Twenty-five Characteristics of an Enlightened World

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times….” That’s how Dickens begins his fictionalized account of the French Revolution, The Tale of Two Cities. I suppose one can say the same about any era, since there will always be good and bad things happening. Nevertheless, we’re living now, I’m convinced, in a Dark Age. Yet the good news is, we are on the cusp of a new Renaissance. On that premise, my wife Cedar, her friends Marni and Nancy, and I brainstormed 25 characteristics of this born-again better world: 5 individual and 20 social. I hope you can improve on our phrasing and/or send us some additional characteristics of your own in the comments below.

​So, at the individual level we see people moving from boredom to a sense of wonder, reliance on the intellect to greater use of their intuition, fear of different kinds of people to interest in them, culturally sanctioned learning resources to learning from everything, and psycho-spiritual disconnection to psycho-spiritual integration. At the social level globally there will be a fair distribution of wealth, peaceful conflict resolution, universal health care, sustainable energy usage, sustainable lifestyles, person-to-person versus technology-based friendships, an ethic of sufficiency versus materialism, need-versus-profit-based enterprise and marketing, need-versus-want-based cultures, effective world governance instead of chauvinistic nation-states, community-oriented individuals versus rampant individualism, more natural approaches to healing replacing drug-based medicine, “Jesus” versus Wall Street ethics, the right use of power and influence instead of their widespread misuse, gender equality versus patriarchy, a prejudice-free society instead of a spectrum of isms, non-polluting versus polluting industries, fulfilling instead of soul-killing work, and soul-freeing, inclusive religiosity versus the exclusivist, shaming/blaming kind. That’s it for now. I’d love your comments.