On October 7, 2023, the world witnessed the egregious evil humanity is capable of when a generation of grievance and hatred is motivated to action. Palestinian Hamas fighters from the walled-off region of Gaza between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea launched a coordinated terrorist attack infiltrating Israeli villages to torture, rape, kill, and capture over one-thousand civilians. The scale, horror, and brutality have left an imprint of trauma on the Israeli people and many of us. Now acutely threatened with its sovereignty by those with malicious intentions, Israel today is fighting for its existence.

Fighting for survival defines the growing state of affairs in the world. Nations, sovereign societies, political parties, religious and ethnic groups, and tribal factions are contending for their right to existence in a globalized and diverse world. We are witnessing in slow motion an erosion of trust and the reversal of apathetic attitudes that now threaten to involve larger and more powerful forces with unseen consequences. With more than one hundred active global armed conflicts plus emerging larger threats, clarity of mind and purpose are needed now more than ever.

Humanity over Nation

Today, we grow closer to the risk of annihilation through mutual destruction in the name of self-survival or perceived existential threat. No single nation, leader, or people group can take the blame for how the world arrived at this point. The danger grows as more powerful nations inch closer to direct and open conflict. As groups and nations fight wars for their existence, the greater challenge involves the survival of all humanity. 

Today, we grow closer to the risk of annihilation through mutual destruction in the name of self-survival or perceived existential threat.

The hoarding of power, resources, and markets for the few is the work of nationalists, authoritarians, oligarchs, and their enablers. Leading through force, lies, division, and retribution, even against stated enemies, are clearly unsustainable practices. In dramatic contrast is the overwhelming longing of the global majority for facts, freedom, equal opportunity, prosperity, and a right to live peacefully with their neighbors. If our collective desire is for peace, where we go from here will not rely on a single nation, leader, or political savior but on each of us. 

The Leadership Required for Hope

Humanity can and must lead with values that bring meaningful change in the world. Unchecked distrust grows to anger, then anger to hate, and hate leads to the gravest of sins against our neighbors. Given current events and humanity’s susceptibility to a well-worn pattern of irreversible actions, we have urgent work to do. That greater and more hopeful work will not be accomplished in the framework of fighting for the survival of the few or the fittest. A better tomorrow is possible when we fight for the whole of humanity’s existence. 

The fight for survival is a natural and evolutionary impulse within each of us. It’s intoxicating when harnessed for the benefit of a group. It’s transformational when the impulse is trained to fight for the survival and redemption of all humanity. Learning to maintain space for grieving, questioning, evaluating, learning, and imagining an alternative future, humanity evolves from a reactionary state to a proactive one. 

A better tomorrow is possible when we fight for the whole of humanity’s existence.

Values like justice, compassion, empowerment, and collaboration can promote a more equitable and hopeful future for us and our global villagers. Growing our awareness and curiosity opens new mental and emotional pathways for seeing other people, learning about their experiences, and having the capacity to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Empathy is the foundation of a future where everyone belongs.

We are not destined to continue down an irreversible trajectory, but we can expect difficult days ahead. Meeting today’s challenges to co-create our shared future is at a mission-critical state that will require persistence and courage in the face of opposition. Despite ongoing catastrophes happening in the world, hope is alive because the power of inner and social change is within each of us.