Awakening an Earth Civilization
Duane Elgin
Madame Chairperson, Mr. President, Trustees of the Goi Peace Foundation, and friends of the future. I am deeply honored to be here in the vibrant culture of Japan to receive this award from the Goi Peace Foundation. Since my youth I have been inspired by the cultural and spiritual wisdom of Japan. For example, in writing my book Voluntary Simplicity, which is about ways of living that are materially sustainable and spiritually meaningful, I was influenced by the idea of wabi-sabi and how modest things can, in their elegant simplicity, reveal a deeper beauty and mystery in the universe. I was also influenced by Zen and its appreciation of the power of an awakened mind. So, it is with gratitude, and with pleasure, that I am here and to speak with you about humanity’s path to a more peaceful and promising future. That path challenges us to create an inclusive, Earth civilization that can hold the creative diversity of human life.
I would like to begin by asking for your participation. I would like your assistance in answering a question that, over the past ten years, I’ve asked audiences around the world. The question is this: What is the “life-stage” of the human family? In other words, when you look at the whole human family and our behavior, what life-stage do you think we are in? If you take the “social average” of the entire human family, do you think we are in our infancy as a species? Or are we humans in our teenage stage? Our early adulthood? Our elder years? These are the four choices: toddler, teenager, adult, or elder. Please take two minutes to discuss this and then we will come back together and take a vote.
I’ve asked this question of audiences in Europe, Canada, the United States, India and Brazil, and here is what I have found. First, nearly everyone in those diverse countries has immediately understood the question. Second, an overwhelming majority has responded with the same answer: Around the world, roughly three-fourths of every group has voted that the human family is in its adolescent stage of development—our teenage years. If we are in our adolescent stage of development, it explains a lot about our behavior.
Teenagers are often reckless and rebellious: they tend to live without full regard for the consequences of their behavior. We humans are doing that with climate change, species extinction, resource depletion, and more.
Teenagers tend to gather in cliques or groups: they often see the world in an “us versus them” perspective. Likewise, we in the human community are often clustered into ethnic, racial, religious, and other groupings that separate us from one another.
And, teenagers are drawn toward instant gratification: As a species, we are largely seeking our immediate pleasures and ignoring the needs of future generations.
Importantly, there is good news about being in our teenage years: Teenagers have an enormous amount of enthusiasm, energy, and idealism—qualities that we need in building a workable world. Many teenagers also have a hidden sense of greatness and are yearning for opportunities to “grow up” and prove themselves to the world.
This survey from around the world tells us two, very important things about the human journey. First, it tells us that it is only natural that we are behaving as we do as a species—we are in our adolescent stage of development. Second, it further tells us that we can grow up and behave differently—we can move into our early adulthood as a species.
As we grow up, the behavior of our species will change just as teenagers around the world change as they move into early adulthood: We will look after our home, which is a sustainable Earth. We will care for the family—the whole human family. We will look for meaningful work—for all people so that each person can contribute to a promising future. My point is that the deepest challenge before us is not primarily one of technology but rather our collective maturity. We need to grow up.
Two, powerful forces are coming together to move us from our adolescence to our adulthood: the push of necessity and the pull of opportunity.
The push of necessity is the “perfect storm” of the rapidly developing, world-systems crisis. Within this generation—by the decade of the 2020s—a series of powerful trends will converge to create an unyielding challenge to the human community. These include climate disruption and diminished food production, running out of cheap oil, the mass extinction of plant and animal species, desperate poverty and civil unrest in developing countries, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and much more. Our times are unique in one crucial respect—the circle has closed. There is nowhere on Earth to escape. These adversity trends could produce a devastating evolutionary crash were it not for positive forces that are also at work in the world.
We humans have four great powers that can transform an evolutionary crash into an evolutionary bounce or leap forward.
The power of perception—How we see the world has a powerful influence on how we behave in the world. The West tends to see the universe as mostly dead matter and empty space. If the universe is basically dead matter, then it makes sense to use it up for those that are living. In other words, the modern era of materialism makes sense in a dead universe. However, if in our growing maturity, we use the power of perception to see that the universe is a living, dynamic entity, then we will be drawn to simplifying our lifestyles and engaging the aliveness of the universe, not only within ourselves but also in other people and in nature. Seeing that we live together in a living universe provides a strong foundation for building an inclusive, Earth civilization.
The power of choice—We may think we are powerless but, in reality, it is individuals, families, and local communities that have the most power in determining our future. The food that we eat, the clothes that we wear, the work that we do, the homes in which we live, the transportation that we use—we have some measure of choice about all of these. The individual choices of billions of individuals in these different areas of our lives can accumulate into a tidal wave of change for transforming the Earth. To catalyze this wave, we require shared visions of a promising future that draw out our enthusiasm for creating, and living in, this new world.
The power of communication—It was our ability to communicate that enabled us to evolve from awakening hunter-gatherers to the verge of a planetary civilization. In turn, it will be our ability to communicate that will enable us to move into a more sustainable and promising future. Nearly every problem facing the human family is, fundamentally, a communications challenge. With our tools of communication—from internet podcasts to television broadcasts—we can discover who we are as a human family. We can bring the wounds of history into the healing light of public awareness. We can then look beyond our adolescent divisions and explore a more mature sense of our collective identity. We can tell the big story of humanity’s journey as we work together to create an Earth civilization.
The power of love—The human capacity for love is so great that it can overcome any separation. This is important because we humans are deeply divided and in need of the healing power of a mature love. We are divided by wealth, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, religion, and more. The human family is being called to bring forth the mature love and compassion that lives within our early adulthood. As we grow in our heart-felt concern for the well-being of the Earth, we will create a resilient and strong foundation for our future.
These four, largely invisible powers—the power of perception, the power of choice, the power of communication, and the power of love—have the ability to transform our world from an evolutionary crash to a bounce or leap forward.
In conclusion, we are moving into a unique moment in human history. Pushed by necessity, we are being challenged to grow up and build a meaningful life together. There will be immense challenges ahead. But keep on going. There will be heartache and disappointment. Continue anyway. I cannot imagine a more exciting, pivotal, and challenging time to be alive. Our young adulthood as a human family is much closer than we may think. We can get there together. Let’s not hesitate now. There is a future of great promise ahead.