World Collapse?

At the dawn of the 21st century, Mankind stands at the threshold of complete world social and environmental breakdown and collapse.

According to a report submitted by 1,300 of the world's leading scientists from 95 countries in 2005, human civilization and the biosphere are on the brink of utter and complete catastrophe.

The current State of the World is dire indeed. Between 1960-2000, the world population doubled from 3 billion to more than 6 billion. At the same time, the global economy increased more than sevenfold. Clearly, the dual trends of continuing ecological degradation and increasing human demand and consumption of finite natural resources cannot and will not continue. Many believe that the Earth's "carrying capacity" has ALREADY been breached.

The primary "tipping points" include:
1) GLOBAL WARMING; as a result of the hydrocarbon economy and the excessive dependence on fossil fuels.
2) GLOBAL WATER CRISIS; resulting in massive planetary water shortages and scarcity.
3) DEFORESTATION and DESERTIFICATION; loss of watershed reserve, leading to massive dislocation.
4) OVERPOPULATION; 6.5 billion and counting- THE source of ALL global social and ecological instability.
5) WAR, WEAPONS and CONFLICT; $1 trillion spent annually on the machinery of human death and environmental destruction.
6) GLOBAL PANDEMICS of flu and viruses; resulting in million (if not billions) of human deaths worldwide.
7) GLOBAL POVERTY; which affects roughly 2/3rds of humanity. The continued failure to implement global sustainable development results in highly destructive social and environmental behavior, as well as the deaths of at least 40 million innocent men, women and children (seven Jewish holocausts) worldwide annually.

Unless and until humanity evolves spiritually and improves his relationship with his fellow man and the world upon which he lives, the societal/ecological collapse of human civilization is inevitable.

Steve Jones
Nederland, Colorado

Connecting The Dots

Morgan, I saw your article and totally agree with you. It is a "keepable" article. ("Stop Eating the Menu! Gestalt and Zen," OPEN EXCHANGE, October-December 2005)

When I first came to SF from the Big Apple in the 60's, I went to SF State, met Fritz Perls (crazy Gestaltist), Maslow, Carl Rogers and others at Esalen Institute, and then went to Shunryu Suzuki's SF Zen Center on Bush Street for a month.

The dots never connected.

A few years later I went to Sonoma State's Humanistic Pysch MA program and met Gordon Tappan, a Professor of Jungian/Gestalt orientation who would do 1-1's with his students. I was very intellectual. He told me "drop the books and do things you've never before." Get out of your shell, so to speak. Two years later, under Bill Graham's mentoring, I was producing rock concerts. Dealing with talent agents, band leaders, advertising, police/security guards, blah, blah... that cracked my shell.

Then I read philosopher Martin Heidegger ask "Why is there anything instead of Nothing?" and at that moment the dots connected. Everything here is the best. Flies, fish, weeds, the sun, flowers, etc. The esoteric Zen "sound of one hand clapping" became [clear], at least for me.

If Plato and Aristotle were sitting in front of a pool, Plato would speculate about the "meaning" of the pool or how cold it "might" be. Aristotle would take his robes off, jump in and say, "YIKES, it's COLD in here!" Set the stage for rationalism and empiricism, the long history of philosophy.

So the Mango IS better than the Menu! Good analogy, Morgan. FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." His wife Eleanor wrote, "Do one thing every day that scares you." So get out there and DO IT!

Chuck Hlavac
Windsor, CA

Chuck, in addition to your bouquet to Gestalt teacher Morgan Goodlander, it seems you've written an apt reply to Steve Jones' fears about world collapse. We may not have control over the final outcome, but we certainly can make a worthy effort to improve the human condition. So let's "do it!"

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