written 9 February, 2026
published 15 February, 2026
One of the persistent illusions of life is linearity, the idea that tomorrow will be just like yesterday. While this often seems accurate, it lulls us into complacency, unprepared when sudden changes inevitably occur. Reality is a punctuated equilibrium, smooth periods between unexpected jumps.
Earthquakes are a good example. The deep motion of the tectonic plates is ongoing, but the surface expression is resistant to change, sometimes static for lifetimes, then interrupted by abrupt transformation. Earthquakes were once considered an "act of God", reeking vengeance on the sinful, but we have evolved, now seeing this as a natural process, which can be mitigated by experience and preparation. But such awareness isn't always wide spread.
After the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco, modern geology came of age and building codes in California began demanding construction methods designed to withstand shaking, despite increased costs, guiding California's urban expansion for over a century.
In the Pacific Northwest, with no recent experience of big quakes, building codes ignored what California knew could happen. Relatively recently, it was realized this region repeatedly experiences extremely large quakes, putting most of that region's construction at risk, the consequence of ignoring fundamental reality. This wisdom also applies in other domains.
For 2600 years, some spiritual leaders have shared that reality is fundamentally whole, interconnected, despite the illusion of separation presented by our senses. But this has long been a minority perspective. Lost in illusion, resistant to change, our cultures and religions have been at war with ourselves, each other, and the natural world for as long as history has been written.
Until 1800, human population grew slowly, doubling every 240 years, to one billion people. When the industrial revolution kicked in, population began doubling every 60 years. Quantum mechanics began in the early 1900's, and western science discovered what spiritual leaders of old knew: everything is energy, the world is whole, and separation is only a relative perspective. But humanity used this new physical power in the same old way, destroying two cities in a flash. Now, a few decades later, with population doubling every 25 years, we are still at war, still locked into the old illusion of separation.
But like the smooth, steady motion of the underlying tectonic plates, the evolution of consciousness is proceeding. The truth of unity, which had been kept secret for ages to protect practitioners from lethal reaction by the dominate culture, is now available everywhere. This fundamental unity is experienced in quantum mechanical hardware such as the world wide web, and two thirds of the world now have smartphone connectivity.
Such wide spread connectivity increasingly stresses the separation structures that dominant our culture. Even before the smartphone introduction, cell phones with cameras were everywhere. In 2003, the secret US torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, routine behavior for any dominator culture, was exposed to the world when private trophy pictures were unexpectedly shared with the whole world, shaking the political structure.
The 2020 murder of George Floyd was captured on video by several bystanders using their smart phones. This was not unusual police abuse, but the wide spread exposure prompted massive public rection and forced changes. Today the thuggish ICE abuse of everyone is being well documented, immediately exposing the blatant lies of this Republican administration.
When America was founded, democracy was an experiment in political unity, not expected to survive. The ideal of everyone having equal rights under the law was revolutionary, and inspired changes all over the world. In fact, this was only an aspirational concept; just ask any woman, person of color, or the native inhabitants of the country. However, America has made slow progress toward living the truth we all sing about.
But our retrograde president personifies the selfish, corrupt, isolated individual, ignorant of unity reality. Civil rights, human rights, and even the climatic viability of our species, are being destroy for one person's vanity. This perspective is not new, but the extreme insanity of his position is on worldwide display. The lie of equal rights has surfaced, demanding response. We are too numerous, too powerful, and have pushed the system to a breaking point, to remain so ignorant.
Many of us know the experience of unity reality, caring for others and the planet that supports us. The question is: will we tolerate such institutional insanity, or will we more fully live our aspirations? The answer will shake the world.
