What Does the World Need Right Now?

Same Question, Different Maps

I wrote a note the other day, a question really, asking the web what does the world need right now? And the community responded, at least some tiny part of it. Each answer was short and to the point. Balance, kindness, wisdom, proportion, to be unplugged and plugged in again.

While reading the comments I found myself nodding and creating a story in my head what the new reality will be like after implementing each answer. And felt that this is not enough for me. I needed to know what they all had on their mind when answering my question and how comes the answers provided were all different.

And boy was I in for a surprise. Each respondent gave answer reflecting their own map of reality. And even though all these things are needed right now the motivation behind each answer could not have been more far away from what I was presuming. I am sharing their explanations with you because the world indeed needs all these things at the moment and you might found yourself inspired. And second because it is so interesting to see how we are all good people, with best intentions, responding to the environment that is real for us.

Ordinary Therapist - To be unplugged and plugged back in.

I was mostly being sarcastic when I wrote it because sarcasm is often how I cope with things that feel too big. But if I give it some thought, I think there is some truth hiding inside the joke.

When we unplug something, it’s usually because we’ve tried everything else. We restart a computer when it’s frozen, or when the usual fixes aren’t working anymore. We are attempting a reset because something has gone wrong somewhere in one of the systems.

Maybe that’s what I was getting at. It sometimes feels like humanity is stuck in a loop, and we keep repeating the same patterns, having the same arguments, and struggling to find common ground. We’ve tried so many ways to connect, to understand, and move forward, but too often we seem committed to staying disconnected. And continuing to destroy everything around us.

So maybe what the world needs right now is a reset! Not to mean erasure, but a chance to pause, clear out the nonsense, and remember how to connect with each other again. And remember how to take care of the world.

So perhaps my sarcastic answer was really just another way of saying: I hope we can figure out how to reboot before we completely crash.

Bettina - Balance , not only now but since forever.

In my opinion the world has for centuries moved between extremes and the current results show it.
My favorite example is the patriarchy. For many centuries men have been gatekeepers of the world and resources. The world was built only according to their senses, POVs and (unfortunately) operates still from that angle.
The results are clear: late stage capitalism, environment destruction, wealth disparities, etc. I don’t think that would have happened if the system was balanced. We need both ways of operating in the world to create a more balanced life in this planet.

This is true also for economic growth: we treat only one-way, as if infinite growth, multiple per years at the very best case, are the only way to go, without considering anything else. Apparently this unbalanced approach causes Burn-Out, Loss of Motivation and Purpose and also environmental destruction, in case natural resources have to be sacrificed for that growth.

Something similar I see in collective vs individual cultures - I am originally Albanian, but I became an adult in Germany where I moved to study. I have been living here since 16 years. There are two extremes - in the eastern culture people tend to move in pack or avoiding being alone, as if it was some illness. Meanwhile in Germany a considerable number of people remain alone as a conscious choice in order to not sacrifice their “freedom”. Again both approaches are in my opinion imbalanced - not taking alone time to reflect and think independently is same as bad as isolating yourself and not knowing what happens in social circles because you don’t want to commit a weekend.
I could go on and on, but I think you get my point.

Pragya - Kindness

The news today is filled with examples of aggressive, self-oriented behavior without regard for peace or love. The society we live in optimizes for personal comfort and status over presence and generosity.

As we do acts of kindness, we realize there is so much more to the world than the worries in our mind. This can look like physical kindness (leaving a generous tip, checking in on someone), or mental & emotional kindness (being considerate, giving people the benefit of doubt).

And so even though kindness looks like something we do to help others, in reality the person it helps first is our own self. Every act of selflessness makes us feel like our words and actions matter, that we can actually make a difference in someone’s life. The generosity we send out returns to us as joy and fulfillment.

As our internal weather becomes more sunny, the positivity spills over to our relationships. The people around us are uplifted because one, they are the recipient of our kindness and two, they are happy because we are happy. The energy we radiate is light and full of possibility, no longer weighed down by selfish worries and fears.

The world changes for the better when we change for the better.

Elina - Wisdom

I was born in a country that’s now fighting a war I could never have imagined happening, I am a citizen of a country where historical decisions and constant government changes are manufactured by PR campaigners, and right now I live somewhere that’s had missile alerts most nights lately, with no easy resolution on the horizon.

So when I hear the question, what does the world need right now, I don’t even think about peace, it feels almost too naive. A world that can’t seem to agree on much of anything, until it’s organized around the old drive to control, to expand, to dominate, to win. There’s a book I read a couple of years ago, but I still return to often: Csikszentmihalyi’s The Evolving Self, where he argues that what sets us apart from other animals is how many ways we’ve found to oppress and exploit each other, driven by the same old reflexes to grab power and resources, and that if our minds don’t evolve alongside our technology, we are just “rodents with nuclear weapons,” still ruled by instincts we’ve had for a very long time. That image has stayed with me.

So my answer is wisdom, that can sit inside the mess of the world’s historical traumas, technology and human nature, and still find a way to take one step beyond impulse, beyond the short-term reward, beyond the need for simple domination.

Laird Lynch - Proportion

I think the world would benefit from more proportion in every area of life. But if I ask myself where it’s most needed right now, my answer is the protection of democracy.

When I look at the world today, I see democratic institutions under growing pressure in many parts of the world. Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I believe they deserve to be actively protected. If that’s true, then I don’t think our response should remain business as usual.

To me, proportion means seeing reality for what it is and matching the scale of our response to what reality actually demands. Sometimes that means restraint. Other times it means collective action.

One thing I’ve also come to appreciate is that proportion isn’t easy. It asks us to hold a great deal of reality in context at once. That’s difficult for any individual, which is why healthy societies need institutions that help us do it. To me, democracy is one of those institutions. At its best, it helps societies continually recalibrate themselves through participation, accountability, and correction. That’s one of the reasons I believe protecting it is so important right now.

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These were the answers. All correct, all of them much needed. And I know that my ending might sound cliche yet I truly feel that is true for me and kind of builds on everything already said. What I believe we need is the fifth element, we need love. We need our hearts pure, our actions noble and our thoughts free of greed. Love is the ultimate feeling, the purest form of existence, the highest vibration. Can this be real? Maybe not. Can I be a person that emits love daily? Yes I can. Can a girl dream for a better world? That she most definitely can.

Let’s make the world a better place,

Diana