You have got to serve somebody-Bob Dylan

At the outset, the individual is primarily concerned with itself. At some point the individual recognizes a semblance of interdependence and shifts its concern to encompass a larger area. Serving the family and tribe become important.

Those social connections are real in that they involve day to day interactions that are not imaginary. Somewhere along the line mankind decided that we served something beyond what was visible. At first it was gods that received the attention, but along came science and proclaimed that it is our species that we serve. “For the good of mankind,” became the battle cry.

Now, a third option has materialized. In this view, it is the environment that we serve.

The way information accumulates in biological systems is by current input being layer over past input on a kind of probationary status. If the new info shows any signs of inadequacy, the system reverts to the older, more proven instructions. When we humans learn, it is on top of what we already know. Or maybe seeing it as branching out is a better model... take yer pick.

Anyway, depending on the order one’s priorities, very different patterns develop.

I-family-friends-fraternity-school-city-state-nation-species-planet, is a common priority service list in our culture. Another is I-god, with the rest, family, church, state, nation, species and planet, all taken care of by god, so it isn’t the concern of the individual.

Less common are the one’s that tend to rate the environment and/or species(biological concerns) higher than those of society, finance and politics. However, this group splits quite definitely into opposing factions.

What i see here is not an upward evolution of consciousness, but a branching tree of many options. It isn’t a linear path, but a diffusion into infinite possibilities. It is not a fork in the road, because the pavement stops and we venture into unknown territory.

We each choose our own path, based on our own set of priorities. Seems to me that we split into three main camps: those who primarily serve god, the species or the environment, to equal or greater degree than the self. I see the first two, the followers of religion and science, destined to carry their ongoing conflict into space as the planet becomes less and less habitable. The third group, those who see that individual and species serve the environment, and are nothing without it, will learn to survive.

Ironically, outer space doesn’t have enough room for everyone, so a lot of both god’s and evolution’s children will be caught in the loss of habitat.

I see this as not so much an awakening as a split in the species, each having to adapt to new situations.

I don’t need to be told that i am a cynical old guy, but i am interested in what you folks think about what priorities are important.

cheers,
jim