What is our purpose on this planet?
That's a very sticky question that's been simply answered by our governments (through ideology), yet, has no verifiable definitive answer.
Ideology is simply the tool by which we want to achieve our means; it is not the end result. So why subscribe to them? Especially so if we don't know what its purpose is.
Many individuals subscribe to an ideology simply because, for them, individually, it's beneficial. Not necessarily because it's beneficial to our way forward (because we do not know where we are going).
The various ideologies of every country in turn influence each other country (in terms of policy, stance and action) and the associated conflicts and alignments inevitably occur.
According to the world famous psychologist Carl Rogers, the requirement for people to live fulfilling lives (happy lives) is a PURPOSE.
What purpose do people strive for in today's world? Even the most kind-hearted response of a mother, saying for example "My purpose is to provide for my child" is an invalid response. For what is your child going to do when he/she grows up?
What is the child's purpose then? It's a circular mess. Often with the child adopting the exact same temperament and behaviour as the parent. This is not some attempt at arguing a point, its mere fact.
Yes, some children inevitably shy away from the belief systems of the parents (look at the decline of religion for example) but the basis by which assertions and concepts are formulated, are derived from the parents and their cognitive actions.
Our governments are our parent figures, we hope that they know what's best for us.
But how do they know what's best for us? They only know through the intended purpose of what we need to achieve.
It is my belief that there are purposes for our existence, and that purposes are postulated in the highest echelons of governments.
Governments of the world impress on us the necessity of coming together, without it, there can be no agreement on the how to go about the why, in their view.
We can see this today in the globalisation of the world - we are attempting to merge our cultures into one so that we can achieve a consensus on how to nullify our problems.
The problem I have is that the majority of the world sees its purpose as the attainment of money - paper backed by promises, not actual value. Money makes the world go round is not to be seen light heartedly. This is mankind's ultimate purpose to date.
Globalisation will entrench one culture, it's inevitable. Based on how the world is working now, it will be a money orientated culture, and that's worrisome.
I fear a world run by money, I fear a world led by people whose only goal or purpose is the attainment of power for riches, fame and control.
These are the days we should be formulating a new form of value, I just don't see humanity rising out of this mess on the back of money and I certainly do not see it as the way forward to our imbedded purposes.
Money can be gained through both evil and good deeds, and it is exactly this accessible feature of money that makes it all the more dangerous - it is far easier to attain large sums of money through evil means than through good.
And it is this positive reinforcement of evil, to gain money that we all should fear, because this is the new culture that globalisation will enforce.
Why can we not agree what our purpose is before we make any great judgements of how to go about attaining it? Like every other system we create - we must know the purpose before we build, otherwise, the system we create will not be able to meet our needs.
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.