Our fragile world

Stability, prosperity, and peace that was my life up to a certain point. Comfort and convenience, it seemed that it would always be like this, it could not be any other way. And then suddenly there was an economic collapse, the local currency was getting cheaper at a breakneck speed, in proportion to the growth of the dollar. Fear appeared... Fear of tomorrow... Prices for food, water, fuel and medicine began to rise to some cosmic numbers.

Deficit. Many stores have closed, brands just left, others went bankrupt. It's strange, it’s unusual to have to think about where to buy clothes if you need them.

Medication. They were gone. How many people with chronic diseases drove across the country from pharmacy to pharmacy in search of their medications! Some managed to buy for several months in advance, before everything was completely off the shelves, and some were left with nothing... 

Foods. A lot of the things we are used to just disappeared. Okay, I'm not a picky eater, but still... Low quality products began to show up at very high, unusual for us prices. Surrogate butter, cheese, meat... So, as I understand it, producers were trying to survive in the harsh conditions of the high cost of everything. 

We used to get our drinking water from springs, of which there are many in the mountainous areas. But by the end of this summer, the springs began to dry up. We had no choice but to buy water, which had also become very expensive due to the shortage and rise in the fuel prices. I noticed a paradox. There is one mountain spring in a distant village with excellent quality pure water. It never dried up, neither in winter nor in summer. The faucet was rolled up, the water wouldn’t shut off and was constantly leaking into the ground. That is, people in the neighboring area suffer without water, they buy it, overpaying, and here it flows into the ground, and no one cares ... But logistics can easily solve these issues: to think about the supply of all regions and to establish this supply ... 

Fuel. Unexpectedly, fuel became deficit. Gas stations shortened their working day to 4 hours. Some stopped opening at all. The queues of cars for refuelling were several kilometers long. Of course, no one had a full tank. Imagine, you stood in a line for hours in the 40-degree heat, filled up your car with gasoline for 2-3 days and you are lucky. Other people weren't so lucky because they didn't get any gasoline at all. There were accidents, fights and even shootouts over the line. There were many fatal scuffles. 

I was lucky. As a medical worker, they filled my tank for a week. Every Monday I woke up terrified: would I manage to buy gasoline today, because it was a 17 km drive to work! There is no public transportation in our region. And work is the only source of survival for my family. 

RTA (Road traffic accidents). Queues for gasoline provoked a number of terrible accidents. Cars simply had no time to slow down when a huge crowd of cars "suddenly" appeared in front of them on the highway in front of the gas station. One case I will remember forever. A woman and her four children were on their way to the airport in the capital city to pick up her husband from his trip. They never got there and had a fatal accident not far from a gas station. No one survived. 

Devaluation of material values

Imagine an adult, full of strength man, standing on the street and shouting with helplessness: "People, help me! I need medicine for my child, I have money, lots of money, I'm willing to pay any amount!" But there is no medicine. Suddenly even money stopped solving the problem. We always thought the most stable and best investment was real estate. And then suddenly it turned out that neither land plots nor living quarters could be sold for even half the price! 

Who will now invest in real estate in such an unstable region?! 

Electricity supply. Electricity has become a deficit. We realized that the whole country, albeit small, was burning purchased diesel to supply electricity. It became expensive to buy, electricity was available for no more than 2 hours a day, and then completely stopped supplying. The country was plunged into darkness. 

The world mass media decided to cover this event, and information about the lack of electricity in an entire country flashed across the TV screens. Friends, acquaintances, and relatives started calling me, asking how we were doing, whether I needed help. Thank you all, you supported me in this difficult time. It makes me feel warmer, we are not alone.

At that moment I was struck by such discoveries: how disconnected we (humanity) are and how little we know about what is happening in a neighboring country; we are used to trusting and taking seriously only the information conveyed by the official media. After all, I told many of my relatives what was going on in our country, but they were only really excited when they saw the news on TV. Maybe this is normal, but the media gives so little true information, and fails to cover the big picture of what is happening in the world. And we have a kind of illusion of general well-being.

Citizens were left alone with their troubles. Everyone held out hope that a new government was about to be elected and all our troubles would disappear, but the situation did not change. 

Imagine hospitals with no electricity, people dying without life support, small children. The death of a one-month-old baby in a hospital due to lack of electricity led to chaos, destruction, and shootings. But that, too, remained unattended by the authorities. 

We were surprised to find that everything, absolutely everything is tied to the dollar. Even the price of milk from a cow in the farthest mountain village depends on the dollar. And there is always an explanation for this: either the fodder comes from other countries, or the fuel, or something else.

Our stable and prosperous world collapsed like a house of cards. 

You might be thinking, what kind of horrible blockbuster is this? All of this was really happening in the summer of 2021 in Lebanon. It's still happening. I've heard the expression, "You found where to go!" 

Perhaps other countries are a little calmer, but are they stable, safe? - No. After all, we all live in a consumer society in which human life is not valued at all. We have put money on the throne. Whoever is richer is right. We have shifted all responsibility for our lives to a selected few, creating unlimited power for the elite. I have many friends who live all over the world. And everyone complains about constant inflation, worsening living conditions, and the irresponsibility and arbitrariness of the authorities. This is clearly not the world we want to leave to our children! 

