9. Illustrated Summary of the
Development and Resolution of Upset
NDERSTANDING the reason for our upset stops its growth and allows it to subside. With this resolution comes a paradigm shift, or monumental change in our way of thinking. Humanity steps out of an insecure 2-million-year adolescence into a secure adulthood.
'[Judgement Day is] Not the day of judgement
but the day of understanding.'
(Unnamed Turkish poet, mentioned in National Geographic, November, 1987.)
The shift will be a time of liberation, compassion and adjustment. It will also bring exposure to and confrontation with the reality of our upset. There will be shock—the real 'future shock'—in adjustment but this massive transition can be managed.
"'Future shock'…[is] the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time."(Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, 1970.)
The final section, Adjusting to The Truth, outlines the form of the new world in its transitional years.
Stage 1
The Origin of Upset
Our teenage years (the individual)
Sobered Adolescentman—Homo habilis (the species)
Our original instinctive self or soul (the expression of which is our conscience), perfectly orientated to integrative behaviour, recognises what is integrative ('good') and what is divisive ('bad'). However, it has no understanding of why integrativeness is meaningful and no appreciation of, or sympathy for, the intellect's need to understand.
When large-brained Adolescentman Homo emerged some 2 million years ago, he began experimenting in self-management. Whenever this had a divisive outcome (through a mistake in understanding), his conscience criticised him.
But while we needed guidance from our conscience, we didn't deserve its criticism. We were not bad as it implied we were. Tragically, we couldn't explain this.