Although many recognize that individuals can be conscious of themselves, we seldom consider whether a whole society can be conscious of itself. Certainly at moments of great tragedy or great triumph there seems to be a capacity for millions of autonomous individuals to awaken to a collective consciousness. For example, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an entire nation went into mourning and for several days, collectively acknowledged the passing of their leader. Another moment of shared consciousness occurred with the first lunar landing. For a few hours, much of the world paused to collectively watch the first humans walk on the moon. In recent times, the terrorist strike on the World Trade Towers in New York City shocked the world's consciousness into a time of collective attention.
The power of each of these events was not only in the sense of tragedy or triumph experienced by each person, but also in the awareness that this personal experience was being shared simultaneously by millions, even billions, of other persons. In the example of the moon landing, nearly the entire species was aware that it was passing through a historic moment in its evolution. Clearly, a society can be conscious of itself. The tools of mass communication make possible the awakening of our collective consciousness at scales ranging from person to planet. These tools can provide vitally important, realistic communication during our time of great turning and transformation.
The human community now confronts a whole-systems crisis as powerful trends converge and reinforce one another: Climate disruption, the depletion of cheap oil, a growing chasm between the rich and poor, unsustainable population growth coupled with the extinction of other species, global food shortages, and many more. Within this decade, citizens of the Earth will be pressed to awaken to the actual condition of the Earth and begin to make profound changes in our manner of living, consuming and working in support of a sustainable future.
To realize a fundamental shift toward a life-affirming future in a voluntary manner, hundreds of millions of persons will be called to act in conscious cooperation with one another. Can we accomplish this leap to a new level of functioning in our collective consciousness as a local to global community? In my estimation: Absolutely yes! Our core evolutionary potential as a species lies largely unnoticed in the scientific name that we have given to ourselves as a species. Technically, our name is not homo sapiens or "wise humans;" instead, we are homo sapiens sapiens or "doubly wise humans." In other words, where many animals have the capacity "to know," humans have a distinct capacity "to know that we know."
Personal reflection refers to seeing ourselves in the mirror of consciousness and using this mirror to observe the unfolding of our lives. By analogy, social reflection refers to seeing ourselves in the mirror of collective consciousness by using tools such as television and the Internet. It is important to recall that it was television that enabled people to share in the large-scale, collective experiences described above. We were all looking through the window of television at the assassination of JFK, the landing on the moon, and the collapse of the World Trade Towers.
The bottom line is this: If we are to take practical steps to awaken collectively, then we must create a more reflective and responsive media environment. Although many people have turned away from television in disgust with its excessive commercialism and adolescent programming, the reality is that in the U.S. and around the planet, the overwhelming majority of people get most of their news about the world from this source. At this pivotal time in human history, we cannot afford to turn away from the primary technology that supports our collective communication and consciousness. To illustrate, here are adult alternatives to the adolescent programming that now dominates television:
Our challenging times call for we humans to step up and create a mainstream social movement concerned with media accountability for a new social consciousness: As citizens, we would give ourselves, and future generations, an enormous gift by consciously taking back the public airwaves. We are massively under-utilizing our powerful communication technologies and as a result, we are losing the race between awakening and catastrophe. The core challenge of this generation is to mobilize our extraordinary tools of local-to-global connection and consciously communicate our way into a sustainable, meaningful, and thriving future. As the media goes, so goes our mass conversation and consciousness and, in turn, so goes our future. Let's take back the airwaves and our future.
Duane Elgin is a speaker, author and non-partisan activist for media accountability. He is the author of "Voluntary Simplicity," "The Living Universe," "Promise Ahead," and other books. Please visit his website, www.DuaneElgin.com for free articles and videos on thriving in these challenging times. Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated
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From my perspective, much of the problem arises from the impact of trauma. Rather then face the emotional pain we hold and heal it, we look for distractions such as entertainment and addictions ranging from alcohol to sex, gambling and consumerism. So one starting point for change would be to reduce trauma by reducing the incidence of traumatic experiences, raising resilience to potentially traumatic events, and mass healing - eg through meditation, self-help techniques such as EFT, e-Therapy etc.
For further information go to www.humansolutionsnow.com
*How* do we take back the airwaves?
How do we take back the airwaves? It's both very simple and very difficult. It's simple because the law is clear that citizens in their local communities already own the airwaves. It's difficult because we, as citizens, are not clear about our communication rights and responsibilities.
The way to take back the airwaves is by looking beyond our partisan differences and joining together in local communities to create a trans-partisan "Community Voice" organization. (I co-founded just such an organization in the San Francisco Bay Area called, "Bay Voice"). If such an organization were comprised of the diverse constituencies in the community (business and labor, major non-profits, ethnic groups, etc.), then it can legally request prime time hours for Electronic Town Meetings to explore critical issues for the community, including how its airwaves are being used. We could then use television to support community conversations that inform broadcasters how they can better meet their primary legal obligation of "serving the public interest, convenience, and necessity."
The biggest challenge is not with the law or with broadcasters, it is with organizing ourselves as citizens.
I was interested in your statement that: “the law is clear that citizens in their local communities already own the airwaves,†as the veracity of that statement seems to have been the subject of considerable argument in the US, from what I've read. What the situation is in other countries (such as the UK, where I live) I'm not sure.
But electronic town meetings are obviously do-able. The task for all of us who yearn for a green and sustainable future is to make sure the necessary structures are in place for the gradual move towards the decentralized, eco-friendly lifestyles that we’ll all need eventually to adopt if humans are to survive at all. Eventually, those structures will be desperately needed, in the same way that people will flock to the farmers’ markets and CSAs when the oil runs out and the trucks stop running and the supermarket shelves lie empty. So all such community-based initiatives are clearly worth supporting.
There are certain periods in U.S. history that we are called to moral courage.
We are being asked to look beyond our partisan differences and discover the higher common ground that provides the foundation for a future of sustainable prosperity. We will not find that common ground without an entirely new level of dialogue and communication among ourselves as citizens. In my view, it is vital that we reclaim the tools of mass communication that are rightfully ours already, and then move ahead to get these long overdue conversations underway.