If you find this new vision of the future terrifying, you’re not alone. We can see the signs of our fear in the world’s flight toward authoritarianism. When societies are afraid, when they feel powerless to control their own destinies, that is when they run into the arms of strong men who promise to bring back what is forever lost.
Sadly, we’ve learned from the past that the promises these strong men make are illusory. We’ve learned that those who put on facades of strength are often those who are most afraid of the real. Strong men gain their power by taking advantage of the weak, and they view a frightened society, not as something to be protected, but rather as easy prey to further advance their own personal immortality projects.
As a Thanatist, I believe we humans are better than this. We don’t need leaders who will sell us empty promises. We don’t need leaders who bully the weak to make themselves look strong. We don’t need leaders who disregard the truth when it’s inconvenient. Just the opposite–we need leaders who are willing to look fearlessly into the future and, like the prophets of old, tell us exactly what we least want to hear.
The lack of truly strong leadership in today’s world, however, isn’t because the world lacks people who can lead well. Rather, we don’t have great leaders in this world because we, ourselves, are not yet worthy. In spite of our outward calls for someone to just stand up and tell the truth, we reject that truth when it doesn’t align with what we want to hear. We have leaders who sing us the sweet songs of fantasy because that is what we desire.
This paradox of our unwillingness to promote those whose voice is exactly what we need in our society mirrors that paradox which lies deep within most all of us. We turn our backs on society’s truth tellers, just as we turn away from the truth teller that lies in us all. This turning away from uncomfortable truths is something we nurture in ourselves, and until we each are willing to exorcise the anxiety that lies at our core, that which we refuse to look at or even name, only then will we be capable of accepting those who themselves see clearly.
The future is bearing down on us at a speed that we can barely comprehend. We as human beings need to find a common ground. We need to take a pause from our frenetic doing and consider what we want. We then need legions of smart, fearless, creative individuals to do what we as humans do best–take reality and mix it with human care to create a better tomorrow for us all.
That is a fearless society. That is something we will never have as long as each of us individually are running from our own mortality. Society is a reflection of each and every one of us. I want social change. I want a world that is united in its efforts to create greatness. I am writing about faith because all of this starts with us. Society doesn’t need to change–we do.