At this particular time in history, there has never been greater opportunity for humans across the planet to communicate with one another. Morse code, the Internet, satellite phones, the amount of technological growth in such a short time is nothing to squawk at.
But are we really communicating at the potential we could be?
We have the ability to talk to someone of the other side of the planet by just typing a couple of numbers on a mobile phone.
We can send message updates to any number of Internet web presences such as Twitter or Facebook that can reach thousands if not millions of active listeners at a moment’s notice.
Our voice as a species has never been greater than it is today.
I believe that when enough people work towards a common goal anything can be accomplished; That belief leads me to ask, why are there still so many problems in the world?
Why are we still fighting wars?
Why is there still poverty?
Why is there still abuse and violence?
Why do we not take care of those who need to be taken care of?
Are we just not communicating these issues?
My personal experience with the Internet has exposed me to more information and more stories than I could have ever expected compared to more traditional information distribution systems. There are so many problems that need solutions, it can become very overwhelming to want to solve them all. I find myself more easily identifying and brainstorming solutions to the problems I can more closely relate with on a personal level; this is probably because the problems an individual can relate with might take priority in our brains.
Maybe we as a species can’t solve every problem as soon as possible, and that is okay, patience is good, but the scar of suffering grows with time.
My theory is that as a species we need to focus on the problems that are causing the most suffering, as well as those that will cause suffering in the future.
Imagine a room, and in that room are a handful of leaders from around the world; let’s say 20 leaders. These leaders can try to communicate with their individual languages, their translators. They can try to convey the needs of the people that they lead ( assuming they are good leaders and truly lead with their people’s best interest in heart ). How can just a handful of people really know what everyone needs though? Did they conduct studies? Surveys? Elections? Are the result of those methods really producing a solution to the problem that the people are facing?
Even if the survey, or election did prove to produce a good representative, that representative is still literally only 1 voice out of 20.
If 20 people all started talking at the same time… if they started arguing, whose voice would be heard? Would any problems come to a solution?
This is how we have been trying to communicate the problems of the world for hundreds of years… There is no focus, there is only chaos…
We can not solve the problems of the world together if communication is a problem itself.
I believe this is important because without focus communication becomes noisy, there are 7.5 billion people alive in the world today, and we all need to communicate. Imagine 7.5 billion people in a room all trying to communicate, speaking, yelling, arguing.
We live in an age of communication, our technology should solve the problems associated with global communication. We are getting so close, we have the ability to communicate over the Internet, but now we need a real way to address the needs of individuals, of communities, we can’t just rely on the same methods of representatives that we have been relying on for hundreds of years. The rapid evolution of technology itself should be excuse enough for us to try something new, something innovative.
We as a species deserve to innovate, to help each other. The true suffering of individuals, and communities must not be overshadowed by the lesser issues that the loudest representatives bring to the forefront. We have the power to communicate now.
Something that we must appreciate is that we have the power to communicate. There are a handful of countries that do not have that power. So let’s use that power to its real potential.
As an ending note I think there is one specific problem that is very important to remember…
There are lots of serious humanistic problems that have to be solved; But there is an even larger Environmental problem that if left unsolved with become so big that we as humans will cease to exist. I am specifically saying that the planet Earth, the planet we live on, the only planet we live on, is the only one we got. If we continue chipping away at the planet’s natural resources, If we make this planet inhabitable, we will all die. That is the biggest problem.