There is little point in discussing how each of us should change since everyone is shaped by one’s immediate environment—family, school, and society. If, however, we begin to act as if we are playing a fun game called “altruism,” it will become the most engaging game we have ever played, a life-changing one. It will be so much fun that we will gladly dedicate all our free time to building a good environment, founded on mutual responsibility. Our egos will gladly join the game because all the ego cares about is feeling good. Indeed, it is easy to change when motivated by each other’s support. We need only agree to mutual responsibility. This is our “red carpet” to the future we all desire, a life of balance, peace, prosperity, and security. Responsibility is an ability to choose how we respond to our egoism, and at this stage in our individual and collective evolution, we are required to start using it to serve our common interest. A question may arise: If it is so easy, why haven’t we done this before? The truth is that our egoism has been evolving, and until now, we couldn’t recognize its magnitude and how far it is willing to push us in pursuit of pleasure. We convinced ourselves that the ego helps us advance through competition and winning, and that it drives progress, both personal and collective. We did not regard it as destructive. Yet, look at how we’ve grown apart. We are separated, alienated, and engrossed in self-entitlement. We never dreamed that this would lead us to the devastating destruction that we are witnessing today. Only now are...
We are witnessing a brand new and fascinating phenomenon – our society is becoming integrated. It is no longer about banks and industries establishing partnerships all over the world, exchanging raw materials, merchandise, food supplies and so on. Today, even the world’s cultures and education systems are merging into a single, universal composite. All of these elements are interconnected and interdependent in every way. It is no accident that the modern media have made it possible for everyone to be informed of everything that’s happening in the world. Such transparency enables people to connect on a whole new level – across racial, cultural, and national divides. It also puts us at a greater degree of mutual dependence than ever before. When there is this kind of dependence in a tightly connected family, whose members care for each other, it benefits all. Everyone is responsible for everyone else, and no one is left behind. Otherwise, the family falls apart. The problem is that precisely because we’ve been integrated on a global scale, we simply cannot divorce each other. Though hatred and contempt may run rampant, it doesn’t change the facts of the matter one bit. Nature has imprisoned us on this planet, this tiny surface, and we have nowhere to run from each other. With each passing day, our interdependence grows stronger. In the past, when individuals or nations clashed, the worst they could do was simply “remove” the rival. Today, the smallest conflict is fraught with colossal global ramifications. Opinions aside, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that everybody in the world is dependent on (and responsible for!) everybody else. This presents us with a...
