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Proyecto Visión 21

Growing anxiety at the end of an era

Francisco Miraval

For several decades now people have been talking about humanity entering a new time, or “new age”, as it was proclaimed by songs and movements during the second half of the past century (songs I was asked not to listen to because they didn’t promote the correct teachings, I was told.)

Whatever the case, with or without references to Aquarius, it is clear the level of anxiety is growing in the minds and hearts of many people who understands the rapid changes we are seeing today are but an anticipation of unthinkably deeper changes in the near future.

The election in the United States of a president of color and the election in the Vatican of the first Pope from South America, as well as the reestablished relationships between the United States and Cuba and the constant discoveries in science and technology are seen as indications of an emerging new time, or a new world.

Facing that transition -thought by many to be fatalistically unavoidable- we become anxious not only about what is about happen (Will Artificial Intelligence take over the planet? Will we all become trans-humans soon?), but also about how we can be part of that future, if we so desire and if we are allowed to do it.

This is far from being a nonsensical speculation. Recent achievements by Space X, Stephen Hawking’s project of sending a micro-spaceship to Alpha Centauri, Google’s research about human immortality, climate change (regardless of what is causing it), techno-scientific globalization, and many other elements indicate we are facing circumstances humans never faced before.

In that context, everything is changing, including some of the “pillars” of our society, such as religion, marriage, capitalism, and education.

For example, several reports indicate that there is a growing number of religious people in the world, but they are not necessarily looking to be affiliated with any of the traditional organized religions. They prefer to express their spirituality outside the traditional congregations.

Regarding marriage, in many Western countries it is delayed for years and even decades, if marriage ever takes place. In quite a few countries, it is becoming obsolete as a basic social institution and it is being replaced by groups of friends.

Even capitalism is being affected. You can see signs of anti-commercialism almost everywhere, from shared cars or bikes to urban farms to all kinds of free information exchange online (seldom, if ever, respecting copyright laws or ethical values, unfortunately.)

And who wants to spend four years or more sitting at a college classroom when we can acquire the same knowledge attending an online class at a fraction of the cost (if not free of charge) and considerably faster?

All those rapid and deep changes should lead us to all kind of questions about what’s the best transitional strategy for us. Yet, if there is something that traditional religion, marriage, capitalism, and education have taught us is not to think, not even at a time of transition when we should definitively do it.

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