During the last few years, some thinkers have
asserted that, by the end of the century, Man will tend to change his perspective
of life and orient himself with other values. How will this change take
place and what might these values be?
In Vida Impessoal (Impersonal Life), the North
American Joseph S. Bennere explains how each of us is essentially a small
part of the Universal Intelligence, or God, just passing through here on
Earth. Therefore, he encourages the reader to think as that universal being
(although he is still a small part), and to find in his conscience his
real interests, and to become a simple, small part of the Whole, just and
only at Its service.
Benner points to a revitalization of
material problems: “You are what you believe you are; nothing is Real in
your life or means something to you, unless your thought and belief has
conferred upon it that reality”.
In this perspective, Man will stop placing
excessive value on material wealth. He won’t see material resources as
“his own”; he is just a trustee, for a limited period of time, and according
to his own capacity to concentrate his attention, his will and his successful
effort on them.
Selfishness, excessive ambition or envy, won’t
make any sense. Everything, after all, belongs to the Whole.
The idea of being useful to the whole will
naturally develop. It materialize first place in the small part of the
whole, which is each of us, through the conscious analysis of our way of
being: how can we really be useful to ourselves? And how can we be constructively
useful to those around us – family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, acquaintances?
Man will grow indifferent to earthly things;
he will be worried about being useful even to his enemies (who will tend
to cease being so) and, indiscriminately, to all small parts of the Whole:
humans, animals, vegetables, minerals — useful to the Whole.
Therefore, the life of each of us will be
less marked by “our” things, to become more and more impersonal.
The idea of charity won’t make any sense.
Everything belongs everybody. Each one possesses temporarily what he deserves.
A man won’t “give” a “fish” to another man anymore.
The idea of solidarity will grow stronger.
Everything belongs to everyone. And everyone will support each other, always.
As the “fish” belong to the Whole, everybody will teach the others to fish,
and then they will all be able to fish and they will all fish for what
they need.
Reading authors like Benner leads us to remove
ourselves from common daily things and to dip into the ideal and, apparently,
unreal. Or is it our passion for common daily things that makes us turn
from the ideal and, therefore, completely unreal?