuries that have tended to suboptimize our lives and our relationships with each other and with Earth.

Society is currently faced with the pivotal choice of either moving forward in new, unity-based cooperative models or succumbing to the fear-based narratives proffered by certain groups. If we allow fear to erode our sense of community, select subsets of society could be further marginalized and our historical us-versus-them mentality may continue, as has been the case with divide-and-conquer strategies for millennia. We are being given an opportunity to pause and deeply reflect upon what is real in our lives and what is an illusion. The underlying reality of our profound state of unity will begin to manifest in all areas of our lives. Discernment will become paramount as we push back against fear and begin to move forward and reclaim our individual and collective sovereignty.

The legacy status-quo economic models, which have been embedded within our collective consciousness for many years, have in effect blinded us to the possibilities of significantly better ways to structure and organize our world. The pending breakdown of many of our long-standing and, in many cases, fossilized power structures and belief systems will afford us the opportunity to create the type of world that we so desperately need. This crisis has given us the gift of time to pause, reflect, and understand the many aspects of society that are out of balance.

Economic imbalances have been present for hundreds of years. Some are crushing in nature because of the ubiquitous inequity present in society’s most marginalized groups. These imbalances have engendered a pervasive focus on material successes and inflicted an attendant degradation upon our planet. We have lost our connections to nature, to each other, and to the greater consciousness of which we are all a part. We are being afforded the opportunity to reintegrate in harmony and unity as we begin to clear the numerous distortions that have been embedded in our consciousness. These economic imbalances are currently driving a larger reaction to our legacy power structures and it is incumbent upon us to take this opportunity to holistically reevaluate all aspects of the social and economic dysfunction that has driven us to this point.

For centuries, Earth’s inhabitants have been working to solve its problems only within the context of the problem itself. It was Albert Einstein who said: We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. The energy of the solution cannot be created with the energy of the problem. New, more equitable and inspired solutions will arise, and as we embrace them we will act as the agents of change that this world so desperately needs. We will begin to shift away from success being defined in purely material terms and will begin to understand that external metrics are just that—external—and do not represent our true nature. Balance and unity in all things is coming, but we must shift our consciousness in order to receive it.

Life itself will come to be valued and evaluated holistically, as it was always meant to be, rather than viewed solely through the lens of material success. This will not be an overnight transformation, but rather a process that will naturally evolve out of the enforced pause that we are all subject to and its derivative effects upon society that we are just now beginning to witness. Our move away from polarity-based systems and toward the beginnings of unity-based solutions will not happen without some disruption. More evolved realities must first spring from a higher state of consciousness before being experienced physically. A purely intellectual understanding of truth is only the first step toward attaining consciousness of it.

The blessing we have been given to take a break, slow down, and be quiet within ourselves has allowed many of us to understand that the old ways of living and old societal norms will not return, even if not all of us are ready to consciously acknowledge this fact. We have been given this time to just be and to reflect on who we really are beyond the bustle, the mindless activities, and the external labels of success that society has imprinted upon us. Our planet has breathed a temporary sigh of relief as our continuous assault upon it has been momentarily suspended. As we reboot and resume what many expect to be a return to normalcy, we will be forced to traverse a significant amount of turmoil in the near future. Out of this turmoil will come a newer, better reality.

WE ARE ALL TRULY CONNECTED

The current crisis has begun to expose the inner workings of our interconnected world, as well as the inequitable and often-cruel nature of our Darwinian economic structure. If this crisis can teach us anything, it is that we are more than just separate, disinterested individuals pursuing disjointed and isolated lives, but rather we are members of an integrated, interdependent society. When certain segments become sick, either literally or metaphorically, we all suffer.

One of the most striking examples that has starkly highlighted our current dysfunctional societal structure is the obvious disparity in the lives of the very people who we have depended upon to sustain us and who at the same time have been asked to bear the burden of our collective emergency. These faceless workers have kept us fed, clothed, safe, well supplied and literally alive. The shelf stockers, grocery and drugstore employees, transportation, medical and emergency staff, members of law enforcement, and many other professionals have been asked to step up and take on significant personal risk to themselves and their families, and they have. They have kept us safe, healthy, and free from the stresses that they have had to face every day. Our long-accepted narratives concerning economic dogma and global competitive imperatives have blinded us to these stark inequalities that we have ignored for too long.

Prior to Covid-19, the upper class has largely been insulated from any significant degree of economic struggle for decades. We have assumed that the goods and services that have been produced and delivered to us wherever and however we wanted them would always be available. Our families have generally been well cared for, well fed and housed, kept safe, and provided with good medical services and excellent education. The stress that most people have dealt with daily has been an abstraction that existed only within the periphery of our consciousness. The system, after all, worked well for us and for our families.

Large segments of society now find themselves with reduced incomes or no income at all, and bereft of support structures or meaningful assets to buffer their descent into economic depravation and attendant social disorder. Government-administered aid programs will help arrest individual and collective hardships, but these temporary programs are not sustainable by design. To make matters worse, our patchwork for-profit health-care system is being stripped away from the very people who need it most when faced with job losses. Paradoxically, health-care workers are also being laid off in record numbers due to low revenue during the crisis.

These are not trivial issues. People’s lives and well-being are at risk. Money buys access to things like good health care, nutritional foods, safe neighborhoods, and quality educational institutions. The social compact, already frayed, is clearly at risk of collapse, along with the attendant social stability that we have all come to rely on and assume will continue. Those of us that have been buffered by high incomes, accumulated wealth, and isolation from the daily stress of just trying to get by and support a family have no concept of how close to the edge the majority of Americans have been forced to skate, even before Covid-19 and