Inklings of Utopia

Throughout humanity’s relatively short history we can see points of breaking out as well as setbacks and reverting that marked changes in our development. Generally, the movement has been positive, like waking up or being born. Currently “backsliding” is being normalized.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a scientist and Jesuit priest 1881-1955, used the word “noosphere,” related to the biosphere, and geosphere, to represent the aspect of Earth’s mental/psychological/spiritual development. The noosphere has evolved to the extent that humanity is choosing the direction of global evolution. We have the capacity to discern right and wrong in choosing which way to develop. Violence and destruction have been our choice of behavior escalating throughout history to the point that weapons of mass destruction are readily available, threatening our extinction.

Extinction or the Future?

Humanity is currently in the kind of global turmoil which has characterized past break outs from old forms. Our noosphere has expanded intellectually, emotionally and spiritually so that many institutions and cultural viewpoints have been failing to accommodate us. Some people deny the approaching extinction and are attempting to lock us into the old ways so they can hoard more for themselves. Others are aware that we are only in the beginning of an incomprehensible progression into the immeasurable future in which we can thrive if we so choose.

The choice is both individual and relational. We cannot actually be disconnected as rugged individualism romanticizes. Moving either toward extinction or rising beyond it requires agreement between many. But, evolving beyond extinction requires choosing the mystery of which we have only a hint, only the sense of a call forward into a heretofore unknown reality. New ways are needed to keep up with and facilitate a positive evolution. We must recognize the choices leading to extinction, take ourselves off those tracks, and forge tracks into the mystery of the future.

Those who sense the bigger reality beyond this moment must expand our perspective beyond our earthly lifetimes and contribute our current incremental part helping humanity replace the old violent, destructive ways with

• new language,
• new cooperatives,
• new viewpoints of one another,
• new openness and teachable attitudes,
• new humility and tolerance,
• new self-restraints and self-control,
• new economies,
• honoring the grandeur of humanity,
• loving and caring for the whole interconnected world.

These are a few changes that come to mind. They come to mind because we have already experienced them partly and recognize these capacities as evidence of the Good toward which we move. The potential future is not absolutely unknown.

Building the Strength

There has always been a Will urging us to move forward into the Good. All people have a sense of this; many have chosen and lived by it; some have given up on it in favor of more expedient self-indulgence. Some believe that we should just enforce their version of good, ignoring the fact that such bullying has already, too often proven to be another form of destruction.

Embracing the Good requires voluntary acknowledgment of our incompleteness and commitment to seek wholeness. We can offer one another assistance toward that choice but must allow each person to choose it. Entering into authentic goodness is a choice original to the spirit in each individual and creates between us bonds reaching over differences.

The love of that bonded company builds the strength to become the new reality, and inspires new, concrete word and deed. Our behavior participates in changing the world into the New Creation. The multiplicity of diverse, concrete actions increases complexity and virally spreads, not just from one point, but from points around the globe unified by the Will for Good.

So, we become increasingly aware of and commune with what I am calling the Will, that which has pushed and called us forth from the beginning. We consciously collaborate and cooperate with the Will and the growing Body. We also find that the Will is incarnate in us to do the Good even as unconscious nature.

The Vision

So, if the Good becomes our nature, I imagine a time when we will not need to decide between good and evil, whether to shoot children and political opponents, or to rob the poor for personal empires. This seems to be a nature referred to in ancient times as

Are these “utopian” inklings? Compared to the hundreds of millions of years the dinosaurs had, the tens of thousands estimated of human development are a short time to begin treasuring such inklings of the Good ahead. I do not think we have the luxury of throwing away such hope.