What is happening in our country I would call an economic war, with millions of victims, dead, ruined. A war without a single shot. There's no point in looking for someone to blame. I'm not a political scientist. The bulk of the population, like me, is not very well versed in the causes of what is happening. There are endless lies pouring out of TV screens. 

Each channel is owned by a political force and is engaged in shifting the blame to its competitors. And the people, on the verge of survival, are trying to find a way out. Many have started to install solar panels. For an incredible amount of money, because everyone is already broke! Not even 2 months later, there is a new tax on installing solar panels. It sounds like a bad joke, but it's true. 

There is a proverb: "Everything has gone up in price, except our lives! 

This situation was possible, as I see it, for the following reasons: 

• The consumer format of society.
• Fragmentation of the population into religious and political movements.
• Complete transfer of responsibility to those in power.
• Absolute power that spawned the "dragons".

I wanted to briefly describe this experience so that as many people as possible would know about it, so that we all would understand that our little world is seriously ill, and in case of disasters and cataclysms, we, ordinary people, will pay for everything with our wallets, our health and even our lives.

The consumer society does not provide for responsibility, it is built on greed and selfish ambition. It turns out that we are being played like pawns on a chessboard. After all, for someone it is just a game, and there is someone who profits very well from the devastation of the population! This is slavery. 

It is clear that we need to change the very format of relationships in our society from a consumer format to a creative one. The consumer format, like a virus, has taken over our entire planet. 

Its most recognizable features are: the devaluation of human life, the lack of confidence in the future, constant inflation, the constant stimulation of consumption growth, enormous overproduction with a steady increase in the number of people living below the poverty line and globalization with a gradual concentration of capital in the hands of a few. In doing so we are simply killing the ecosystem of the planet for profit.

I have been involved in the international Creative Society project for several years now, and I know that we have a real solution! We can all live differently - in a world of well-being and prosperity, where each person is valuable and important, in a world where progress is being made by leaps and bounds, and where all discoveries serve for the benefit of society and each individual. This does not require rallies and revolutions, but the will of the majority is needed.

Now for me this has gone from theory to practice. This is not someone out there becoming a climate refugee or dying of starvation; this is the population of my country, an entire country, in mortal danger and in the vacuum of indifference. As I was writing these lines, came the news about the economic default in two neighboring countries that are large enough and weighty enough on the world stage. Undoubtedly, each of us wants to live well and be confident of tomorrow. So now it is very important to combine our efforts to build a Creative Society.

The Creative Society is a new format of life, the opposite of consumerism and serves human beings. So many people around the world today support the Creative Society. Everyone who understands the absurdity and dead end into which we have come, who sees the globality of our problems, who is already aware of the cycle of climate catastrophes that our planet has entered, knows - we cannot survive without the Creative Society. In Creative Society the highest value is Human Life and from that everything serves to benefit society and the individual.

On December 4, 2021, I watched with millions of people the international online conference "Global Crisis. Time for the truth", which was broadcast simultaneously in 100 languages around the world. Scientists, politicians, religious figures, analysts, all with one voice said - We need a Creative Society so that civilization does not destroy itself or become dust under the onslaught of a climatic apocalypse.

Why the Creative Society? Nowadays, science and the latest technologies work exclusively for private interests. But it is the format of the Creative Society that will allow us to unite our efforts, our entire technical and scientific potential in order to solve global problems which are beyond the means of any single country. 

We are talking about the problems of hunger, drinking water, constant inflation, ruined ecology, health problems, treatment of "incurable" and chronic diseases, and most importantly, the problem of human survival in a time of increasing climatic catastrophe. 

In a consumer society, even those in power are not insured. They, like everyone else, get sick and die of "incurable" diseases. If we don't take real action right now then water, air and food may soon become the most valuable resources. Who will need their money then? 

A Creative Society is the only way to survive and create a world worthy of human beings so that we can finally call ourselves a civilization. 

The fact that these problems are destroying our world is recognized by everyone, even the UN. The problems are acknowledged, solutions are announced, but nothing is actually done. What’s more, this is becoming a new way of making money. Like, for example, buying and selling quotas for industrial CO2 emissions. By the way, the real cause of the dramatic climate change is not CO2, but the cyclicality of cosmic processes affecting our planet. But this is not advertised, as there is no money to be made on this. 

What struck me most at the conference was that well-known people in very high places said straight out - we have to unite, everyone needs to take action, this is the only way to beat the consumer format system.

Many politicians, when introduced to the Creative Society project, admitted that it was a great way out of the global crisis, but without the electoral demand of the majority of people, they are powerless to change anything. 

I see our consumer society as a gigantic flywheel, spinning at enormous speeds. Each of us is a tiny gear. Can a couple of politicians stop the flywheel and spin it the other way? Unrealistic. 

It takes an effort of most people. It is time to stop hoping that someone will come and do everything for us. We need to take responsibility and act ourselves. All of us, united in a common aspiration, build a Creative Society in which the greatest value will be Human Life (not money, as it is today). 

We really can do a lot! The only thing missing for the best result is you, my friend! 

Julia, participant of the Creative society Project