Man’s struggle for survival has been a harsh reality for countless millennia. Pain and suffering dominated the lives of the vast majority of humans and those with a measure of health and comfort had to protect their privileged position through hyper vigilance.

Yet, through the years aided by technology, creativity and ingenuity progress in the areas of medicine, agriculture and science have made it possible for a large percentage of the earth’s inhabitants to have access to water, food, shelter and health care. Over the last couple of centuries a growing percentage of people have been able to reach a standard of living and quality of life where scarcity and the struggle for survival are replaced with relative comfort and security.

Despite these new realities, the fears spawned by the endless years of scarcity and suffering still dominate our political and social worlds. The destruction caused by fear and hatred through war, oppression and the hoarding and wasting of natural resources are ushering in the prospect of a return of scarcity and suffering for all those who have risen above it.
Automation and many other forms of technology have freed men from the need to spend their life in endless toil and manual labor. Yet, at the very moment when we could have global harmony and opulence we are destroying our opportunity through mismanagement of resources, greed and fear mongering.

Each and every advance in technology and automation lessens our burden by reducing the need for human labor. Machines and robots can do the vast majority of survival tasks and labor with little need for human assistance. The day in which all surgery and all nanotechnology is done by robots is fast approaching.

These facts should have us realize that we do not, nor will we ever have jobs for even a fraction of the people on the planet. In fact every passing day the number of necessary or even marginally important jobs is decreasing.

This is why the singer notes that we don’t have to earn a living or earn this life. Even in a labor based society, life is still a gift we should honor with delight.

The power hungry and greedy ambitious leaders of our societies convince us that peace and harmony on a global scale are idealistic nonsense and will never happen. Yet, in most people’s actual lives conflict rising to a level of violence is rare indeed. Relative peace and harmony dominates most of our lives. As the song observes we don’t have to agree to foster harmony.

Is it the vestiges of the fight for survival which causes us to support the heinous actions of our governments? Or are we just to afraid to refuse to support those who torture, starve and kill in the name of freedom and justice?

Yes, how can we let this happen on our watch. No one can stop us from loving only we can stop us from loving.