We are witnessing a brand new and fascinating phenomenon – our society is becoming integrated. It is no longer about banks and industries establishing partnerships all over the world, exchanging raw materials, merchandise, food supplies and so on. Today, even the world’s cultures and education systems are merging into a single, universal composite. All of these elements are interconnected and interdependent in every way.
It is no accident that the modern media have made it possible for everyone to be informed of everything that’s happening in the world. Such transparency enables people to connect on a whole new level – across racial, cultural, and national divides. It also puts us at a greater degree of mutual dependence than ever before.
When there is this kind of dependence in a tightly connected family, whose members care for each other, it benefits all. Everyone is responsible for everyone else, and no one is left behind. Otherwise, the family falls apart.
The problem is that precisely because we’ve been integrated on a global scale, we simply cannot divorce each other. Though hatred and contempt may run rampant, it doesn’t change the facts of the matter one bit. Nature has imprisoned us on this planet, this tiny surface, and we have nowhere to run from each other.
With each passing day, our interdependence grows stronger. In the past, when individuals or nations clashed, the worst they could do was simply “remove” the rival. Today, the smallest conflict is fraught with colossal global ramifications. Opinions aside, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that everybody in the world is dependent on (and responsible for!) everybody else.
This presents us with a serious problem, because as our arsenals grow in their destructive power, our hearts remain filled with envy, lust for control, cruelty, and spitefulness. This mutual hatred clouds our common sense, and if it continues to swell, we could easily wind up destroying ourselves.
It is clear that nature is pushing us toward greater mutuality and interconnectedness, which is unavoidable, like in a family that cannot be divorced. So what do we do about it? We must find a solution. And the solution is clear and unequivocal: restore peace “in the family,” in the home that is our planet, between all nations and people. This cannot be achieved by aggressive action, but only by everyone’s free choice, made with complete integrity.
By actualizing this single solution that underlies our very survival, we will surely learn how to tackle all the other issues affecting us. As a result, all nations will live as a unified society, a single family. We will know what every individual and nation needs and how we can work to complement each other. We will know how to educate the world – the “grown-up children” and the actual children, the next generation, so they will have a benevolent, warm, and gentle world to live in. Our power of mutuality will ensure humankind’s safety against its egoistic attempts to self-destruct.