The World's Number One Problem

“If we are to reach real peace in this world we shall have to begin with children.” – Gandhi

In the world in which we currently live, the ideas of aid, charity, humanitarianism and activism are becoming extremely popular. You can find some charity or NGO (non-governmental organization) doing anything you might consider ‘good’ somewhere in the world and they will be more than happy to accept your donations. Also, most people will have some cause that they, at the very least, have some kind of inclination towards supporting. But the question is: what problems in the world need outside intervention to fix?

I’ve been moving around the world for four and a half years now and everywhere I go I meet the local people and look for the apparent problems in the area and try to think of the root of the problem and how it can be fixed. Through my observations, individual study and research, and deductions, I have come to see that there is only one root problem in the world that, if addressed, will change everything. But I’ll get to that later.

One thing that people seem to forget is that we, as humans, and our societies are still evolving. Humans, as we know them behaviorally, have been around for roughly 50,000 years, yet written language has only been around a few thousand years – the printing press just one thousand; marriage has only been practiced for the last few thousand years; the popular idea of going from poor to rich just several hundred years; widespread education for a couple hundred years (and still lacking in areas); the United Nations 69 years; and the internet with its easy access to massive amounts of information just 20 years. So we’re still growing, learning and evolving and the human population is exactly where it’s supposed to be – making mistakes and learning from them.

With the internet – and the access to information that comes with it – we finally have a tool to affect the entire population, allowing ANYBODY to learn ANYTHING. However, the internet still isn’t being used to its potential. Another thing which most people seem to forget is that while animals are born with most of the instincts they’ll need for their lives, we are born as blank slates and are meant to constantly learn and evolve to overcome any obstacle – and we have seen throughout history that the human being can overcome nearly any obstacle that can be imagined.

Western societies have evolved to a point where individuals are taking refuge from the most important obstacles and seeking distractions from personal growth in the form of substances, entertainment, and the race to riches and retirement - and unfortunately the rest of the world is trying to follow suit. Generally, the happiest and friendliest cultures I have met around the world are those with the least exposure to western society. Since the lifestyles of western society depend on the exploitation of the rest of the world, this can’t work as a global model.

I’ve always said that society can aim to move either forward or upward. Moving forward involves the evolution of technology, economics, politics, law, and societal rules and norms, etc., while moving upward involves evolution of the self and societies to produce happier and healthier people - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Eastern societies, especially those practicing Buddhism or something related, have long been associated with moving upward but since many are abandoning spirituality and personal growth for the hard currency of cash, the human population is aligning on the forward-moving path. Though, to be clear, I don’t promote strict Buddhism as the answer – as can be seen in my article titled ‘The Meaning of Life.’

This leads me to the one root problem in the world:

The massive majority of the human population does not consider personal evolution to be a priority.

When I say this to people, their initial gut reactions are: What about child prostitution, war, gender inequality, HIV, poverty, famine, and the environment, etc.? But if the majority of humans were determined to become physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually happy people, and society supported them in this, these other problems would disappear as people became less inclined to exploit and more inclined to support others.

Policing won’t stop child exploitation; war will never bring peace; lecturing bigots will never bring equality; telling HIV carriers to stop having sex won’t stop its spread; giving people food or money will create worse problems than poverty; and a few environmental laws won’t prevent the disasters we’re heading towards. However, happy, healthy people want to support children in their growth, see other methods to resolve conflicts instead of resulting to war, know that everybody deserves equality, would do all they could to curb the spread of disease, learn to support themselves or help others in learning to support themselves, and are conscious of their environmental footprint.

So now that we’ve discovered the root problem the question is: How do we promote and guide people in their personal evolution? Well, unfortunately, most adults are resistant to change so it would be a waste of effort to focus heavily on changing adults, though some social media can help to spread awareness for those inclined to improve themselves on a personal level. Also, the idea of changing the way the world thinks overnight is beyond far-fetched. So, we focus on the children, working with experts to create a curriculum that promotes and reinforces curiosity, critical thinking, self-awareness, personal growth and development, and environmental awareness, etc. throughout the developmental years. Once there is a curriculum, education boards around the world will be lobbied to integrate it into their education systems. In locations with low literacy rates we can problem-solve to create a system that brings quality education to everybody. Reinforcement through popular media will help to link the outside world to their classrooms. The result will be that each successive generation will be a little more aware than the previous and the children of today will help to reinforce the message as the parents of tomorrow, so the evolution of the population as a whole will progress much faster.

We need to change the view that education is only meant to create a workforce to one where education is meant to enlighten.

This article is in no way meant to be a blueprint for saving the world but is a message hoping to inspire debate, critical thinking and self-reflection. The rest of my life will be devoted towards instilling curiosity and the subsequent desire to learn and improve, gaining freedom, eternal love and happiness, and I hope there will be others to help me along the way. What do you have better to do? :D