I chance upon The Artist Farm recently, and soon find myself reading post after post on a wide range of interesting topics.  One particular post that stays with me is the one about World 2.0:

World 2.0 is about realizing and deeply internalizing that we (especially westerners) have gone beyond day-to-day survival, that we have crossed this finish line.  (Close your eyes, take a deep breath, slowly exhale… and read that line again).  Seriously, take a second to really feel this and realize it.  Yes, you worry about your finances or getting a bigger house… but you’re not concerned about having enough food for the winter or dying of malaria.  Appreciate this moment that all of our ancestors collectively achieved.  It is amazing.

World 2.0 is about appreciating this moment, and then turning around for the first time to look back at the millions of people still running the race…  It is about looking inside and asking the hard questions about what we see, what we have created, and what we have left behind.

Then, one of my favourite blogs – Mnmlist – posts a very cogent essay on Society, Reimagined (and includes a generous helping of solutions to the problem, too!) :

We’ve gotten fat, tired, sick, deep in debt, disconnected from our kids and other family members, divorced, separated from our neighbors. We’re polluting and causing global warming, all in the name of money and work and profits and buying. This seems broken, to me.

But what’s a better way of living? A society reimagined, built around people and a love for our environment and living and working and playing together, a love for being outside and playing and being active, a love for doing things and spending time with people rather than for buying things and working to support that buying habit.

And finally, a friend – Joy Dutta – posts about the “dumbing down of society” on his blog:

Look at the senseless media explosion and the priorities of news consumption by the masses. A celebrity scandal is perceived to be ten times more important than the serious geographical, social, political and economic issues we face today. Why ? Because the former is a no-brainer entertainment while the latter demands some maturity. It is all about popular culture now…

When I look at the kids here in the west it makes me sad. No genuine curiosity, no manners, no respect for elders. Despite free public schools, the abysmally low standard of curriculum and lack of discipline from parents are making them far from the generation we need in the future…

Once again, I get the feeling that the Universe is conspiring to tell me, and you, something… Which of these matches your world-view.  And, more importantly, what do you plan to do about it?