In the Modern Age, every action taken by individual members of humanity determines its collective destiny — one defined by realization of its interconnectedness and another marked by rigid tribalism and the fear and destruction that goes along with it. Institutions and elites wield exceptional power but they persist only through the participation and acceptance of the populace. Through our silence and compliance, we reinforce structures of domination and facilitate the continuation of Dominion-era frameworks of hierarchy, industry, and extraction. The collective fate of humanity is not unilaterally imposed upon us by shadowy puppet masters but continually reinforced or resisted by ordinary people.

As long as governments are captured by leaders and special interests that prioritize their individual aims and personal profit over long-term prosperity and flourishing, we will never truly progress any more than one step forward and two steps back every generation. Our collective growth will remain unstable and reversible, eternally threatened by those who fail to understand the dependent nature of phenomena. The relentless pursuit of profit is especially dangerous when it infects our information, a realm that should be unbiased, non-partisan, and free to access. To maximize earnings, information-oriented companies will boost misinformation and issues that promote discord and strife. Their business models favor fear, outrage, and polarization rather than balance, understanding, and clarity.

The proliferation of extreme views disaligned with moral interdependence, sustained by fear and cultural grievance, has led to the resurgence of strongman politics, a belief that might makes right; that states serve not to provide for all people and protect and uplift the disenfranchised but to promote certain groups and dominate all others and the planet itself. Anything it can take is the nation’s own. It’s an incredible regression to zero-sum imperial logic, in which conquest and fear define relations rather than cooperation, diplomacy, and mutual exchange. At its core, this worldview thrives on fear of uncertainty, impermanence, and loss of status. In short, a fear of change. It creates boogeymen out of out-groups and offers psychological refuge to those in the in-group in the form of domination and misplaced blame.

Individual identity is collapsed into the state structure. Their utility and obedience — how much they contribute to the nation and how well they do it — are their most important qualities. Enforced homogeneity (cultural, ideological, and ethnic) is framed as virtue, while any and all differences are treated as civilizational threats. Note the characterization of enemies as both strong and weak here. Even though one’s own nation is the ultimate supreme power, governed by a master race whose conquests demonstrate inherent superiority, any notable differences pose an existential threat and risk collapsing the entire structure.

Therefore, cultural assimilation must be hammered into the collective skulls of any newcomers. Upon infusion into the apparatus of the state (through conquest or otherwise), one’s previous cultural identity no longer exists — you must now assimilate to the identity of the “superior” conquerors. Ergo, differences between groups of peoples (between races, ethnicities, colors, sexes, genders, you name it) are amplified to disincentivize the spread of class consciousness and prevent any significant coalition from questioning the actions or motives of the powers that be.

The further a people slide into the dangerous form of thinking, the greater damage they cause to the greater interconnected web that binds all things; not just humanity but all life. Like individuals, land is treated as a mere tool, valued only for what can be extracted, hence the state’s obsessive desire to obtain and exploit as much of it as possible, damage to the planet at large be damned. The perpetrators are not concerned about long-term consequences but rather short-term boons. As long as hate, fear, and greed govern one’s mind and actions, internal peace is impossible. A denial of humanity’s interconnectedness by any political order necessarily results in large-scale suffering.

In the face of worldwide democratic backsliding, climate change, and the ubiquity of misinformation, it’s clear that the destiny of humanity rests on a precipice. Whether this trajectory continues or is reversed depends on our willingness to recognize and act upon our world’s inherent interconnection.