out with the old

Increasingly, over the past 2 decades, capitalism has been losing the plot in a grand way, with the help of the misled masses of ordinary people (who will almost inevitably be the biggest sufferers from the ongoing implosion). The selfish "greed is good" credo of the '80s has led to widespread and ever more risky speculation by financial "professionals", and increasingly by the public in general, who have been grossly misled by corrupt and greedy agents and "experts". High stakes gambling became the most popular investment strategy, and saving became seen as "stupid". Our governments and the media incited us to "borrow, borrow, borrow" and "spend, spend, spend" like there was no tomorrow. And now there is literally no tomorrow for our financial and economic systems.

"There are none so blind as those that will not see"

It clear that we cannot now trust our "glorious leaders" to do anything other than line the pockets of their fat friends, whilst stomping on the rest of us, and continuing the rape of planet Earth, in their pathological pursuit of perpetual economic growth (mathematically impossible though that is). And so they give billions, even trillions, to swell the funds of those very same bankers whose greed and incompetence got us into this mess - they are trying their best to keep housing priced at unaffordable levels, and to keep us all chained in ever-mounting debt to them. The only possible result is widespread bankrupcy. The longer they stave it off the worse it will be when it happens. The banks are bankrupt already, and so are many individual people. Very soon we will all be bankrupt, as government debts spiral out of control. This economic and financial system will not recover - the rot has set in too far.

The serpent of capitalism has been eating its own tail for quite a while now, and it has passed the point of no return: the tail was consumed a while ago, and then it started on its own guts....

Bye bye capitalism. Nobody can say you are not going out with a flourish. You are old paradigm, based on fear, greed, selfishness, dishonesty, and a grossly material focus.

The world is now moving inexorably into the new paradigm of collaboration, co-operation, sharing, honesty and openness. Humanity will become more humane. This change is inevitable, a universal evolution, and even the most "powerful" capitalist leaders, movers and shakers, can do nothing about it.

The future will hold no roles for politicians or financiers, nor for armies or police or other controlling forces. The oncoming chaos will sweep away what remains of the existing control structures - there may be bloodbaths as the system disintegrates, but the giant economic machine that empowers these old paradigm forces is now limping to a halt. The old control structures will in due course disperse in the entropic chaos. For those of us that live through the coming storm, life on earth is about to take on a very different complexion.

Examples of the new paradigm, the new way, the new age, abound already. New paradigm forces can be recognized by their nature: they foster unity, sharing, collaboration, compassion, liberation. Relationships are distributed, operating from the ground up, and not from the top down. The new paradigm returns power to the individual.

We can see this in the rapid growth of the internet, and the steady movement away from commercialism (control, manipulation, secrecy) towards open source (liberation, collaboration, openness). The internet is a distributed system par excellence: it gives back freedom of speech to the individual, and it breaks down the power bases of the large control-based organizations. Censorship crumbles, and individual choice expands exponentially. Newspapers, books, music, cinema, television, games, you name it - all sources of information and entertainment are becoming virtual, and available much more widely and at a much lower cost (cost to us, and cost to the planet). Technology gives us the tools to create new and better ways of communicating and organizing with our fellow beings to sustain ourselves. We have forums, blogs, wikis, social networking, internet telephony, and so on, all liberating us from the tyrannical greed of transport and phone companies, and breaking down physical barriers. Now we can maintain day to day friendships across continents. National boundaries are becoming increasingly irrelevant and unenforceable, as we become once again what we originally were: one people.

We are one. Understanding this simple truth sets us free. When we attempt to control or manipulate our fellow men, we violate our own freedom. When we hurt each other, we hurt ourselves. We are now being forced to leave our illusions behind. We are not defined by our possessions or our economic or political status. We are defined by our behavior towards our fellow beings, in all of our interactions with each other. The universe is designed to sustain us in abundance - we have only to let go of our dark habits of interfering and seeking to dominate and control. If we don't let go willingly, we will be forced into letting go. Only then can we co-operate with each other and with nature, to rediscover the true joy and bliss that life on earth can bring.

Through economic adversity, people discover true values, what really matters in life. We must see the calamities that beset us now, worldwide, as a force for the good. The old rubbish is being swept away to make room for the new, more natural, order. We must look at the demolition site, and see the new building that will grow out of it. This is a time of unparalleled opportunity. Our future is in our own hands, and we have the tools to build it. Never mind the old smoking ruins, let us focus our energy and our will on the elegant new structure. It is time to get busy.