There seems to be a near universal feeling among people that we may have made a mess of things, socially and environmentally, and that we’re involved in a headlong rush towards destruction, slowly eroding the standard of living, ideas of morality, family and who we are.

The differences and expectations of countries and cultures only adds to the difficulty on where we should make changes. Each country has their own take on how to deal with their problems. The United Nations issues statements and policies, but they seem irrelevant or disconnected to daily life.

There appears to be no unified force to decide what to do. Politics, business, petty self interests and fear continue to win out. Very few people are prepared to put their faith in one man, a sort of warrior king, to lead us through the darkness. And if there was such a person we would paralyse the possibility with endless discussions about ‘hard men’ and dictators. And then there are the endless discussions about what is right, who is wrong, what a word or sentence really means. No one knows what to do. Who do we protect, how well should we expect to live, can we sustain this lifestyle, where should the money go, Capitalism or Socialism, Democracy or servitude?

The one universal fear, or subject of conversation, is Climate Change. But there’s disagreement, contention over data and statistics, or complete denial. Most people would not have done any careful reading of scientific reports, and most would not understand the deeper issues behind those reports. But it appears most believe it to be a genuine threat.

It doesn’t matter if it actually exists or not, as an idea it exists and we are compelled to act on it. It has the power as an idea to touch everyone globally. I can’t think of one group of people that would not be affected by the idea of it, because everyone can see their own circumstances wrapped up in it.

Because of the conflict over whether it actually exists, even on a scientific level, the contention over statistics, the interpretation, I’ve begun to wonder if it’s something we want to exist, as a catalyst for change about something we cannot seem to deal with; the immediate problems we face right now.

I’ve begun to look on climate change as a Jungian collective unconsciousness archetype sprung to life from our unconscious understanding that things here on earth have to change.

Jung’s idea is that that we have a collective unconscious, a set of shared concepts, described as archetypes, which permeate the collective unconscious and emerge as themes and characters in our dreams and surface in our culture. We can all identify with these archetypes, regardless of the culture that we were born into.

At first this idea seemed a bit crazy, but I’d be interested to hear from others and what they think.