Reprinted from The Common Good, No 67, Advent 2013
There are now problems in the world that are universal which Governments seem unable to solve. All Western Governments, including New Zealand, are now controlled by global corporations who dominate their domestic political agenda.
Sometime during the 1980s a global cancer took over New Zealand and the world. It is a religious belief in unfettered markets and financial speculation. It destroys employment, education, health, media, community, the public sector, environment and the world’s resources. It has no limits, no boundaries, no morality and is above the law. It primarily benefits the 1%.
Those who miss out are in jail, starving, homeless, unemployed, unhealthy and prematurely dead. They are blamed for their own failure as the social costs escalate.
This is a system promoted and managed by sociopathic political and economic leaders with no moral compass. They have triaged the poor while giving welfare benefits to their rich supporters. They build their lives and their careers on lies and self deception. They promote endless war for profit.
They have looted the wealth of generations of people through the cult of privatization. They are not interested in relieving poverty. Inequality is ignored. Trapped in their own limitations, fear is their weapon. Police state laws and surveillance is their response to legitimate protest.
They never question their own assumptions. Economic growth at any cost is their religion.
Pope Francis calls this ‘savage capitalism….a tyranny which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules….and which denies the right of control to states which are charged with providing for the common good.’
Teilhard de Chardin contrasts the choice starkly, ‘humanity is being taken to the place where it will have to choose between suicide and adoration.’
Hannah Arendt insightfully says ‘that the sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.’
In the midst of this chaotic world, goodness prevails by the bucket-load. There are heroes everywhere amongst the tens of thousands of organisations and millions of ordinary people working for social justice. They are in every corner of the world at every level of every society determined to heal the planet. They risk their lives, work for peace, cross borders, blow whistles on corrupt governments, go to jail, tackle problems ignored by Governments and the corporate media, build community, live simply and work miracles.
The grace of God, the Holy Spirit and a spirit of gratitude and hope permeates their lives. They are active at every level of society reflecting diverse beliefs with a common purpose – service to humanity. This is co-creation at work for a more peaceful future for our earth and all who share it.
Our ancestors knew intuitively the empowering presence of the great spirit.
The divine life force is everywhere in every living thing, in nature, the earth, the wind and the rain the heat of the sun and in all of humanity.
Robert Consedine
This article first appeared in Tui Motu, October 2013