These days, despair is everywhere.

Humanity is on a collision course with the worst sh*t storm imaginable.

Why?

Because we’re not acknowledging or listening to the voices of despair ‘out there.’

Those whose lives have been spent circling the societal drain: minorities, families living in poverty, veterans, the homeless, the disenfranchised, the drug addicted, the working poor, and the mentally ill, are at the breaking point.

They cannot (and will not) hold it together much longer.

There but for the grace of God, go I.

Lots of folks whose lives are materially blessed might take issue with this and become flustered. They might blow off the implications of ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room, saying, “I’m fine. None of that is my problem.” But that would truly be a grave mistake.

Inequality and despair are everyone’s problem.

Although the wealthy elite may think they can protect themselves from the violence and strife their way of life is beginning to incite, they cannot.

There’s not a wall that can be built high enough to keep the rabble out. The feelings of pervasive hopelessness in the many are welling up from a sense of true injustice. Unless that hopelessness is addressed soon, don’t have any doubt that violence will ensue.

Here’s why:

1. The suffering of billions will eventually bubble up and explode. How can it not? There are too many have-nots. Those who have the good fortune to be sitting on top of the heap should not have the hubris to think that their stature will last forever.
2. Protecting the privilege of the few at the expense of the many will only work if you can get police and the military to turn on their fellows. That can only happen if those doing the protection don’t realize they’re risking or losing their lives only to make it possible for a few people to take the hog’s share of everything.
3. Once people wake up — which has already happened thanks to Bernie Sanders and other brave souls marching into the political fray — they will not easily be lured back to sleep. (Remember Louis the XIV? Remember Marie Antoinette?)
4. The idea that a few should have more than they can ever possibly use, while the many starve or live in abject poverty, is one that must be dismantled immediately.
5. Whether you acknowledge environmental devastation and climate change or not, your life will be affected by it. You might be able to build a bunker and hoard water like someone living in a Mad Max movie, but eventually, no matter what you do, your causes will catch up to you. We live in an interdependent world. We always have.
6. Pretending these things aren’t true, doesn’t change the reality that they are. True. They are. All you have to do is open a newspaper, or read the headlines on Google News, or look at the gladiator-like violence and horror reported on cable news, and you’ll see it. It is not hidden. It is not invisible.

So.

Faced with utter devastation and despair, what’s the most prudent, wise choice?

We must remember we are all passengers on something akin to the Titanic right now. Privilege will not save you; money will not save you. A gated community will not save you. Denial will not save you.

We can no longer foster the notion that we can ‘go it alone.’

We can no longer tell ourselves that our actions — both large and small — don’t affect others.

They do. They have. They will.

We need a collaborative, cooperative, ‘let’s do this together’ mentality. We need to become brothers and sisters.

As long as one segment of society exists only to live under the boot of the other, we are not free. As long as one segment of society has everything while the vast majority struggle to eat and pay rent, we are not a just society.

We’re living in spiritual, social, and economic poverty. 

Truth is, the only way to survive the coming decades of climate change, is to walk away from how we’ve always done things; to innovate, educate, and create our way into a more equal, egalitarian, and fair way of life.

Those with monetary might cannot eat their money.

They cannot live without clean water and food. They cannot buy enough filtered air and water and enough protection to keep the realities of the world from seeping in. If you treat the world like a sewer, don’t be surprised to find yourself with nothing left to drink or eat.

We must change the trajectory we’re currently on.

We must become solution-focused.

We must remember: the choices we make now are life and death choices.

They’re that stark.

If we choose to maintain the status quo, the world becomes an increasingly volatile, dark, and deadly place. We will kill ourselves.

If we choose to change and embrace a new paradigm, if we choose transformation and brotherhood, the world can not only survive, but thrive.

Either way, we don’t have much time left to make a decision. Let’s choose wisely.

© 2016  Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved

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