How to Save the World: The Almost Complete Story of Thomas J. Savage

Abstract: I tell personal stories of a three-year-old’s efforts to steal a toy red fire engine, a boy’s growing up with parents who were totally absent, and his parents growing up with similar parents. Yet these stories are not so unusual, for they all illustrate the fundamental nature of the way of life of modern society. Yet all this can and must change if the human race is to survive its increasing and deadly problems without solutions. I advance a central idea: The human being, the most interactive being throughout the known universe, has the potential to continue to evolve intellectually (“head”), emotionally (“heart”), and with problem-solving actions (“hand”). I advance seven ideas for how we can learn to fulfill that potential: 1. When we come to realize that the way of life of existing societies is pointing us all toward problems without solutions. 2. When it is clearly demonstrated that a substantial number of individuals have actually succeeded in traveling on that yellow brick road. 3. When we come to realize that our own potential is no different from that of those individuals. 4. When paths open up for us to learn to move in an evolutionary direction, and to afford to do so. 5. When we begin to embark on those paths, and we find that it is rewarding for us to move in this evolutionary direction: intellectually, emotionally, and in our ability to solve problems. 6. When we continue to receive encouragement from others. 7. When we reach the point where we learn to teach others to do the same.