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September 20, 2001
The Times
(They Are a Changin’)

By Douglas L. Walker
As we pause for a moment to reflect on events that have ripped our world apart in the past week feelings of confusion, anger, and fear, abound in all of us and give rise to hatred and resentment. These feelings are natural!

But if we step back and take a fresh look from a greater distance we can find a place of calm in the middle of all the chaos and confusion. This may allow for a fresh perspective. It may allow us to see these events with new eyes. When I did that this is what I saw.

For most of us, our cultures developed on large continents with vast amounts of space. When conflicts arose with neighboring tribes and nations our feelings of anger would erupt into the violence that we would come to call war. The outcome of our wars would result in a Victor and a Vanquished. The Vanquished are forced to live separate from or on the outer edges of society with little or no rights or protection under the law.

As space and resources become more limited it is increasingly difficult to vanquish our foes. So nations resort to extermination of their foes. This results in mass fear and hatred against the Victors by the population of the neighboring nations who rightly call these acts of extermination “barbarism”. Leagues and alliances between nations are formed to overthrow those that create act of barbarism and in turn vanquish them. To do this we resort to forms of military, economic and political oppression of those we wish to vanquish. The effect of this is that “We” have all the advantages of education and economic prosperity while “They” are left with an increasing sense of hopelessness and isolation. This deepens the chasm between “Us and Them” and insures the eruption of conflicts born out of desperation in the future. This is the cause of the world strife we are now experiencing.

I call this paradigm the “Us and Them Paradigm”. This has been the paradigm that has existed for thousands of years and has only engendered a world torn by strife and war. Even today we see our world leaders trying to respond out of this paradigm. This will only results in wars and plunges us into another cycle of global suffering. But, sadly, most of us expect our leaders to follow this course in order to make us feel secure. This “Us and Them” response is how our society has created its sense of security. It has been our worldview for countless ages and has been the foundation on which our world culture has been built. But this has only created a false security. As we see from current events there can be no lasting security as a result of this paradigm.

On September 11th, 2001 the twin pillars of society (the Victor and the Vanquished) collapsed along with the twin towers of the World Trade Center. When the smoke clears the Victor and the Vanquished will be no more. There can no longer be a victor when there is no one to vanquish. As we in our nations look around us trying desperately to find someone to blame, someone to vanquish, we overlook the fact that they are among us. In a society that is based on personal freedom we cannot keep them out without loosing our precious freedoms. So we must find ways live with them. In a society that is open and free there can be no “Them” apart from “US”. They are our neighbors, friends, fathers, husbands, and classmates. They drive on our roads, shop with us, and stop to help fix the flat tire of a stranded motorist. They are not evil people they are simply desperate people. We sit next to them in our restaurants. They are among us! And because of that They are Us!

This world is a shrinking island. There is nowhere left to vanquish anyone to. Saint and terrorist we all share this earth together. In this we are one People. If we try to destroy them we will only destroy us all. We must try to live together or we will die together. To live together we must find new and creative solutions. We must think in new ways. The old ways have clearly not worked.

It is time for a change. In archetypal symbolism the tower falling represents radical and sudden change. The twin towers represents the doubling of the energy of change on the spiritual and physical levels of life. It is a signal to us of a major paradigm shift.

The old paradigm of “Us and Them” has clearly not worked. Let us try a new response, a new paradigm. The new paradigm must be “We Together”. “We, Together” must be all inclusive. No one can be left out! No one can be vanquished.

The causes of events on September 11th belong to all of us. Together we must own them and together we have to built a new world order. Together we must find a way to change this world culture to one that brings lasting safety and happiness to all the people of the world.