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The Lost Dimension (Part 1)
Mulling over the new millennium
By Dr. Paul A. Palayam Roche, PhD.*

‘…And I am only 14!” were the anguished last words of a girl heard through the burning inferno recently in Canada’s highways. High-speed car crashes, pile-ups, and burning debris on highways are normal occurrence in developed countries.

Faster! Bigger! Higher! Does the achievement of these aims entail corresponding risks and dangers? Nature’s compelling laws have a system of equalization of forces and an immediate rush to maintain equilibrium—which, for the human condition, is no different. Most religions profess that this levelling out is actualized either in the present world, or awaited in the next. Applied to the methods of locomotion, these laws mean that risks and dangers rise in direct proportion to the increase in pace and speed.

The superior technology and the vast resources at the hands of the industrialized countries give them an enormous clout and a disproportionate advantage vis-à-vis other, materially disadvantaged nations. These advantages translate into greater creature comforts. Do they provide equal comfort for the soul? Not necessarily. In the so-called Third World countries, however, taking care of the soul wisely takes precedence over most other activities--due to the deeply ingrained mental ethos of civilizations that have been shaped by custom and culture, and that have endured and survived millennia. It is a crucial time to examine some of these attitudes and ways of life as we approach the new millennium.

Backward?

We often hear people say: “Oh, they are so backward!!” Are they? Maybe in their appearance of their houses or huts, or the lack of modern means of instant communication, or perhaps in the absence of flashy cars or lavish clothes. But they seem more cheerful, less stressed out, and perhaps a lot more caring about their fellow human beings than the more “developed” people in the West generally are.

If we were to respect only the best dressed and most fashionable, alas, we would have no use for Mahatma Gandhi nor a Mother Teresa. Fortunately we still value nobility of the soul. If we look at the so-called “successful” people, happiness seems to slip between the mansions, like someone falling between two chairs.

Sometimes even the selfishness and ruthlessness that are required to acquire wealth unscrupulously inures us from any legitimate human sensibility that we might otherwise demonstrate – except perhaps, in limited cases, where a sense of remorse might be detected for the unjust methods adopted in coming into such wealth. Perhaps this explains why compassion is more at home among and between individuals and groups that have resisted unjust and patently uncharitable procedures in achieving worldly success. Furthermore, they were either not equipped to get on the bandwagon or assembly line, or had intentionally desisted from it.

Desisting from this “rat race”, has some invisible advantages. For instance, most of them are free from the subtle trickery of “credit rating”, which is a clever ploy by the commercialized consumer society, which wants us to be indebted to the system that sustains it. You are only as good as you can borrow as much as possible. Unless you are a regular debt-paying citizen, you do not contribute to the well being of the corporate culture that commands the structures of Western society. Living beyond one's means is the accepted norm.

You can count on your fingers the people who are not in debt in Canadian or North American society. The stress of having a mortgage to pay for a couple of decades makes you a bonded slave to the lending corporation, alleviated splendidly by a façade of enforced, systemic politeness. The foundations of Western economic engines would collapse if Third World debtor nations were to stop paying those exorbitant interests and interests on interests, and declare bankruptcy en masse. The cumulative effect would be devastating in the West. The rich man might commit suicide if he has to live on fifty dollars a month. A poor one wouldn’t notice the difference. (to be continued next edition)