Nature and Us
“A human being is part of the whole called by us ‘universe.’ ...We experience ourselves, our thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.”
Albert Einstein, in a letter dated 1950 [26]
Let’s take a short break from the hustle and bustle of life in the postmodern, self-entitlement-inflicted age and see where the concept of mutual guarantee comes from. Deep in the heart of the vast universe lies a spiral galaxy of no particular distinction. Within it is an average-looking star with planets and asteroids surrounding it, like numerous other stars in the universe.
But on the third-removed planet from the star there is a phenomenon that doesn’t exist on the other planets, perhaps on none but that one planet, although the universe is too big to know for certain. That phenomenon is called “life.”
Life is a peculiar phenomenon in that it is dynamic and constantly changing. However, it does not change randomly, but rather in a very clear direction—from simplex to complex, from separation to integration. Right after the Big Bang, “The universe was dominated by radiation,” explains a publication by the MIT Haystack Observatory [27]. “Soon, quarks combined together to form baryons (protons and neutrons). When the universe was three minutes old, it had cooled enough for these protons and neutrons to combine into nuclei.”
The process of growing integration and complexity continued, forming galaxies, stars, and planets. On at least one of those planets, the process continued beyond the mineral level and into the organic level, otherwise known as “life.” This was made possible when organic materials combined in a way that gave them a unique quality—self-replication. As they continued to merge in sync with the course of evolution, they grew even more sophisticated, learning specialized tasks and benefiting the entire congregation of cells (or molecules within a cell). They relied on the rest of the elements in the group to provide for their necessities while they continued providing their unique functions for the others. These were Nature’s first examples of mutual guarantee, and the principles that applied to those cell colonies billions of years ago still apply today to every living thing.
After approximately four billion years, the human race appeared on earth. Humans, unlike the rest of Nature, feel that they are distinct, separate from other aspects of Nature. We feel that we are superior, not part of an entire system but above it. The trait that humanity has indeed introduced into Nature’s system is the sense of self-entitlement. All other animals, plants, and minerals perform their tasks as Nature dictates, through instincts and acquired behaviors. We, on the other hand, have the freedom of choice to work for our own interests, or for those of others in our society.
If we look at Nature, we will see that in truth, choosing mutual guarantee and preferring the interests of society over self-interests are more beneficial to the individual. As we explained in regard to the body in the previous chapter, no organism could exist if its cells operated only for themselves. Likewise, no human could exist if we all had to work for ourselves. Imagine the seven billion people on earth farming the land only for themselves, digging wells and pumping waters only for themselves, and hunting for food and clothing only for themselves. What would happen to our society? Indeed, what would happen to us?
Thus, it is self-interest that makes us work together, but there is something within us that urges us to work for ourselves, seemingly overlooking our actual interdependence. Returning to the example of the human body, evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris eloquently explained the concept of interdependence among self-centered elements in a presentation she gave at a conference in Tokyo in November 2005: “In your body, every molecule, every cell, every organ ... has self-interest. When every level… shows its self-interest, it forces negotiations among the levels. This is the secret of Nature.Every moment in your body, these negotiations drive your system to harmony.”
If we could see that evolution continues today and did not stop when homo sapiens appeared, we would realize that the direction from simplex to complex, from separation to integration continues to be Nature’s course. The only difference from times before is that the human species is not forced to integrate, but must choose integration over separation. If it does, a life of harmony, balance, and prosperity will ensue.
It follows that the process by which the world has become a global village is not a unique incident, but a natural extension of the nearly 14 billion years of evolution since the Big Bang. The crisis that humanity is experiencing today is not the collapse of civilization, but the emergence of a new stage in which humanity, too, becomes a single entity, conscious of its interconnectedness and working in harmony with it. When we achieve that awareness, we will be as a single organism, within which every organ works to benefit the whole, while the rest of the organism provides for the organ’s every need.