Anthroposphere

My communication in Not-Two Is Peace is a direct address to humankind as a whole, because of the now profoundly changed situation of humankind — a situation that is not really being acknowledged and understood to be the case.

In the present time, the social, political, economic, and religious domains of the human sphere are all characterized by a kind of "fundamentalism of the old days", a kind of "retro world" — and this is creating a disaster, because humankind has not shifted in its understanding to account for the real situation that now exists.

The current situation is one in which the prior unity of humankind is self-evident — but that prior unity is not being acted upon. Instead, people are still hoisting the old "flags" and looking for "victory".

When human beings were rather independent (or disconnected) from one another and living in tribal groups — isolated by geography, and not so much face-to-face — nation-states and all kinds of "tribalism" (religious, social, economic, and political) could represent a positive human and ecological influence, each within its own domain. However, in the present time, such "tribalism" can no longer function positively. In the present time, "tribalism" is producing disaster.

Nation-states came into being through the chaotic process of the unfolding of history, in a time when humankind as a whole was not yet interconnected. In that historical situation, the Earth itself, as a natural domain, provided the only "grid" of interconnectedness. The Earth carried on its own natural processes — but, the more human beings became globally connected, the more they interrupted the natural Earth-process. As a result, there are many things happening to the Earth that are the direct result of human intervention.

In previous epochs of history, human beings did not intervene in the natural Earth-process to such a degree. Thus, the natural Earth-process, which once held everything together in a kind of order (or unity), is now globally interrupted — along with the entire process of life altogether. Therefore, the Earth is no longer holding things together.

Furthermore, the totality of humankind is now face-to-face. All the different "tribal" arrangements that became nation-states are playing off one another. Therefore, a new method of establishing order is needed, based on the interconnectedness of humankind. There is potential virtue in the fact that all of humankind is now interconnected — but only if humankind can function cooperatively, and in a disposition of tolerance, rather than in the disposition of exclusion and the will-to-dominate.

A rightly functioning and truly all-inclusive Global Cooperative Forum, based upon the working-principle of the prior unity of all of humankind, will make the face-to-face meeting of humankind as a whole into a positive means of political and social order.

Without such a Global Cooperative Forum, there is only going to be more and more "tribal" warfare, creating more and more of a global catastrophe — not only in the historical terms of human disorder, but even in the natural terms of undermining the order of the Earth-process. Indeed, both natural chaos and historical chaos are already happening.

Therefore, there needs to be a new method of human politics and social existence, based on the fact that humankind is entirely face-to-face now. All of humankind is interconnected, but that interconnection is tending to be negative — embroiled in (even deliberately generated) conflict, and involved in efforts to expand and control.

There must now be a method of establishing order which is based on the interconnectedness of humankind as a whole, and which also assumes responsibility for the right serving of (and for right participation in) the natural order. Only by this means can the disastrous effects of the human exploitation of Earth be brought to an end. There must be a functioning unity of humankind as a whole — dealing with the political, social, and economic order worldwide, as well as with the natural order worldwide.

Nation-states are simply "zones" within this totality — "zones" that should be entirely cooperative. Nation-states are among the kinds of structures (already in place) that have come about through the accidents of history, at a time when humankind was not interconnected as a whole. In the current situation, these inherited structures have become subject to all kinds of power-games and power-struggles all over the world. These structures, in their present form, are not to be merely ignored — but they must become accountable and responsible within a total global order of humankind.

The necessary right and true global cooperative order is not a totalitarian order — that, of course, would not be positive. However, a totalitarian order is exactly what could come about through the disposition of conflict that is now ruling the world, with all the players cloaking themselves in their associations with nation-states.

In actuality, the situation of humankind has gone through a progressive but dramatic change over the last few centuries — and especially in the last century. Now humankind is already interconnected and already face-to-face. Therefore, the Earth must become a sphere of "priorly united" nations. There must be a Global Cooperative Forum based on prior unity, on principles that have to do with the unified totality of humankind, and the unified totality that is the Earth-domain itself.

This is absolutely imperative — because the current disorder and threat to humankind and the Earth is a result of not taking into account the fact that humankind is now an interconnected unity that is face-to-face. That face-to-face situation is currently associated with all kinds of conflict — between different ideologies, different cultural histories, different religious associations, and so forth.

Therefore, as a result of many centuries of change in the human world, an entirely new and different kind of order is required — politically, and (also) environmentally. This is an entirely new situation, that has fully come into being only recently — most especially in the twentieth century (and particularly in the final decades of the twentieth century), and now in the twenty-first century.

The continuation of the "old ways" of doing things, and the persistence in the old habits of mind and life, is producing the current "neighborhood-wars" — as if it were possible to "play it" as in the old days, and expect that, somehow or other, things will work out politically. The "old ways" are no longer applicable. "Tribal" associations — whether religious, national, or racial — no longer have relevance in the now-interconnected state of humankind.