More profoundly, though, the symbiotic violence between "us" and "them" is itself symptomatic of a deeper civilizational crisis. Rather than recognizing its roots in an increasingly unsustainable system that inflames the use of extremist ideology as a way to deflect consciousness of its own failings, we have become locked into an escalating clash of civilizations of our own making.
In the process, we have lost sight of the fact that we are busily, quietly creating the End of Days by simply going about our daily fossil-fuel-dependent lives.
By the end of this century, as the scientific consensus warns, on our current emissions trajectory we will face an entirely different, uninhabitable planet, complete with apocalyptic outcomes like major cities flooded under meters of water, drought-driven desertification over much of the planet, the collapse of agriculture, endless forest fires, and methane fireballs erupting from the oceans, to name just a few.
The rise of ISIS, the "war on terror," the attack on Paris--these are all symptoms of a civilization in its twilight, but still in denial; a window into the bleak future of business-as-usual.
But they also reveal that the vast majority of ordinary citizens across the Western and Muslim worlds do not buy into this bleak future, reject violence on all sides, and embrace each other simply for being human. The countless vigils held around the world, the gestures of mutual love and compassion between people of all faiths and none coming together in rejection of the Paris atrocity point to a different approach, generated through spontaneity, through grassroots creativity, and the simplicity of human contact.
In such displays of solidarity, the seeds of a new civilizational paradigm are being planted.
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