The 2nd Wave
With the decline of the Catholic church, as well as its control over
thought and information, a new era of exploration and discovery emerged.
Known as the Renaissance, it was an explosion of new knowledge and
methods.
During this time, many of our old assumptions and superstitions were
challenged via the "scientific method," and replaced with more
rational conclusions. And with innovations like the printing
press and paper to spread the word, advances in thought spread quickly
throughout the western world.
As the enlightenment progressed, people began to question the divine
nature of royalty, and started to explore other methods of governance. This is when the next major change in our
consciousness occurred, as concepts like democracy and self-governance
worked their way into our social order.
Now, instead of power residing in kingdoms as in our first leap in
consciousness, or power residing in religious hierarchies as in our second, power would come to reside in government. But
even this would not last for long ...
The Industrial Revolution
As the burst of scientific discovery continued, many life-changing
inventions were discovered. Basic things like electricity, the steam
engine, the telegraph and the telephone, would soon come to drastically
change our world -- a world where the vast majority of
people were farmers who lived, worked, traveled and died all within a 10 mile
radius of their birth place -- to a modern society that exists
today. And as we did, the standard of wealth changed from land and
seeds, to capital and labor.
But competition and hierarchy remained the rule, as was reflected in
the rise of Nationalism.