Artwork By Helina Million from Minds Without Manacles

The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented — Dennis Gabor.

What are we inventing? A future riddled with unending streams of chaos, debilitating poverty, covert wars of nations, an intolerant and retrogressive posterity — all adding to human suffering and hastening the destruction of this very, very delicate planet?

Photo Credit epSos. CC BY 2.0

A self-imposed destruction

The world has entered a phase of technological advance hitherto unknown to humanity. This century is ripe with opportunities of massive transformation, medical discoveries and human development (both spiritual and material). With just the privilege of cell phones and the internet, we are currently towering over the earlier inhabitants of this planet. But instead of reaping the benefits of this thrilling opportunity we have chosen (hold on, I should rephrase that, “it has been chosen for us”) to pursue a path of complete destruction.

War, terrorism, dictatorship, female oppression and poverty continue to plague the world; shouldn’t they have been history by now?

The field at Antietam, American Civil War. Photo credit Alexander Gardner

A woman embarked on a perilous journey to Europe with her four kids and husband. When her family ran out of money to pay their smuggler, she was forced to pay through sex; for three months she was raped daily. This horrific event did not take place in WWI or WWII, it happened now. It is a story of a Syrian migrant who fled the scenes of a civil war. Has humanity learnt anything from history?

We know the causes and effects of global anarchy because — WAIT! — we’ve been here before. Hey, we even have the remedy; however, we not only choose to tolerate it but also generate it. The only answer I can give to the presence of such needless suffering in an era of lofty civilization is that it is self-imposed.

All we are doing right now is replaying a silent version of WWI and WWII; the question is: Can the planet handle another round of our STUPIDITY?

The future cannot be predictable….not this way

In reporting the recent recapturing of the city of Ramadi from ISIS, a BBC reporter follows the Iraqi soldiers to a fortress. This fortress was once a school. How many children have been out of school as a result of this havoc? What percentage of illiteracy has the current global mayhem engendered?

By the end of 2014, 59.5 million people have been displaced as a result of civil conflict and persecution and the number is only getting bigger; half of the displaced were children. These infants have been subjected to horrid conditions that even the mature mind of an adult cannot bear. Keep in mind that children are not just delicate beings; they are the future.

There now exists millions of people who have lost their families, witnessed mass killings, served as fodders for extremists and much besides. They would need an army of psychiatrists to overcome the trauma. In discussing her experience at a center in West Berlin where she and her crew of therapists are currently treating female migrants who have been victims of sexual abuse, Susanne Höhne, the lead psychotherapist, tells The New York Times that she and her crew have to seek council from their own therapists to deal with what they are hearing.

Syrian refugees in Jordan. Photo Credit DFID. CC-BY 2.0

As we flounder in this human-induced conundrum nature roars with indignation. Climate change sounds the knell of our ONE planet. If not addressed immediately, it will be another cause of human displacement and civil unrest.

The rise of violence, conflict, human oppression, destruction of nations, lethal environmental destruction — what the hell do we have under control?

Scared of the world

Most of the devastation caused today is often blatantly intentional. Whatever kind of syndicate or ideology is behind this destruction is very scared of the world, scared of diversity, culture, religion and the many other splendors that adorn the planet. It has no respect for history and human heritage. It is void of the human traits of compassion and it is very eager to build its idea of a euphoric abode. The vision it holds is of a robotic world riddled with plastic beauty and mind-numbing monotony.

The only hope for a “predictable” future is UNITY

The mayhem of the world, as I have stated earlier, is a self imposed one. What is happening today should have never taken place. The warnings were there; available too were the preventive tools. We let this get out of control and now we are faced with an enormous problem, a problem we can only resolve as one.

However different we feel we might be, we are all bound by one planet. Each blood vessel of earth is tied to every one of us. The sooner we learn to work as a unit the sooner we piece the shattered fragments of our planet, including its inhabitants.

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. Photo Credit Trocaire. CC-BY 2.0

Let us fight as one to build a world void of human suffering, a future embellished with diversity, culture and global unity. Let us not allow the posterity to inherit our noxious traits of bigotry, violence and self-destruction. Building a perfect future begins with creating a conducive environment for children — they are the future and investing in them is in our VERY best interest.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools — Martin Luther King, Jr.

This article was originally published on Minds Without Manacles. You can read more of her articles and view some of her artworks on this blog.

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