I'm no genetics expert, but it appears that we have a moral mutation running through society. At this stage, it's no one's fault, but it's everyone's problem.

There's a fallacy that with each generation, we become smarter. We are amazed by invention. But the Industrial Revolution and the machinery it birthed have slipped us into unconsciousness in the name of progress.

Once machinery was in place to till, build, clean up and kill, many people found themselves with very little to do. Losing a sense of purpose instills a basic fear of not being necessary. This has driven mostly white men to create a system that would give them purpose, give them something to do and make them necessary to the evolution of the culture. This is currently where our measurement of positive evolution – "progress" – rests. Inside an economic system that has forgotten that it's a creation. And that relationships must ultimately prevail over transactions for humanity to survive.

By removing the connections to nature and to our nature – one by one – we have slipped into unconsciousness. Our agricultural systems, education policies, political structures and market economies all contribute to the increasingly open wound of disconnection.

Purpose is a necessary force in our daily lives. And leadership takes root in the people that feel called to play a larger role in an evolving society. For many thousands of years, those roles and responsibilities were clear. But a mutant gene has taken root in our cultural DNA. And we are now victims of its replication throughout social, political and economic structures that reward and self-perpetuate the mutant characteristics. The mutation shows itself as exploitation, domination, objectification, hoarding and control. But its name is fear.

Leadership as we've recently known it is dead. The only voice that can speak to our collective future is in the individual who feels the effects of our broken systems – the migrant farm-worker, the incarcerated immigrant youth, the child whose mother is working three jobs, the health care provider and the fast food worker. And this is not just in America. Worldwide, the crushing effects of a fear-driven, purposeless economy is trying to break our collective spirit.

But it can't, and it won't. Every one of us has a voice. And only our voice can speak our truth.

This won't come from politicians or the UN or a worldwide declaration of human rights. It won't show up in one true religion or a perfect governmental structure. This is an evolutionary leap – a jump from a long, dreary winter into an awakening spring.

Parts of our brain are meaning-making machines. Every choice we make, every action we take, is based on a story that we choose to believe. Our recent systems have created a false impression that the current story is the story. That you "cannot stop progress."

In the name of this progress, controlling resources by any means necessary is just good business. In the name of this progress, greater consumption for individual convenience and comfort is good for humanity. In the name of this progress, incarceration is better business than education, pharmaceuticals are better business than preventative care. It's rarely "power with" – "power over" is the norm.

If our media is a mirror of our culture, we can plainly see that the "us versus them" narrative has been perfected: binary thinking for a digital world. The wars fought – real or imagined – the markets controlled, the politics purchased and media trained are all outcomes of a social system that has lost the plot of its own story.

For many tens of thousands of years, we only had to agree on a story that a small tribe of people around us agreed to. For the first time in human history, we are witnessing a narrative unfold on a global scale. We need new agreements. We need new social compacts. We need new societal goals. We need a new story.

Since we started pulling oil out of the ground, a war and consumption juggernaut has been increasingly running out of control, fueled by fear. Only the sound of a collective voice can be heard above the din of its machinations. A new narrative calls for our heads to be reconnected to our hearts - for our species to be reconnected to its nature.

Let's wake up, open our eyes, see ourselves in the other – and without fear – shout.

Originally published by Huffington Post