Paradoxes of Durable Peace, Heaven and a Sustainable Lifestyle
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 1 May 2023
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens - TRANSCEND Media Service
Mysterious Dynamics Fundamental to Hopeful Anticipation of Enduring Viability
Introduction
24 Apr 2023 – There is a widespread familiarity with the aspiration to “peace in our times”. Some form of equivalent is anticipated by many in the afterlife — a “heavenly peace”. The condition may well be imaginatively associated to some degree with holidays and retirement. It takes particular form in the expectation of the outcome of marriage — “living happily ever after”, as widely celebrated in fictional endings. There are echoes of these expectations and aspirations in reference to sustainability. A primary characteristic of such expectation is its enduring nature — over the longer term — even eternity in the case of heaven. Sustainability is translated into French as “développement durable“. All these are a focus of hope, inviting speculation by “hope-mongers”, especially in time of crisis — the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Some sense of the commonality calling for attention is the publicised declaration by President Macron of France, on the occasion of his historic visit to President Xi of China, namely that the objective of any negotiation must be “a durable peace that respects internationally recognized borders and avoids all forms of escalation” (Xi and Macron Call for Ukraine Peace Talks, but the Path Is Murky, The New York Times, 12 April 2023).
Curiously missing from all these imagined possibilities is consideration of the nature of any activity or dynamic with which the enduring experience might be associated — and by which it might be sustained. Religious guides may offer sermons on the nature of heaven — especially in contrast to hell — but with little sense of the sustainability of the experience, as with sitting “on the right hand of God”. Reference may be made to heavenly choirs and possible participation in them. There may be some suggestion of engaging in the eternal war against God’s enemies — more comprehensible in the light of the familiarity with battles framed in that way at present.
Although the challenge of the afterlife may be dismissed as hypothetical and a matter of superstition, the question acquires much greater reality with respect to holidays and the possibility that they may be associated with particular problems and unwelcome stresses — with some very happy to return home. Family gatherings on holiday occasions are acknowledged to be a potential source of tension and stress. Potentially even more problematic is any well-earned retirement, and how time is then to be spent — even in the most ideal environments. To the extent that many elites are able to avoid the conventional stresses of work, their challenge may also be how to occupy their days — especially when resources are no constraint (Strategies of Hyper-Elites as Admired and Deprecated, 2022).
Other than by implication and allusion, the marital realities of living “happily ever after” do not invite much attention — in contrast to the high level of divorce (when this is permitted). Degrees of infidelity are also indicative of failure to give meaningful content to “ever after” or “until death do us part”.
These various situations can be considered of limited relevance when the urgent collective preoccupation is with achieving sustainability. Here too, however, it remains mysterious how fulfilling and endurable is a lifestyle held to be sustainable — whether for an individual, a collective, or global civilization. Curiously no experiments appear to have been undertaken on the durability of sustainable lifestyles. This could be readily assumed to be research of no great complexity, especially if resources are no constraint for the experiment. It is however possible to refer appreciatively to selected long-standing communities typically upheld as indicative of durable dynamics. Less evident is their seemingly limited attraction and replicability — with a tendency of a younger generation to leave them — inexplicably? The point is however readily made that ideal environments are vulnerable to external forces which ensure their demise — an only too convenient excuse?
Given what appears to be missing in the imaginative exploration of what is deemed to be so highly desirable, the question here is whether there are paradoxes to be acknowledged with respect to particular conditions or in common with all of them. Whilst envisaging a heavenly afterlife may be deemed by some as somewhat ridiculous — despite widespread commitment to such belief — that of retirement (a form of socio-economic afterlife) is a concern for many in an ageing population. For many, the challenge of living “happily ever after” is one that is then widely encountered — if only through recognition of the problematic condition of ageing relatives.
If there are learnings from this apparent failure of imagination, might they indeed be relevant to enabling sustainable lifestyles as envisaged by the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and notably to the emerging consideration of Inner Development Goals? Of potential interest is the possibility that such learnings are indeed associated with paradoxes, with those more explicable with respect to sustainability offering implications for the imagination of an enduring peace and for any heavenly equivalent.
Ironically it could be asked whether people are more preoccupied with sustainability, peace or heaven — or simply on enduring their daily lives in hopeful anticipation of the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel”.
The emphasis here is on the presentation of insights into the associated paradoxes from disparate perspectives. The focus is on the under-explored complementarity between a pattern of aspirations of what constitute four strange attractors — given the paradoxes with which they are variously associated. Realization of these aspirations is a focus of hopeful anticipation — itself seemingly paradoxical — evoking a need for particular vigilance. The fourfold pattern is contrasted by another –configuring conflict, hell, chaos and despair — by which the aspirations of the first are challenged and negated. There is the further possibility that these aspirations might be appropriately explored as hyperobjects.
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