Elegant Nature - Why Election Bliss Went Global and What to Do About It by Brian Bogart
No matter for whom or if you voted, a new rung in the ladder of human evolution is beneath your feet. For Americans who have lived long enough, election night 2008 produced the first palpable forward step in over forty years. The loss of momentum that seemed to last forever after the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King has waned, triggering sudden reflection on how we changed during a time when changes were too insignificant to feel or we were too numb to feel them. Indeed, much of this change occurred unseen within us, through subtle collective growth and encounters with new generations of children that sprout with just enough pre-programming to help us leap old, unenlightened attitudes.
In the interim, and not by coincidence, science has observed in nature a self-correcting mechanism responsible for the evolution of all that we know. Breakthroughs in biology, physics, mathematics and countless other fields in recent decades have revealed a universal pattern branching toward balance and perfection in a nonlinear yet persistent manner. It is a mechanism present in galaxies as well as the systems of every living thing, and it tells us we are born stewards of the planet, hardwired receptors and processors of nature’s input at the speed of light or beyond.
On election night, we felt nature’s power of self-correction manifest in our society, a sensation that offers more than hope: It offers assurance that we choose to overcome our challenges because we are part of nature’s creative process. If we depended solely on tradition, did not ponder and persistently reach for imagined heights, we would not be participants in nature’s unfolding orchestral magic; we would be meaningless. But we clearly branch toward collective cognizance that what we perceive to be traditions must yield to the flexibility the future demands. We internally know here in the present that nature owns our future.
This inner cognizance heralds the dawn of a green age, when defending the Earth elevates us as a single family inspired to earn that future. For some 50,000 years, our kind spread across the planet, not knowing or recognizing that we are a single family. With today’s flow of information, old ways experience direct confrontation with such truths. And in this struggle, we come to know that our salvation depends upon Earth’s health and prosperity.
Welcome to the prospect of a green-collar economy, where nature is the true superpower and defines our approach to a new industry united in its defense—where even the word “defense” demands a return to its rightful definition.
We did not arrive at this crossroad of materialism and consciousness merely through the election of a 44th president, but from a lengthy period of relatively unnoticeable societal changes in times of turmoil leading to a soulful burst in pursuit of a calm, elegant moment of correction. The confrontation with our planet’s limits has measurably adjusted our inner compass, and a collective mindset has emerged, bearing true potential, proving our journey, like nature’s own, is not linear but dynamic.
Miraculously, the euphoria that comes with exercising the body comes too with exercising the spirit. While America’s election results triggered an emotional watershed in the United States, people around the world shared this “wow” moment of bliss. It flowed from the natural imperative toward balance, the urgent drive to transcend, for the benefit of our existence.
Most encouraging of all, the ramp rate of human evolution, moving up and down history’s chart in small sections but with an overall upward trend and sudden spike toward higher coherence, is a pattern so akin to nature’s own as to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As a result, as nature presses us to keep pace on its terms, we stand to react accordingly, instinctively, positively, deep in our hearts.
On the night of November 4, 2008, we shared a consciousness of our existence beyond politics and words, a sense of elation that together we escaped the gravity of fear and selfishness. In terms of the human capacity to secure a triumphant future, this event washed away a bitter paralyzing illusion of apathy that for so long kept us alone with our private thoughts.
So many people across the world sensed such a uniting moment was necessary in these United States, as if to prepare the human family for the monumental task of protecting its precious home. And if that stirring evolution was so spontaneous because it was so necessary, it bodes well for the challenge ahead. With this coherent leap—a heartbeat in the miracle of macro human potential—we possess the beauty of a multicultural civilization with a transcultural mindset, even as that mindset emerges subconsciously.
With this sudden advance comes a welcome redefinition and validation of the term “common sense.” We are aware that we share a common origin and a future clearly dependent on a profound and immediate obligation to the environment. This understanding, active in our biology, is our neural interface with nature, and courageously obeying it with humility inherently offers nobility.
We exist fundamentally as products and producers of refinement—creations and creators of life, with a forward inertia so strong that we sprout new inner pathways to deal with our external challenges. The workings of the cosmos at all levels of scale point to this common dynamic in the acquisition of order. That this is true, and knowing that this is true, is a tremendous asset. As a result, the journey ahead is more than simply the dawn of another era in human history; it’s the dawn of conscious caretaking. The Earth has abundantly given. Imagine when we give back as a way of life.
While we still need an absolute cascade of “wow” moments and have mountains of dirty laundry to clean and hang out to dry in Washington, a strong current sweeps us forward with a guarantee much nicer to know than to imagine: Our elegant nature (some call it God) is on our side. To reap this benefit, all we need do is return the embrace. Put another way, when our better selves emerge on nature’s evolutionary frequency, we can be, quite literally, angels at the speed of light.
The catalyst is not race or political ideology or any human construct. The catalyst is life itself, the family of nature ongoing. And yes, we are going on, right through seemingly impossible challenges. Nature does that better than any human can describe, throughout the cosmos and in every nuclei, forward toward balance, with breathtaking spikes of creativity carving ever deeper meaning in our lives—meaning, from the spontaneous embrace of our dynamic nature.
The more we recognize this process as the product of nature’s self-correcting mechanism, the less resistance we will encounter in the only race there is: to transcend old habits and take the next step in evolution. Like a first step, the current moment acknowledges a new freedom to pursue our innate purpose together, to turn from competing and killing to transcultural consciousness and caretaking.
But will President Obama recognize the vast moral bankruptcy behind the economic downturn? We have yet to see changes away from the catastrophic, shadowy realm of elite, think-tank influence, and in the long line of presidents since World War II, defense has ruled our nation in a highly wasteful and offensive manner. Bush’s so-called war on terror needs to be jettisoned as what it really is, a sales pitch to taxpayers on behalf of an industry representing the lowest of our aspirations and the worst of our possible tomorrows.
The renewable source of inspiration that is nature’s imperative unites us on fundamental levels in the dawn of the green age. It is a silent mandate that flows from the heart of all that connects us. This most difficult race promises surprising rewards as we adapt our systems to defend our planet together, building widespread peace from the inside out. But the race will test us to our limits and demand adaptation at a pace we do not yet comprehend in the realization of the inner vision we share.
Thus, the hope for peace that we feel today must quickly translate into triumph over outmoded traditions of state. The biggest obstacle and the biggest cure will only meet by confronting the meaning of defense in American policy, trading nationalism for nature.
Adapting our hearts can be immediate. Adapting our government is the real problem. Defense, the key to our survival, must cease to be an instrument of fear and division and become the dominant industry of human life—the defense of nature as superpower.
Brian Bogart is a University of Oregon Master’s of Science candidate (Defense and the Green Age). He can be reached at: [email protected]