There is no shortage of things in this world to disagree about. Beyond the obvious cause of disagreement like religions, beliefs, nationalisms and any other ‘ism’ you care to name, the main reason for all the potential and actual dissention in the world is the simple fact that there’s about 6.5 billion of us alive at present and each and every one has a distinct and, arguably, equal right to their unique viewpoint on the world. So who’s right? Is it the strongest person – which would make Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao, or to our direct North, Bob, and bunch of other megalomaniacs, all contenders. Is it the person with the loudest voice? Is it the person with the best debating style? Is it the person espousing the most popular view? Is it anyone at all?

Surely we have reached a point now, with many different types of weapons of mass destruction and a growing number of people wanting to get their hands on them and presumably use them, that we can ill afford to continue indulging ourselves in squabbling over what amount, in the end, to petty differences. How can a deeply held religious view be described as ‘petty’, you may ask. Well, when measured against the consequences of pushing that view down everyone else’s throats, whether they like it or not, and the inevitable conflict that results, then ‘petty’ really is a good description of the quality of such a worldview, even if what flows from all that might be as major as the next world war. Hitler, for example, was indeed a petty little man, a jumped-up wannabe artist with a huge chip on his shoulders and (from my perspective) an obnoxiously pushy view on the world, the place of the German people in that world (the top of the heap, with himself, of course, as undisputed leader of the ‘ubermensch volk’) and who should be trampled on to get there (the Jews, the Gypsies, the Bolsheviks, all the ‘non-Aryans’ and pretty much anyone else who stood in his way). When we give force to petty human reasons to find fault with others, to attack, downgrade, criticise, scorn, mock, belittle and undermine those we don’t understand or whose nationality, religion or belief system doesn’t seem to match ours, then we are playing petty childish games, except that we have the means to escalate the damage we can do to each other and the planet literally to the point of human extinction.

Surely the time has come to transcend what we see so often as supposed cause for disagreement and contention and move to a more mature and evolved way of relating to one another.

The alternative is simply, as the saying goes, too ghastly to contemplate. There is still enough of everything for everyone to live with honour and dignity, although we have to curb our collective penchant for depleting and destroying our natural resources. And it’s not up to someone else to do – this is obviously a collective undertaking and for each of us to play our part as that falls to us. So let’s move on and leave some pettiness behind us today. Find someone to forgive. Find someone to thank. Find someone to help, with no expectation of thanks or recognition, except perhaps that the act itself will make you feel better about yourself. Find a reason to smile. Let some piece of historical nonsense go – forever. Move on. Move up. There’s a new game to be played; a much happier, better game of life than the one humanity has spent so many eons fruitless engaged upon.

What do you say – time for something better and more worthy, maybe? Or is it time for humanity to shuffle off this mortal coil and for the universe to be given the opportunity to evolve some other species into the apex creature of this planet with, perhaps, a better way of doing things? You decide.

Chris & The Team