The Future is Finer Than All the Past~Teilhard de Chardin
Happy New Year!
It seems fitting that we end this train wreck of a year with a bit of wisdom from our brother Teihard de Chardin. Teilhard was a French Jesuit priest, philosopher, mystic and paleontologist (1881-1955). His writings blended Christian theology and evolutionary science, proposing that our human evolutionary journey is towards greater consciousness and awakening. His writings were censored by the Catholic church and he was exiled from teaching; similar to the religious bigotry and imperialistic executive orders flowing from our Statehouse and the gilded Oval Office.
Chardin experienced the ravages of WWI, serving as a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front. He also lost two brothers in that war. His experience of the unimaginable horrors and chaos of that time deeply influenced his writings on the human condition and what he believed to be an inherent capacity of humans to evolve into finer human beings. He believed that the creative force of the universe was divine Love, and that divine spark is present in everything created, down to every last subatomic particle and photon of light. His faith in such a universal wholeness and the human capacity for transcendent love despite experiencing unfathomable carnage, cruelty and human suffering is an antidote to my lapses into despair as I reflect on all that has happened these past 12 months.
Did you Know:
Trump and his acolytes have taken a wrecking ball to our Constitution, our freedoms, our national security, international affairs, our health and well-being, our economy, and our democratic institutions. He is weaponizing the Department of Justice to dispense retribution and vengeance on anyone he deems a threat. He is attempting to weaponize the Department of Defense against American cities and their citizens. He has sanctioned his deputies of terror to unlawfully seize and disappear innocent people seeking to gain asylum or legal citizenship.
He continues to curry favor with the murderous dictator of Russia, and has turned his back on our international allies. His assault on international aid groups has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths across the globe; many of those deaths being children. Our legacy media has abdicated their role as the 4th estate and the Voice of America has been silenced. He has unlawfully bulldozed the White House and is remaking the People’s House into a garish, gold plated palace for himself. Congress has aided and abetted his crime spree. Project 2025 is beginning to feel as anodyne as a Boy Scout manual.
Just writing the above paragraph takes my breath away. All this and more is what we have suffered through in 2025.
Why It Matters:
A people’s movement is gaining momentum and many are waking up to this monstrous regime. But we will only be able to end this nightmare if there are enough people who can see what is happening. Which brings us back to Teilhard.
In the forward to his seminal book, The Phenomenon of Man (published posthumously in 1955), Chardin writes:
Seeing. We might say that the whole of life lies in that verb—if not ultimately, at least essentially. Fuller being is closer union, such is the kernel and conclusion of this book. But let us emphasize the point: union increases only through an increase in consciousness, that is to say in vision. And that, doubtless, is why the history of the living world can be summarized as the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes within a cosmos in which there is always something more to see….To see or to perish is the very condition laid upon everything that makes up the universe, by reason of the mysterious gift of existence. And this, in superior measure, is the human (sic) condition.
Chardin explained that:
“We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist, and forever recreate each other.”
Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist known for her fearless advocacy of voting rights, grassroots organizing and moral clarity, echoed Chardin when she said:
“Nobody is free until everybody is free.”
Our humanness often keeps us from ‘seeing’ our interdependence and interconnectedness, thus we retreat into mind numbing social media doom scrolling, hyper partisan echo chambers, and endless divisions. But it isn’t a huge leap of imagination to see that we are truly one human family traveling together on this incredible ‘blue marble’ that we call our earthly home.
So, why does it matter that we are awake to what is happening, no matter how painful it is to see it?
To see or to perish. That’s our choice.
What We Can Do:
A civil society that believes in freedom, justice and civil liberties for its people depends upon a social democracy—rule by the people for the people. Our resistance and our activism involves each of us becoming more humane in our humanity and to work for repairing what has been torn asunder. Our collective work is to build a more perfect union.
This work is not only civic, secular work, it is the work of human evolutionary consciousness. We have a moral imperative to ‘grow up, wake up and clean up.’ A radical evolutionary idea whose time has come!
We can resolve to:
Give voice and bear witness to what is happening. That means learning how to have courageous conversations with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues who are not yet sure of what is happening.
Connect with others who are doing the hard work of community organizing, protesting and resisting. Indivisible is a national organization that can connect you to a local group. MADVoters is a statewide grassroots organization doing amazing work. Indiana Action Coalition is developing a campaign to work with city leaders to protect our friends and neighbors from ICE bullies.
Create local pockets of social proof that a people’s movement is happening. Mini corner protests, bridge brigades, mutual aid initiatives, and harm reduction from ICE raids are happening across the state and the nation. Make it your work to find those groups and support them. Indivisible Central Indiana is organizing community neighborhood groups and local mini-protests.
Boycott legacy media and rely on the emergent independent media sources. Indianapolis Capitol Chronicle, Mirror Indy, Indianapolis Recorder and Capital B Gary are trusted sources. Substack publications are a rich source of daily information and links to organizations that are doing pro-democracy work. Our favorites are Letters From an American, Robert Hubbell, and Hopium Chronicles. There are scores of others and they are filling the void left by legacy media. Support financially as you are able.
My colleagues and I believe that the future will be finer than the past. We need you to help us grow this movement of seeing and resisting this existential threat to our people. Together we suffer and together we will survive this!
Happy New Year!
Debbie and the H4D team
Your article refutes every stereotype others wish to paste onto Hoosiers.
Thank you for helping make these connections! We certainly have our work cut out for us ... not the least of which is being ready to give meaningful opportunities to people who are just now looking to get engaged. I'm happy to be joining you in this work.