Basically, the idea was that everyone and everything was evaluated in terms of performance, productivity, and profitability. We were attempting to make every single process profitable, on the unfounded notion that if each part is profitable, then the whole will be profitable too. However, in doing so, we lost sight of the whole, which became less and less acceptable. So we ended up with a bunch of more or less profitable parts, that no more assembled into one coherent, efficient, satisfying whole. To use a crude analogy, it was as if every organ in our body were to be appraised according to its capacity to transfer oxygen to blood cells. Obviously, it can't work like that. The organs must be allowed to do what they do if the body is to function properly. That mentality had become ingrained in our culture through our education systems. Its aim was to shape productive workers. We were trying to mould people so they would fit the materialistic conception of the world. No wonder so many thought they were growing crazier with each passing day. Hey, even I was in that lot then. Now, instead of trying to tell people what to do, we show them how to recognize for themselves what their role is and how they can fulfil it. We help people become better persons first and foremost, and then the rest follows naturally. Our challenges are clearly very different now, but I believe we've made the choices that will afford us sustained peace and justice. And from these bases, anything is possible again. Eugene Pettibone, Pioneer Three.
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