What's the Destiny of our World?
By Helena Lind
In this article, let's explore the options for humanity's Destiny and the future of our world. We'll be highlighting the need for unity and action, and we look at potential global directions. And we're checking whether realistic approaches for a sustainable and positive future of our species are achievable.
Looking back over thousands of years of human history and being painfully aware of the increasing issues and dangers that threaten us humanistically, environmentally, health-wise and economically, one question arises more and more frequently: What is the Destiny of our World? Let's unravel the odds.
First and best case, or fortune scenario.We overcome our many differences and learn to coexist and cooperate without the dividers of nationality, religion, wealth and advancement. We learn to share the resources the planet offers among everyone, share our enormous advantages, and come together in tolerance. Beating the darker aspects of human nature. Fortune shining on us.
Nice, right? Realistic? Sadly not.
Second and worst case, or doom scenario.
That would ignore humanity's real purpose, mankind's true Destiny, and keep sliding down the prickly slope into the abyss – welcome to the darkest age ever-fatal.
Third and most realistic case, or agency scenario.We confront the dangers head-on and refuse to live in a dream world that'll never come to pass. Equally, we refuse to slide down the drain as a species and work towards a doable version of the ideal first-case scenario. This will make us stronger than the naysayers. But back to this majority of increasing darkness. Don't think this wouldn't also affect you! Yes, YOU. And your loved ones, friends and neighbours.
Our countries, continents, our whole world. Sad, right? I sometimes feel we are much closer to these new dark ages than anything else or than ever before. And I am not alone. Even though a lot of good stuff is happening, it feels as if we are riddled with an 80:20 kind of Pareto principle by now – 80 per cent negative and 20 per cent positive.
That's just a perception, I can hear some of you thinking, however, feelings win over ratios and facts every time, hands down. And our intuition is almost always right. From time immemorial, and not just in my book, the Destiny of this planet and its inhabitants was and is to excel in the philosophical and spiritual spheres of ethical values and principles, thus beating all nether forms of a less civilised existence by an aeon, or two. And then take it from there.
Still, are we heading there? Were we, ever? Well, for quite some time now, not really, no. Sorry.
So, what's humanity's real purpose on Earth then?
Let me begin with what definitely isn't humanity's purpose: that we continue to believe ourselves to be in total charge, as masters of crowning glory, if not the owners of this gem of a planet.
Time for a reality check.
The streams of migration Europe and the US have seen so far are nothing but a light taste of the poverty-caused need to move somewhere else to survive or to succeed. The population of Africa alone is expected to double by 2050. And the real march for Europe begins long before that.
And why not? I know I would. Because this world belongs to us all, not just the few. If it was okay for the Spanish conquistadors to conquer new worlds (i.e. rich sources of fresh income)? And if it was okay for many more European kingdoms to seek power and property in the now United States of America, Canada and Australia?
They just went, or sent people there. Then it's also okay for everybody else today to try to go where opportunities and less hardship beckon. Where they, and the ones they love, might have a shot at living a life worth living. Seeking the ultimate social justice.
Wouldn't you?
So now, what a great many in the spheres of Western powers seem to want is for the disadvantaged, different and poor to stay where they are. To stay, as our cheap labour force and our consumers, and as buyers of our weapons instead of us getting invested, there and then, in boosting their countries to a higher level beyond mere existence.
Could we embrace ultimate social equality?
Because all else is not going to work. We will be too many, hence, we must reach a state of tolerance and shared opportunity soon. Because there will be far too many ready to go at each other's throats – remember the darker aspects – if we ignore the signs to act.
Failure to do so will send humanity and our planet to the edge. If not over. And this is where human Destiny comes in—rearranging the stakes. Setting things right, if we're refusing to change. Did you know that two of the many exciting synonyms for Destiny are necessity and doom?
Is doom necessarily humanity's future?
No, because the resilience of humanity has been notable; it's growth even more so. Despite, or maybe because of the several disasters, depressions, and setbacks in human history, our species has proven to be virtually indestructible, so far. We have seemingly been recovering and growing even more rapidly despite every delay, leading some to believe we are indeed a specially selected breed destined to dominate and control the Earth … and maybe even spheres even beyond our planet.
