When John Lennon and The Beatles sang of everyone wanting a revolution and blaming an institution, there was an aura of credibility to the fact it was an era of uprising.

The powerful lyrics about evolution and changing the constitution ended with Lennon telling everyone it would be alright.

And he was right. The world’s axis has continued to spin for another 40-plus years since that song was recorded in 1968.

The 1960s are often referenced as the preeminent decade when the world was changing, a zero hour for counter-culture, and a revolutionary time when people really wanted to change the world.

In reality, the 1960s were just another decade where a lot of altering and history making events happened at the same time – different and yet much the same as potentially the 1770s, 1860s, 1950s or even the 1990s.

And each time, the message is much the same: We do not like the way things are and believe they can be better.

History, as they say, repeats itself. Sometimes, it just needs to mix up the beat or the chorus or the bridge. But we’ve been playing the same tracks over and over.

Some decades or eras are marked by violence, others by relative peace. But all are marked by men and women who fundamentally are consumed with the idea of seizing power and controlling the masses.

Whether it be a monarchy, a dictator, a president or a parliament, it is not about changing the world – it is about controlling the people in it.

The message is always the same: “I know what is right and what is best for the vast majority of you. Allow me to lead you to an unspecified time in the not too distant future where the world will shine brightly and we will be placed upon top of a hill.”

Be careful, therefore, of mortals who seek to be idolized by man. Ego, vanity, greed. These deadly sins have steered many men and women in the wrong direction, under the false pretense and belief they are part of a positive uprising, a part of the light, a part of truth, that they too shall be a part of history.

If you care to emotionally detach yourself from a political party, from a country, from a religion for a moment, you’ll eventually arrive at the assessment that all the world’s political and ideological dramas come from the same place: we are right and they are wrong.

Now, “we” and “they” could be anyone. It could be the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France or Spain. It could be Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, or Hindus. It could be Democrats, Republicans, Tea Parties or Green Parties. Perhaps it is Democracies or Communists. It could be Coke or Pepsi. Nike or Adidas. New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. Gay or straight. Man or woman.

Each and every affiliation we have and cling to in this world generally has an opposite. We’ve taken ourselves to this generic labels of good and evil, dark and light, when in reality, we do not truly know which is which.

How often to do we look back at our own American history and see we were indeed the bad guys in a situation? At least a couple times, right? But let us move past slavery and our treatment of Native Americans because it was so long ago. Let’s not live in the past, right Mark McGwire?

We pretend to have evolved and changed, but that is all it is – a front which matches our social media pictures and status updates, yet hides the broken infrastructure of our marriages, homes and society.

The violence at home and abroad shifts and varies from year to year, decade to decade. What once took place in the act of war (and difficult to even imagine then) now takes place in our cities, trains, subways, schools and offices worldwide.

We pledge to stop it or solve it, but we’re only saying that to get elected. Seven years ago, we thought we’d turned over some great new chapter of hope and change. We have received roughly the same amount of political jabs, shades of gray and dishonesty as before and some change.

As we prepare to pick another political “leader” in roughly 22 months, we’ll be choosing most likely a new president from an old list. A man attempting for a third time who cannot believe he didn’t win in 2012. A woman doing exactly the same, whose husband was president 20 years ago. Another man whose brother and father were president.

They will all attack each other verbally. The media will attack them. In fact, they already have (at least the New York Times still puts Mr. and Mrs./Ms. in print, so there’s a tad bit of decorum left in the world, I suppose).

These candidates will all claim to be different than their relatives. They will also claim to be different than their records and their previous versions of themselves. We’ll all be left with trying to figure out who is lying and who is telling 40 percent of the truth and who can get five percent of what they say they want to accomplish, accomplished.

This dour message is both meant to depress, educate and invigorate.

Whether we’re discussing terrorism, religion, politics or something else, we do indeed have the power to impact the future.

However, we must first learn to evolve and grow beyond what we are now and what we have been in the past.

It is quite simply how and in what manner we treat each other as human beings. As long as we belittle and disrespect and disparage, all this only continues.

Last week it was Paris, next month it may be Rio. In 2007-08, George W. Bush had incredibly low approval ratings. In 2013-14, Barack Obama has had incredibly low approval ratings. We’re using arguments about past wars and past years as some sort of verbal weapon in an attack on something happening now. We’re attempting to repeal and rollback.

These may be valid or necessary – in the eyes of those doing the rolling and repealing and beyond – but we’re simply changing band-aids. Our cuts won’t heal without an ointment to salve our wounds. We just keep cutting the same areas over and over.

Ask those closest to you to describe you in one word. What would their answers be? Love? Faith? Smile? Funny? Caring? Or would it be something else? Depressed? Rude? Angry? Busy?

We’re constantly yearning for change, change, change. But we’re not quite ever sure what that looks like – and we’d most likely need the whole thing explained to us a few times, anyway.

Look at it this way: Ask yourself what you’re doing and what or whom you are doing it for.

No matter who you are, in roughly five or six generations, no one is going to even remember your name. In roughly two generations, they won’t recall what you did for your occupation, what your childhood was like, what your favorite songs or colors were. They won’t know what your favorite hat was, what you got your spouse for their birthday or what it was like when you got married.

It’s quite simple. From the words of Lao Tzu:

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past.

If you are anxious, you are living the future.

If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”

This is not meant to be depressing, either. On the contrary, it is quite freeing. You only need worry about the here and now. The past is over and the future has yet to occur.

Additionally, the world you live in now, the people you surround yourself with and how you treat them, which will be your legacy. Though your name may not last through the infinite time the universe will, your legacy in this world will.

How you treat and interact with your little world will influence those around you – your children, your family, your friends, your colleagues.

Perhaps their actions and behaviors will change as well. And that is something truly revolutionary.

Or maybe, just evolutionary.

Either way, it will indeed be alright.