How to Fix the World: Explained In Five Minutes

By Caleb R. Newton

    “How to Fix the World”- a vague term that means different things to different people. So many parts of the “world” seemingly need fixing, from political systems to broken families to loneliness. The “world,” as it is, seems so large and difficult to affect at all, let alone fix. One is acutely and constantly aware of supposed reasons for the world’s issues that are perceived as far out of their control, from economic circumstances to crime to class warfare to international politics.

    Such a perspective is, frankly, sad and nearly lethally hopeless. However, it runs on faulty premises, or what cognitive psychology calls “warped thoughts.” These thoughts can be addressed, their depressing effects can be mitigated and fixing the world can seem not so far-fetched after all. So - how can fixing the world be explained, at least partially, in “five minutes”? In other words, how can the concept of “fixing the world” be understood differently from the complicated and distant framework mentioned above? The first and major step to explaining and beginning to grasp fixing the world in five minutes is to understand what the “world” actually is.

    To begin with, understand that the “world” has little if any meaning apart from the people who make it up. The people of the world and of each respective societal component are the only real reservoirs of life that can be said to tangibly and definitively exist. The mechanisms and the very life of the world consists of people - all kinds and statuses of people. The world of governmental ideals is, practically and by definition, meaningless apart from considering humanity. Ideas only live in the heads of people. An idea, be it government or what to cook for dinner, never thought of itself.

    As an example from International Relations Theory, consider the view that International Organizations only function as extensions of the will of their most powerful state members, like as a Realist interpretation of the NATO-USA relationship. This Realist view is important because it recognizes that overarching bodies in government and society do not somehow magically have a life of their own. These entities, from Non-Governmental Organizations to Intergovernmental Organizations to Treaty and Compact Unions like the EU and the USA, run on a social compact and serve the needs and whims of those who made the original agreement.

    From another perspective, government, society, and the world are all to people like skin is to the body. It must be recognized that the government and the skin, of course, are something, but that something is totally dependent on a much more lively entity, be it the psychology of people or the blood of the body. This entity upon which the governmental skin of society is dependent shapes the image of the government. At the same time, the government/skin reflects the image of its life force, as it were, the life force being the people who made the social compact in the first place.

    Through expounding on the definition of the “world,” it has now become much less complicated and distant than it was at first. Fixing the world, as shown here, means “fixing people,” since the world as we know it is made up of people. 

    Practically speaking, if the world system is sick, as it were, like the physical body, then it means that the health of the “invisible” component - in our “world” case, the people - is sick as well. To fix the world, “fix”- or work for the development, healing, and strength - of people. People and their needs for care, concern, and a deep appreciation for them as they are right now - all of these things are desperately lacking in the world today.

    Modern life’s main focus has institutionally been turned into goals, economic goals, political goals - all items that do not work to respect and appreciate people as they are. To solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Western leadership peddles their “political horizon.” No! People need respect, which only comes to its fruition when they - and not an illusory political dream - are placed front and center, and that respect is the answer to “How to Fix the World: Explained in 5 Minutes.”

(Image: Meditation - breslovcampus.org)

[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society]