Really?
In the same vein, let us consider the advancements and achievements humanity has made. Technology is at a level of progress which has never been seen before. Scientists are finding cures to diseases which once ravaged humanity. Healthcare is at its best yet in many countries, and people in the Western world live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Until now.
The United Nations recently stated the current world population is 7.6 billion people, and is expected to hit 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. With this increasing population, each passing day, there are more people on the face of the Earth than ever before, and the human race has to be held accountable for their children and their offspring.
Tick-tock.
However, fear, sprayed far and wide, is no fit inspiration for sustainable change on all levels. And negativity neither.
So, what is our Destiny as the human race?
Despite the belief that Destiny is an inevitable end to a course of events, we must realise every moment has a parallel or alternate occurrence. Sometimes, there are more than two alternative events. Sometimes there are several options, and they are all brought about by the choices we make and the journeys we undertake either as individuals or collectively.
I believe the human race has three destinations of choice:
- A utopian future – highly unlikely.
- A dystopian fate – I hope not.
- And then there is the Agency of Destiny option, the most realistic one, the one to steer us clear of the abyss.
These three destinations are offered to us; they are our cards, our rolling dice. They would be brought about by the choices the human race subscribes to. Not just our Destiny. So, no excuses there. If we fail, we won't be able to blame it on 'bad luck'. Our collective Destiny exists, as a valid concept of human choice.
The factors of options and choice determine the eventual outcome of the story. Destiny, and especially her lovely special division, Fortune, does not fall into humanity's lap irrespective of actions or inactions. Nugatory. With all this being said, the human race has two realistic options as far as our collective Destiny goes: World concord or human extinction.
So let us look at those options and the paths leading to them. Let us start with the bad news. The possible extinction of the human race.
Hit the Web, turn on your TV or tune in to any of the established or alternative news networks, and you are bound to be inundated with waves of gloomy news. If it's not some war brewing, it's some terrorist attack unfolding or a hate crime in peaceful religious gatherings or horrid, racially motivated shootings. And not to forget Covid—the ambassador of things to come.
But back to the, often far too horrible, so-gloomy mood we can sense. Of course, we may argue that we are now more aware of almost everything because of the speed of information dissemination brought on by advancements in information technology and the media, and that evil has always been with us. And that we're now just seeing it under the loupe function of our iPhones. This argument is a valid one, no doubt. But there is no denying the fact that something has eventually got to give. Also, with the earlier stated growth in world population in the offing, violence and competition for resources is bound to increase.
Yet, the main problems lie dormant in our souls.
The gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of physical or biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree, we are threatened by wars and revolutions, which are nothing other than psychic epidemics. At any moment, several million human beings may be smitten with a new madness, and then we shall have another world war or devastating revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche. There is also a high level of disunity among humans, mostly due to man-made concepts like politics, race, religion, territory, etcetera. This disunity leads to hate, which in turn leads to hate crimes, religious killings, and eventually wars. World War II was primarily due to racism and supremacist sentiments. And greed.
— Carl Gustav Jung
Sadly, tragically valid, time and again. But humanity does not deserve this, right?
Aside from the self-inflicted violence of the human race, humanity is also behaving in a way that can be likened to cancer growing on the Earth. Our habits are in a lot of cases harmful to the planet. We cut down trees without replanting them, drive vehicles and use machines which emit gases that are detrimental to the health of the atmosphere (and global warming is a consequence of this). We hunt and kill animals until they are endangered and, in some cases, extinct.
We pollute, and we destroy. And we are bloody selfish.
Granted, climate changes naturally occur in cycles and a lot of the things we do aren't done with explicit intentions to harm the Earth, but we must not claim ignorance when it comes to this crucial topic. If we continue to show a lack of consciousness towards the Earth's health, we are bound to plummet towards definite extinction.
