As the number of billionaires increase, with ‘creations’ of material wealth seemingly out of thin air – buying and selling money to accumulate more money – it seems like a good reason to ask the question: How Will Future Generations Remember Our Time?

In this piece by David Korten (Yes magazine, Apr 17, 2019), he asks us to consider the implications of living out a story that is frankly out of this world.  The current story is so fraught with inconsistencies and myths that it makes you wonder how we arrived at this juncture in human history.  Then again, Korten charts the history thus far and says we need to: “Break the silence, end the isolation, change the story.” Says Korten:

“We face a defining choice between two contrasting models for organizing human affairs. Give them the generic names Empire and Earth Community. Absent an understanding of the history and implications of this choice, we may squander valuable time and resources on efforts to preserve or mend cultures and institutions that cannot be fixed and must be replaced.

“We humans live by stories. The key to making a choice for [an] Earth Community is recognizing that the foundation of Empire’s power does not lie in its instruments of physical violence. It lies in Empire’s ability to control the stories by which we define ourselves and our possibilities to perpetuate the myths on which the legitimacy of the dominator relations of Empire depend. To change the human future, we must change our defining stories.

And later …

The distinctive human capacity for reflection and intentional choice carries a corresponding moral responsibility to care for one another and the planet. Indeed, our deepest desire is to live in loving relationships with one another. The hunger for loving families and communities is a powerful, but latent, unifying force and the potential foundation of a winning political coalition dedicated to creating societies that support every person in actualizing his or her highest potential.

And to conclude:

In these turbulent and often frightening times, it is important to remind ourselves that we are privileged to live at the most exciting moment in the whole of the human experience. We have the opportunity to turn away from Empire and to embrace Earth Community as a conscious collective choice. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Regardless of our age or cultural heritage, this is a thoughtful piece that is worth the ten minutes or so it takes to read what Korten has to say.  Find it at this link: How will future generations remember our time?