Crucial time for a change of direction

"WHY GANDHI IS RELEVANT EVEN TODAY?"
More than relevant, I would say ‘’today, Gandhi is crucial’’.
Crucial is the time for the world, the whole (human) world needs to change direction.
Human consciousness has expanded and now is aware of things that before could not imagine.
After the fall of communism it seemed that the western way of living was the only way, but now we all realize the western way towards ‘’development’’ is unsustainable, economically, environmentally, humanly.
We all know that way is a wrong way, a dead end way.
The only way out is a U turn, a drastic change of direction, and this is what is happening today.

I live in the western world since I was born, in 1947. I studied in western schools and university, I worked and served within the western way to business and ‘democracy’… In the past I have seen many little changes, ups and downs of the economy, left and right in party politics, but the system was growing and the western style of living kept expanding in the world. GB and the USA were the leaders of what we call ‘’the western way of living’’. Free market for profit, competition winner/looser, party power politics, institutions and related bureaucracy and the ‘majority’ system (50,01% rules and makes the laws and 49,99 plays opposition), consumerism, fast food and shopping centers, highways and high speed internet, TV serials, reality shows, newsrooms, stock and bonds, credit cards, business, business, business, all with the stress of ‘’growth’’, from GDP (gross domestic product) to family standard of living, consensus and share of market, profit, income, salary, number of clients, viewers, readers, buyers, all must grow, grow, grow.
Now, it is in recession.
No more growth, everything is ‘downsizing’ but a new consciousness is growing.. the awareness that ‘the way’ was not the right way and this has put the western and the ‘westernized’ world on standby.
Crucial decisions have to be made for change of direction, goals, values.

The western world is violent, uses violence and makes shows and movies on violence. In USA there are more guns than people. Fear and greed are the motivations, egoism and individualism are the standards, health and security, pollution, waste and overconsumption of energy are the issues, psychosis, stress and obesity are the most common diseases.
To recede means to retreat, to move the opposite direction... and here Gandhi becomes crucial.
When Mr.Obama made of his slogan.. ‘’change, yes we can!’’ he publicly told a student that if he had to choose a person of the past to have dinner with, he would choose Gandhi. He said that thanks to the influence Gandhi had on Martin Luther King, the USA could have now an afro-american president.
I do not say Obama is a newborn gandhian… he is a man of the system, but, if change has to be, he knows the direction.
Violence can turn to nonviolence, competion can turn to cooperation, greed can turn to sharing, egoism can change into solidarity, the richness of the few can turn to the welfare for all, imperialistic democracy can change to community swaraj and freedom for all…
India is now, thanks to Gandhi, in the position to lead the world towards a sustainable natural living, fair human relationships, peaceful solutions to all problems and conflicts, healthy farming and healthy food, simple life and integrity… So much Gandhi and Vinoba had to share on all these issues and now their thought, experiences and achievements are powerful lighthouses for the lost and wondering.
I am sure your intuition knows what I mean.
Jai Jagat!
Riccardo Gramegna
Gandhi In Action Int.l - Europe