Ben Okri on the present situation

The following piece came through my e-mail and is worthy of sharing.

Ben Okri is a Nigerian writer a born realized soul has written about the present situation
> > , . Please enjoy :
> >> >
> > October 30, 2008
> > Our false oracles have failed. We need a new vision to live by. Huge
> > financial success has hidden the moral bankruptcy in our
> > civilisation, We must rediscover our lost values or perish
> >
> > The crisis affecting the economy is a crisis of our civilisation.
> > The values that we hold dear are the very same that got us to this
> > point. The meltdown in the economy is a harsh metaphor of the
> > meltdown of some of our value systems. A house is on fire; we see
> > flames coming through the windows on the second floor and we think
> > that that is where the fire is raging. In fact it is raging elsewhere.
> >
> > For decades poets and artists have been crying in the wilderness
> > about the wasteland, the debacle, the apocalypse. But apparent
> > economic triumph has deafened us to these warnings. Now it is
> > necessary to look at this crisis as a symptom of things gone wrong
> > in our culture.
> >
> > Individualism has been raised almost to a religion, appearance made
> > more important than substance. Success justifies greed, and greed
> > justifies indifference to fellow human beings. We thought that our
> > actions affected only our own sphere but the way that appalling
> > decisions made in America have set off a domino effect makes it
> > necessary to bring new ideas to the forefront of our civilisation.
> > The most important is that we are more connected than we suspected.
> > A visible and invisible mesh links economies and cultures around the
> > globe to the great military and economic centres.
> >
> > The only hope lies in a fundamental re-examination of the values
> > that we have lived by in the past 30 years. It wouldn't do just to
> > improve the banking system - we need to redesign the whole edifice.
> >
> > There ought to be great cries in the land, great anger. But there is
> > a strange silence. Why? Because we are all implicated. We have
> > drifted to this dark unacceptable place together. We took the
> > success of our economy as proof of the rightness of its underlying
> > philosophy. We are now at a crossroad. Our future depends not on
> > whether we get through this, but on how deeply and truthfully we
> > examine its causes.
> >
> > I strayed into the oldest church in Cheltenham not long ago and,
> > with no intention in mind, opened the Bible. The passage that met my
> > eyes was from Genesis, about Joseph and the seven lean years of
> > famine. Something struck me in that passage. It was the tranquillity
> > of its writing, the absence of hysteria.
> >
> > They got through because someone had a vision before the event. What
> > we need now more than ever is a vision beyond the event, a vision of
> > renewal.
> >
> > As one looks over the landscape of contemporary events, one thing
> > becomes very striking. The people to whom we have delegated decision-
> > making in economic matters cannot be unaware of the consequences.
> > Those whose decisions have led to the economic collapse reveal to us
> > how profoundly lacking in vision they were. This is not surprising.
> > These were never people of vision. They are capable of making
> > decisions in the economic sphere, but how these decisions relate to
> > the wider world was never part of their mental make-up. This is a
> > great flaw of our world.
> >
> > To whom do we turn for guidance in our modern world? Teachers have
> > had their scope limited by the prevailing fashions of education.
> > Artists have become more appreciated for scandal than for important
> > revelations about our lives. Writers are entertainers, provocateurs
> > or- if truly serious - more or less ignored. The Church speaks with
> > a broken voice. Politicians are more guided by polls than by vision.
> > We have disembowelled our oracles. Anybody who claims to have
> > something to say is immediately suspect.
> >
> > So now that we have taken a blowtorch to the idea of sages, guides,
> > bards, holy fools, seers, what is left in our cultural landscape?
> > Scientific rationality has proved inadequate to the
> > unpredictabilities of the times. It is enlightening that the Pharoah
> > would not have saved Egypt from its seven lean years with the best
> > economic advisers to hand.
> >
> > This is where we step out into a new space. What is most missing in
> > the landscape of our times is the sustaining power of myths that we
> > can live by.
> >
> > If we need a new vision for our times, what might it be? A vision
> > that arises from necessity or one that orientates us towards a new
> > future? I favour the latter. It is too late to react only from
> > necessity. One of our much neglected qualities is our creative
> > ability to reshape our world. Our planet is under threat. We need a
> > new one-planet thinking.
> >
> > We must bring back into society a deeper sense of the purpose of
> > living. The unhappiness in so many lives ought to tell us that
> > success alone is not enough. Material success has brought us to a
> > strange spiritual and moral bankruptcy.
> >
> > If we look at alcoholism rates, suicide rates and our sensation
> > addiction, we must conclude that this banishment of higher things
> > from the garden has not been a success. The more the society has
> > succeeded, the more its heart has failed.
> >
> > Everywhere parents are puzzled as to what to do with their children.
> > Everywhere the children are puzzled as to what to do with
> > themselves. The question everywhere is, you get your success and
> > then what?
> >
> > We need a new social consciousness. The poor and the hungry need to
> > be the focus of our economic and social responsibility.
> >
> > Every society has a legend about a treasure that is lost. The
> > message of the Fisher King is as true now as ever. Find the grail
> > that was lost. Find the values that were so crucial to the birth of
> > our civilisation, but were lost in the intoxication of its triumphs.
> >
> > We can enter a new future only by reconnecting what is best in us,
> > and adapting it to our times. Education ought to be more global; we
> > need to restore the pre-eminence of character over show, and wisdom
> > over cleverness. We need to be more a people of the world.
> >
> > All great cultures renew themselves by accepting the challenges of
> > their times, and, like the biblical David, forge their vision and
> > courage in the secret laboratory of the wild, wrestling with their
> > demons, and perfecting their character. We must transform ourselves
> > or perish.