The Less Conscious One Is Of Being

We Have More And More Ways To Communicate, As Thoreau Noted, But Less And Less To Say.

The Australians, It Seems To Me, Thrive On Their Remoteness From The World And See It As A Way Of Keeping Up A Code Of "no Worries, Mate," While Peddling Their Oddities To Visitors: Nonconformity Is At Once A Fact Of Life For Many, And A Selling Point.

A Lack Of Affiliation May Mean A Lack Of Accountability, And Forming A Sense Of Commitment Can Be Hard Without A Sense Of Community. Displacement Can Encourage The Wrong Kinds Of Distance, And If The Nationalism We See Sparking Up Around The Globe Arises From Too Narrow And Fixed A Sense Of Loyalty, The Internationalism That's Coming To Birth May Reflect Too Roaming And Undefined A Sense Of Belonging.

Gandhi Or Bishop Tutu Or The Dalai Lama. I Think They're Really Embodiments Of What We Aspire To And, By Keeping Them In Our Heads, We're Reminding Ourselves Of Who We Could Be. That's What We're Hoping To Climb Up Towards.

In Terms Of Technology And Science, Tomorrow Does Know More Than Yesterday; But When It Comes To Emotions, Living With Uncertainty, Terror, I'm Not Sure We Know Any More Than Shakespeare Did, Or The Buddha. And The Power Of New Things - The Iphone Or Facebook - Is So Strong And Intoxicating That We Sometimes Forget That None Of Them Can Fundamentally Change Our Relation To Ourselves And To What Matters.