Solution: World Concord
This outcome is what most of us, if not all, pray for and hope to receive. The vision is that the world will rise above conflict, the fighting and wars will stop, hate and religiously motivated crimes will be a thing of the past, world hunger will be eradicated and poverty removed. A near-perfect society, albeit highly difficult to achieve, should still remain the intended ideal for our Earth. To attain this goal, residents of the world should initiate a thought and paradigm shift in the way we coexist, how we treat other humans, animals and Mother Earth.
We must begin to address other humans based on the premise they are humans first before they are Black, or Asian, or white. We must eschew ethnic prejudice and religious and political bigotry. We must drop societal segregations—indeed, most societal separations are unnecessary.
Peoples and world leaders must unite under a common goal to put an end to conflicts that plague the world, instead of fighting political, ideological, or religious wars at every turn. In this highly desirable yet utopian society, there would be an end to the ailments of the world. As we inflicted these injuries, we must, therefore, fix them.
Would we, though?
Global warming, for example. Imagine being able to fix this by the world going completely green, getting energy from clean sources like hydroelectric, wind, geothermal and solar power only. The Earth gave us fossil fuels, but she also offers cleaner energy sources, and it would be prudent to subscribe to clean energy if we want to secure a prosperous future for the human race.
But can we pull it off?
Finally, with this outcome, we would begin to see a limitation to violence, poverty and hunger. We would take care of each other, everybody would have a place to live and three meals a day. There would be no need to amass excessive or perverse riches or feel compelled to be a slave to the desire for it because we would have all we need. And harmonic ideals to realise.
What a beautiful dream. Regardless of all the negatives, humanity theoretically deserves a fortunate vision, right?
I, like many others, subscribe to, and advocate for the second option, and, several world leaders appear to have begun to follow that way of feeling and thinking as well. Plus, moves are in some cases being made to steer the world somehow on course to achieve concord and harmony.
We are told we may still have a long way to go, but we are definitely on our way! Kinda. Shall we be sweet or honest here? Does the above scenario sound realistic to you? Sadly, it's wishful thinking at its best. Because we're dealing with too many vested interests and too much greed. And complacency.
So, let's look at the third, the realistic option, shall we? Simple: Go get it done!
This third option, or Agency of Destiny, as I call it, simply consists of sincerely and meaningfully targeting the ideal of world harmony like a boss, trying to get as far and as much of it as possible. Pushing through with an undogmatic and, yes, why not, an Omnist mindset? And for the duration of this great endeavour, it may work best if we embrace Omnism while we're up and running anyway. Get the job done according to the realistic yet non-doctrinal plan.
Humanity may never change completely. Still, if we overcome our overdone selfishness, we may yet carry the stuff of wonders into a certain future. We can get on the way by being inspired by a forceful yet empathetic necessity.
Get it on and get it done! Or get out. That's how we'll inject realism in this seemingly unreachable vision. And the movement towards it would be the coming together as one humanity united by shared intrinsic values.
One focus. One mind. United.
Destiny, as per definition, is seen as the inevitable journey and end to the story of a thing, a person or an entity; but to indeed shape and fulfil Destiny, we must understand, accept and take action on the awareness of what is humanity's Destiny. The Destiny of this Earth is concord, but that will only come to pass if we make it so. We've got the plan, we've got the goal, all we need to do is go there.
And thus, in the end, our future would indeed be in our own hands. Because the true Destiny of our world is to prevail in an all-encompassing way, open-minded and open-hearted, in harmony, as it was spoken for this solitaire, this jewel of the cosmos.
We can get there, if we action our realistic abilities to change this world for the better, the ancient plan that has evolved into modern Agency of Destiny, and through confluence of the two super powers: humanity in concert with Destiny – the ultimate double helix.
There is so much to explore and discover when it comes to the ancient principles of Destiny and the continuous fascination Destiny, fate and the laws of cause and effect inspire in modern humanity.
Yet another reason why I wrote The Destiny Book.
Last updated 22 April 2024
And if you want to know more about my reasons to focus on the first teleological phenomenon in the universe, you could read my About page.
If you wish to find out more about The Destiny Book why not read the article A Teaser to my Book on Destiny by Helena Lind.