Global Trade, Technology and Faith

by Frank Muller

In a world of instant communications, frustrations/feelings/thoughts and all forms of human communication are unleashed as a tidal wave upon the collective.  Communication, and the improvement therein has long been the common denominator of societal evolution and change whether for good or for evil.

Faith, that ever-present foundation of the human condition whispers to us all some feeling/thought that there must be more to life than just existence.  Whether one blindly believes in the deity of a goat or a prophet, or the faith that there is no reason to have faith – we all must accede to the fact that Faith is as real as any other emotion and thus confronts us moment to moment.  Billions of people ascribe to a faith – in my view it matters little what faith that is but it is only necessary to know that it is indeed a fact.

Technology challenges the notion of time. Science expands through the use of technology our understanding of the universe so rapidly that for even the best of us we cannot begin to process the new facts, but more importantly their implications.  Each of us measures time in terms of our own mortality.  Humans, like all creatures process the delta of change in terms of its’ impact on what remains of their life.  No matter how intellectually we can argue for the benefit of the next generation our actions tend to mirror the moment.  Of course, since all of humanity represents a continuum of new-born to near death – the world represents those competing interests of views.

Trade represents in general free and fair exchange for mutual benefit.  Two people or entities willingly and most often cooperatively exchange goods or services for fair value in each person or entities’ respective point of view.  This process has for thousands of years represented local customs and beliefs as people of familiar lands and language barter.  To be sure, humans have always travelled great distances to trade but whenever trade goes outside of the cultural familiarity there will exist a tension of mistrust and misunderstanding.  In many instances, this distanced trade begins in friendship but can devolve into conflict.

Now global trade permeates our world, technology leverages our communication and Faith collides as every single precept of one’s Faith is inevitably challenged most notably through the subtle texture of new knowledge.  To most, Faith can be strengthened by the challenging forces but to some it creates a fear fueled by the pace of change and the constant loss of advantage in trading with a partner armed with more information than they possess.  Conflict is a natural by-product but not an end result.

The world processes the conflict into just another evolution of the species.

So where does that leave us?  It leaves us with the profound implications of the intersection of these forces.  More notably, how can we unite a planet engulfed in these powerful forces?  It is my view that the best way to unite a group is to give it a vision of something greater than itself.  How can this be accomplished?  It is simple.  Gaze to the heavens and imagine seeing lights on the surface of the moon as humans leave this little oasis in the vastness of cosmos and venture.  When one can see, without the need for a telescope the physical truth that our existence is greater than the planet we come from then real change occurs.  No longer will borders matter.

We will reach into space as a species, not as a nation.  Our path and vision should be set to the stars.  All of us building in our own small contributions to this greater advancement of the species.  Settling the moon, colonizing Mars and beyond.  Like all the pioneers before us, the final frontier will call the best, strongest, bravest amongst us and we will send them to the universe to face its bewildering challenges.

I do not pretend to suggest that all the problems will melt away but they will start.  For a brief moment in 1969 we all stood still and gazed at the Moon and we were all one.  No matter what faith, country, educational level or net worth we were transformed.  It happened again in 1986 with the Challenger tragedy.  People want to reach out.  People want to believe.  People want to take the opportunities of global trade, technology and Faith and apply them all for the common good manifesting itself in individual trade for mutual benefit.

We are by evolution bred to behave as a pack or as a team.  We identify ourselves by group or party.  Mankind’s ultimate next evolutionary step will be to evolve out of that mentality and into the collective. We must take to that collective though the truth that only individual excellence, trade, technology and Faith will lead to prosperity and success.

If you agree, no matter where you live or what your station work to accomplish two things 1) The elimination of all parties and 2) make the societal investment into pioneering the universe we live in.  Taking the focus to the heavens will bring out the best we can be.