So Educated, But So Stupid.

If the Personal Development movement and it's ever-expanding range of offerings (books, programs, seminars, CD's, Gurus) was in fact proving to be an effective resource in helping humanity pull itself out of it's collective crap, then globally we should be seeing things improving by the day. After all, we've got more of the Fix-Your-Life stuff available right now than we've had at any time in our history. You and I live in the self-help age and the information-overload age but despite being so enlightened and informed as a species, it seems that we're as stupid, lazy, irresponsible and destructive as we've ever been. Maybe even more so.

In case you haven't been told, as a group numbering about six billion or so, we're not really travelling that well. We're either fat or starving, we're addicted to drugs, we spend more than we earn, we kill each other for a cause, we mutilate our healthy bodies with cosmetic surgery because we're obsessed with our appearance, we're constantly in therapy, we're angry at the world, we medicate with alcohol, we share the most intimate physical experience with strangers and we continue our destructive behaviours despite the fact that we know better.

And then there's our planet; it's not really having a good time either. However, if we can find a way to overlook the rapidly declining state of our forests, oceans, arctic regions and air quality, then there really are no problems. Er... that is as long as we don't think too much about those numerous species of animals that become extinct each year. Who cares; there's still a whole bunch left.

You may or may not have noticed, but right here on the big blue ball we have a few serious problems. There's the war thing of course; we keep killing each other (always for a good cause though). Then there's the global obesity thing - fortunately it's not our fault; it's all those horrible fast food companies and their clever marketing people. And at the other end of the scale there's the starving people thing in those countries with weird names - you may have seen the World Vision advertisements on the TV. We also have the personal debt thing - most of us are getting further into debt every day; because of those seductive advertisers who prey on our feeble minds of course - but at least we have our gigantic plasma screens in each room of the house to ease the pain. Apparently in some countries, the people don't have any money at all - who'da thought? Oh well, we don't live there so it's not really a problem for us. And then there's that other small challenge that we've been having for a few (thousand) years. You know, the religion one. Apparently we're right and they're wrong. Or is it the other way around? Not sure. Anyway, it's a good thing that the various religions around the globe are all about love, forgiveness, tolerance and enlightenment - otherwise we could end up with some kinda religious war on our hands. As if that would happen.

Here's an idea... what if from now on, instead of being angry at the world, constantly finding fault in others, blaming my parents for ruining my life, hating people who don't believe what I do, destroying my body with food and drugs, putting my head in the sand and doing my best to make others look or feel bad... what if I change what I can - me. Perhaps I'll start to put those five hundred self-help books that I've read to some use. Maybe I've read enough for the moment. Maybe I should apply what I know and work hard at making me a better human being.
Imagine if we all did that. We might change the world.

There's a thought.