Once in a while contemplations and observations on our current time are necessary. We especially have to ask ourselves what kind of future we want to shape for the world that we are creating everyday. Each and every one of us.
Once we have opened our eyes to how our future on planet earth — and the future of the generations yet to come — might look like if we continue treating the earth merely as something that we own — as opposed to the reality that the earth is the only home that we have —, we will necessarily recognize that we have to preserve our home. Make it stay alive. Help it to recover and get healthy again. Otherwise it can’t be the nurturing shelter and provider of life for all of its inhabitants. We are in a pressing need of a paradigm shift in our thinking and perception about our finite life on earth:
We need to shift away from a property-based thinking towards a responsibility-based thinking.
Once an individual has gone through such a Gestaltswitch, they will have the insight that is needed to act in the world based on a nuanced view on society by taking into account the existing reality of diversity, multiplicity and plurality. Not only as individuals, but also as parents, as activists, as scientists and scholars, as citizens, and most importantly as entrepreneurs and politicians.
There is an urgent necessity to change our (business) culture in terms of morality and normativity and thus in terms of ethical norms and values.
Once we free ourselves from the determining past, in which our current economical and financial systems find their roots, we are able to create a space for hope and trust. Hope and trust are terms that indicate towards a future that is open and not fully determined by its past. Hope and trust therefore indicate change and ultimately freedom. As soon as we decide to be receptive for feelings of hope and trust, we can courageously dare to stand up and embody a new paradigm, even when the world around us is still shaped by neo-liberal principles.
The feelings of hope and trust not only instill in us empathy and understanding for ‘the other’, but may ultimately inspire us with a sense of justice that transcends the determining past.
