Standing on the Edge

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other” 
– Mother Teresa

While no apocalyptic-style occurrences have yet gripped the Earth, in the spirit of those fear mongering 2012 prophecies, you could be forgiven for feeling that the world is somehow sinking into a dark, bottomless pit of no return.

Top of everyone’s mind right now is the global financial crisis, which sees more and more American and European families sliding into poverty every day, to the point where we were reading about Greek mothers leaving their children on orphanage doorsteps because they simply could no longer afford to feed them.

Which undoubtedly suits those in power. I am no political expert or psychoanalyst, I am just a thirty-something mother who wants to see the 99 percent look within themselves and find empowerment, in order to make the world a better place again for my child, and for future generations beyond her. But it is not hard to read between the lines when you look out across the world right now.

As this crisis deepens, creating more and more of a chasm between rich and poor, it becomes more than just a chasm of financial means. It becomes a chasm between power and helplessness, a chasm between love and fear.

As the powerful have reached a point of breathtaking exploitation and corruption, the world has finally begun to wake up to the fact that things are not changed with vengeance, anger and war, but love for their families, their country, themselves – leading to peaceful change through non-violent protest and leading by example.

This makes the powerful afraid, and so they seek to cling on to their power by spreading more fear, and thus more feelings of helplessness. They keep us embroiled in wars so that they can continue to profiteer. They bring in controlling laws and regulations to stay in control of the masses. They make us believe they are trying to help those in need but never actually do it. They exploit our planet at the expense of life, including ours, be it driving people out of their homes to line the pockets of frackers or allowing oil companies to endanger the beautiful wilderness that regulates our climate. Global warming and climate disaster will no doubt be further means of exploitation by these people, profiteering to the last while bringing misery to the masses.

And to combat the growing uprising they seek to gain even more control, through new laws that suppress the right to protest or that can have you humiliated or thrown in jail indefinitely, for no good reason. They disguise these disgraceful elements of dictatorship under the banner of protecting the people from terrorism. But who are the real terrorists here? The only people they are seeking to protect are themselves.

And all the while, the real people of this world continue to suffer. The more we are suppressed, the more we are broken down, piece by piece, the more we fall into victim and survivor modes, worried only about ourselves and our very nearest and dearest. To hell with the rest of the world, what about me? In creeps the mindset that the media and the governments want us to have – what is the point of protesting? Unlawful action against corporations is wrong, it is breaking the law (never mind that those companies are being even more immoral and unlawful). Occupy is a waste of time, those people should go get a job. We can’t change the world, so we just have to put up with it and leave everyone else behind to survive. Screw humanity.

“Divide and conquer” springs to mind. But such a vision did Julius Caesar no favours, and it is time that people united again to put an end to this unjust power before it grows even more powerful.

We need to stop feeling afraid. Stop feeling angry. Stop feeling guilty. What do we want to be, truly? What do we want the world to be? Neither will be achieved through negative feelings. Nor will they be achieved by burying our heads in the sand. And most of all, they will not be achieved by blame.

Sure, it is easy to say that the powerful elite has caused all of these problems. But the truth of the matter is, they took advantage of a world that let them, and we have to face ourselves, to ask ourselves why.

We allowed ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking materialism was what made us happy, complete, whole, important, whatever. We allowed ourselves to become self-absorbed, lulled into a world of commercialism, celebrity and little or no responsibility. We fell asleep, in effect, and woke up to find the world had changed for the worst.

These curses of commercialism and consumerism have permeated every area of life. Technology means we are bombarded with so much information and so many choices on a daily basis that we have forgotten the true nature and meaning of things.

Even charities have taken the stance of marching up to you in the street and making you feel guilty. What, you can’t afford to give £20 a month to us? But look at you, with your nice clothes and your bag of shopping and your cup of Starbucks coffee! You’re a disgrace to humanity!

Think what you like of controversial comic Frankie Boyle, but you cannot deny he makes many valid points in his open letter to the BBC. He ends it talking about a documentary on life in Palestine. A doctor is asked what he thinks will be achieved by highlighting the plight of a child who cannot be treated because they don’t have enough supplies, and his response is that people will do nothing.

Boyle’s response is equally harrowing. 

“I cried at that and promised myself that I would do something. Other than write a few stupid jokes I have not done anything. Neither have you.”

Such words are harsh. The truth is harsher. We have become indifferent to the world. We turn the other cheek, look away when we should be looking harder, pretend that the stuff out there isn’t happening.

There is a theory that the people or things that make us upset or uncomfortable in our lives are actually our mirrors, to help us change and grow.

The state of the world right now is a mirror to our mistake. Right now we feel like those who have control - the governments, the world powers, the banks, the rich, the elite – all of them are indifferent to us, our needs, the needs of the people.

But are they are a mirror to our own indifference? Yes, and that indifference has brought us to our knees.

Only by awakening and feeling, truly feeling, for ourselves and others, can we begin to restore balance, harmony and justice to the world. It is not the responsibility of a few, it is the responsibility of us all. So ask yourself, what am I prepared to offer? Indifference and self-misery, which will sink us further into a suppressed and broken nation? Or love, positive action and regard for humanity, which can only cause us to soar?

We are standing on the edge of a society falling apart. When you get to the edge, what will you do? Because even then, even when you are forced into stepping off that precipice, you still have a choice. You can fall. Or you can learn how to fly.