What do we really need? Some thoughts on the disease of our time

The Beatles sang “All You Need is Love”: this is true, but not completely. What we really need is purpose. Love is one type of purpose, perhaps the most powerful, but not the only one. Without purpose, the mind suffers greatly because the mind needs meaning and orientation. Our mind needs all these just as our lungs need fresh air.

Unfortunately, we no longer have any common purpose bigger than our individual scope. This is another way of saying what philosophy declares: ‘God is dead’. This is why our minds and hearts suffer and the social fabric fails. For us in the West, the disease of our time is spiritual. Is there a medicine? For our civilization I don’t know, but for the individual person I think so.