Article: Two Paths to Solving the World's Problems

I have been reflecting on all the problems facing the world, the rampant militarism, endless warfare and ongoing disease, the incredible poverty and hunger, the threat of environmental meltdown due to global warming, the overarching corruption throughout all strata of society, the arrogance and unaccountability of so many leaders, and on and on ad infinitum.

When the world gets so totally screwed up, two things are supposed to happen according to ancient lore:

1) a great flood comes to inundate the world, or

2) an Avatar appears to redeem the world.

Perhaps a variation of the two is in the works. Al Gore points out that Option 1 is already developing. So, is anyone auditioning for Avatar?

Of course, the problem with Avatars is that pining away for this mythological solution unfortunately allows us to slip into the syndrome of "I have no responsibilities; the leader will save me from disaster." It is the stuff of fairy tales.

So we are left with the cold reality that we face immense 21st Century challenges that no one has been able to surmount yet, despite all the think tanks and grand strategies. But is it really hopeless?

Not at all, when you stop and analyze the underlying approach to all solutions to the world's problems. This approach is always intermeshed with power, hierarchy, egocentrism and the threat or use of force or pain of some sort. Moreover, what is the one thing completely missing in all the geopolitical strategies and ideologies of all the major players on the world stage right now, not to mention for the last several thousand years? Give up?

The answer is love, the very thing the major religions should promote in the world, but hardly ever do on any meaningful level. The late local Guru in Virginia Beach, Virginia and a successor of sorts to Edgar Cayce in the minds of many, Paul Solomon (see: http://www.paulsolomon.com/ ), pointed out how there are only two paths to follow in life, the path of fear and the path of love.

Hitherto this point in human history, the former path, fear, has held vast sway and has lately become a twelve-lane super-highway in the hands of zombies like George Bush, Tony Blair and Dick Cheney. Meanwhile, the latter path is so badly overgrown with weeds and briars it is rarely ever used politically. And yet in our personal lives, we all sooner or later realize that love is a much better way to relate to our families and friends, even pets and plants. Isn't it time to apply the lessons of the microcosm to the macrocosm, to make love the underlying principle of how nations and peoples relate to each other and to the planet?

Ohhh, but that is a Marijuana pipe-dream you may say! Only if you don't take love to heart! If you focus on love as the real pathway to solving international problems, if you reaffirm this daily, if you visualize this daily, then love will take root and manifest. Positive thinking 101.

It is time, philosophically and practically, to pull the weeds, trim back the briars and walk the forgotten path of love on the world stage. That is the real Avatar.