A lot of people believe that you have to change each individual
bring out the best in them to have this kind of future.
That's not true. Individuals are shaped by environment.
If you're brought up in a culture
with very primitive equipment
you're going to be primitive.
You can't bring out anything in a human that isn't there
and it only gets there through education, through knowledge
through hard work and through effort.
You can't go off into the woods and meditate on the future.
You have to study how things work
and how to solve problems, not sit back and meditate.
You can only meditate on that which you know
and so you go around in a constant loop
and you do not come out of that loop.
In other words, people say "Let go!
When problems become too tense, learn how to let go!"
but the finance company doesn't let go.
They remind you that you have a debt. The landlord doesn't let go.
When you have a disease, if you can't afford to treat it
you can't afford medical care, you can't let go!
Let go and let things go away?
You'd become ill and unable to get around
unable to support yourself.
The sooner we learn how to let go
of these fantasies and artificialities
the sooner you'll see tremendous progress on Earth.
We must evolve beyond simplistic religious notions.
We must evolve beyond simplistic notions
of bringing out the best in an individual. There's no such thing!
You can only bring out what's there.
If you take an Eskimo and put him in an isolated environment
and bring out the best in the Eskimo
it'll be related to javelins, seals, hunting
building igloos and nothing else.