America and the world have reached a tipping point. Quo vadis, America, human race? Americans are in a negative mood about the current state of the country, with large majorities expressing dissatisfaction with the economy and overall national conditions. And when they look toward the not-too-distant future, they see a country that in many respects will be worse than it is today, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Having lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 (Western civilization is always in crisis), I can say that I haven’t seen such fear in the population since then. Back then it looked like nuclear war was imminent. Me and my 13-year-old buddies playing outside in gym class were sure it had already started (a huge air force bomber flew by low and slow coming from nearby Willow Grove Air Base on a grey, ominous day, a perfect day for the end of the world) and were numbly saying our goodbyes as we scanned the horizon for mushroom clouds, knowing full well that not even hiding under our desks would save us (as we had been instructed to do), Are we at the end of times like the Bible predicts? Will Fascist dictatorships, climate change, economic collapse, a worse pandemic than Covid, or a meteor finish us all off? What can possible save us from the apocalypse? The answer is the youth of the world who possess the finest and most sophisticated minds in history. Yes, we’ve reached an end, the current state of affairs is non-sustainable.

But we are at a new beginning if we can imagine a better future, and learn from history that as John Lennon sang: “there are no problems, only solutions.” We can make a great future. This future begins with imagining a better world, then working towards unity, towards finding our commonality with all people that we share the planet with. A Global Village. Towards that end I’ve made a music video called “The Powers of the Mind” to visually and musically/lyrically show what has been, what is, and what can and most certainly will be. As the video shows, the arrow of evolution goes ever upward towards greater complexity and perfection. The wheel of evolution turns remorselessly and either we ride it or get crushed under it. 99% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. The youth of the world are the cutting edge of evolution.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? Well, go to Grok and Roll on Youtube and see what you think. After all, you’re in higher education to learn to think, to apply reason and logic to problems and solve them, aren’t you? This is how humans have always done things, slowly, very slowly for centuries, but now the pace of change is such that only the young can keep up and make the necessary changes and improvements. Having come of age in the 60s and seen all the liberation movements begin that are now decades down the road and have accomplished miracles (I was proud to march in the first Earth Day), I know that big changes can come quickly as a new consciousness takes hold.

You’ve all got google, check out how many women and black mayors, governors, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and doctors there were in 1970, the year I began medical school. The number of women in my class was 12.5%, now women make up over half of medical school classes. Gay people simply didn’t exist in 1970, they were all in the closet (or in New Hope where I lived for a year and came to understand and be a champion of gay people that includes my daughter who I adore and am in awe of. She’s phenomenal). Did the word gay even exist then? Stonewall changed all of that. Charles Reich, a professor at Yale wrote a best seller in 1969 called, “The Greening of America” that perceived and explained this cultural revolution, a peaceful mind revolution of consciousness that began that decade. It began then and will now finally reach its fruition and create a viable future, an amazing future.

Since Marie Antoinette lost her head, it’s been clear that politics follows consciousness. Once the mass consciousness changes, political “leaders” will get in front of the line and say; “follow me!” This election is truly a referendum on whether the mass of those whose consciousness is; “we’re too confused to govern ourselves, we need a dictator,” is larger than the masses that believe in democracy. The future hangs in the balance. So, youth of Wesleyan, your mandate is to save the planet. You are the best and brightest. The stakes are high. Do we return to barbarism with all civility lost, or do we create a great future of democracy where “we are ALL created equal and have certain unalienable rights including, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

Marc Gecker P ’08 (Docter L. Small) can be reached at maskedsmallpoet@gmail.com.