Homo Sapiens (wise humans) or Bubble brains?

 We still call ourselves Homo sapiens—the wise humans.   That name hasn’t aged well.

Humans don’t just kill; we mass-murder over ideas (religion, politics, economics). Concepts that once helped small tribes bond now scale badly in a world with nuclear weapons and planetary limits. Our brains outpaced our wisdom. We became jokingly—but accurately—Homo bullatus: the bubble-brained human. When we live out these concepts in our head... our perspective is vastly limited.

Each of has our own mental bubble—stories we mistake for reality. Some are religious, some political, some economic. Some are movements devoted to good—peace, the environment, social and economic justice—that fracture into smaller bubbles – then  resist uniting.  An important distinction is culture versus cult.  A cult is organized around a personal or political truth: loyalty to a leader, an ideology, or a narrative that resists hard evidence.  A culture—at its best—is organized around objective Truths: Unalienable rights, human dignity, ecological limits, shared facts, ethical restraints – like the golden rule.

Rotary International like other service organizations is a culture rooted in service to maximize health, positive peace, stewardship of the planet, fairness, and economic inclusion.  Like any large right-minded culture, Rotary includes ideological diversity - even some with MAGA hats.  That’s not a problem. The problem arises only when a personal or political truth replaces objective Truths.

Here’s the deeper challenge: even movements that agree on outcomes—health, peace, sustainability, justice—often compete rather than cooperate. Thousands of organizations chase the same limited pool of funding, active volunteers, media attention, and access to policymakers.   Each bubble defends its turf. Each believes its framing is the right one.  Meanwhile, the planet warms. Inequality deepens. Wars multiply.  And uniting is resisted like the plague.  This even happens between Rotary’s pillars and any other siloed organization or movement. 

The Declaration of Independence this 4^th of July offers an escape hatch appealing to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” That phrase anchors legitimacy beyond ideology—back to reality itself. And puts the protection of people and nature over abusive powers at any level – with a uniting message to prioritize the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These are not partisan. They are operating requirements for a technological species that wants to survive.  Imagine what Rotary could do if it championed these as a comprehensive, holistic, and synergistic solution for preventing most of humanities problems by 2030.  United humankind stands a chance.  Divided?  Other powers win.

Rotary’s role—now more than ever—could be a bridge between bubbles: grounded in evidence, guided by ethics, and brave enough to state that objective reality with “self-evident” “Truths” still exists.

Because if we don’t learn to govern our ideas, our ideas will finish governing us—without guard rails.

“Today the most important thing, in my view, is to study the reasons why humankind does nothing to avert the threats about which it knows so much, and why it allows itself to be carried onward by some kind of perpetual motion.  It cannot suffice to invent new machines, new regulations, new institutions.  It is necessary to change and improve our understanding of the true purpose of what we are and what we do in the world.  Only such an understanding will allow us to develop new models of behavior, new scales of values and goals, and thereby invest the global regulations, treaties, and institutions with a new spirit and meaning.”  President Vaclav Havel

 

What are we doing to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030?   Connect the dots!  See the web of life!  Achieve ‘liberty and justice for all’.  Or, prepare for the coming consequences.