Our positive values seem to be disappearing into a black hole.

When I picture humanity as we are now, I feel somehow that our kindness, compassion and empathy have disappeared into a black hole. Our caring for our neighbours, the less fortunate and those “not like us” has followed. We are too busy, with our own concerns or lost on our phones, to notice other people and their struggles. Of course that is not true of everybody. However there are enough of us immersed in our own superficial world to make the change obvious and profoundly unpleasant.

You might well ask “What has that to do with the Climate?” It seems to me that it has everything to do with the Climate and all the other problems that assail us. All our troubles, like the way we treat the environment, the wars, the racism, the dislike of difference, the poverty, the loneliness and so on are down to us and the way we are.

It is as if Pandora has opened her box and released all the greed, hatred, selfishness and bitterness into the world. How can we solve our problems if we can’t talk to each other? How can we talk about reconciliation or justice if we are so full of mistrust of the other? How can we increase understanding with bombs? Where is our empathy and self-knowledge?

There are many reasons for that change. The world with its instant communications has become a troubling place. It is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the constant bad news and disasters we are fed by the press. We don’t get the good news, only the news that sells.

But I believe that one of the principal reasons we have become so wrapped up in our own lives and interests has to do with “Bread and Circuses”.

Bread and Circuses

The idea of Bread and Circuses comes from the Roman period, probably the first or second century AD and it is used normally in a cultural or political context.

Wikipedia describes it as a phrase which means generating public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction or satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace, usually by offering a palliative such as food (bread) or entertainment (circuses). It is interesting to look at how our modern silence is bought.

The situation is complicated because sometimes it is our governments that offer us these “drugs” to keep us quiet. For example, the Saudi Arabian government gives its population very good social welfare benefits. This tends to prevent people complaining about its restrictive government style.

However, sometimes we ourselves are seduced by distractions that divert us from thinking about the world and how bad a situation we have created. Shopping is an excellent example.

Consumption

The marketing of goods is very old indeed. However during the time from the start of the 20th century to the end of the first world war competition grew and according to Bournemouth University “the focus of marketing turned to selling.”

According to MIT “the notion of human beings as consumers – – – became commonplace in America in the 1920s. They say that “Consumption is now frequently seen as our principal role in the world.” Corporate giants emerged with enormous production lines, a need for customers and a goal of profit. They needed a way to entice people to buy.

The same document says “The cardinal features of this culture were acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness. ”

Since then, consumerism has developed as a way of life. Shopping eases our pain, and governments do everything they can to encourage this as it brings growth to our economies. It also serves to keep us quiet. If we can drive a new car, flaunt our new dress or make our neighbours envious because we have a swimming pool then we are less liable to complain about what the government is doing. We tend to ignore the fact that all this consumption needs the use of fossil fuels and they destroy our world for future generations.

Alone on a Crowded Train

The Internet

In theory the Internet and its ability to help us acquire new knowledge is a wonderful thing. In practice it divides us from our family and friends. Social media destroys our children’s confidence and cuts us off from Nature and its joys, and our never-ending use of our mobile phones means we don’t see the suffering round about us. It is indeed a palliative.

It keeps us involved in our own world and prevents us thinking. I so often see couples where one is sitting alone, the other on a phone avidly concentrating on the world out there, not on their partner. I see children in their pram being pushed by a parent on the phone. I wonder how that child will grow up. Where is the love and caring, the smiles and laughter? And yet, if we are immersed in the make-believe world of the Internet, we have no time to think about Climate Change or our loss of Democracy.

The Media

To me many films, never-ending soap operas and reality TV are not just utterly ghastly but a method of shutting out the world, so we don’t have to think about it. (Maybe it is because I have reached such a great age!) But it seems fine to watch horrible violence on the screen where we know it is not real. Or to see people being killed, huge forest fires burning down houses, or people and animals suffering, because that is not a true situation. Somehow though, it keeps us from seeing what is really happening in our world. We don’t have to feel our neighbour’s distress or even understand the oppression that is happening on the other side of the world. We can ignore the increase in temperature or the melting of the glaciers. We are safe in front of a screen.

Food, Drink and Drugs

It is clear that for many of us these are tools to help us deal with the world. The World Health Organisation reports over 3 million annual deaths due to alcohol and drug use. In towns and cities worldwide one can buy any type of food one wants in restaurants. Price does not seem to be an object for many people. The supermarkets are full of food from everywhere, and we can have anything we like at any time of year. It is as if food and drink (also drugs and tobacco) fill a need for us. We don’t need to think about the planet and what we are doing to it.

How Can We Make a Difference and Start to Address our Real Problems?

We don’t need to be killjoys to want things to be different. I don’t believe I am! I love to eat in restaurants, food is a delight for me, and I love to entertain my family and friends with a new recipe. I even enjoy watching films both in the cinema and at home. But my eyes are open, and I can see how we are destroying our world to cover up our misery and loneliness.

Making a difference

• Have a regular rest from your mobile phone and look around you.
• Stop and think when the next disaster occurs. How do the people feel?
• Instead of feeling cross with refugees, think about where they have come from and what they have left behind.
• Watch a documentary about Nature instead of a violent film. Think about how you could make a difference.
• Don’t hide next time you see people or groups in pain. Press your compassion button.
• Next time you have a conversation think how that person is feeling instead of rushing on to what you think.
• Be kind, even if you don’t have to. Make somebody’s day better.

Empathy and compassion are sadly missing in this world of ours. Being kind and understanding is cheap. Even if you are only kind to one person it can make a huge difference.

I believe though that if we want to have a chance of improving the Climate situation and creating a better future for us all, we need to go back to those positive values where we genuinely care about other people’s needs and act accordingly.

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Photos by NASA Hubble Space Telescope, and by Becky Phan and Hugh Han on Unsplash