One of the truest things I have ever been told is "ignorance is bliss." The more I know about the world we live in, the harder it is to go on like everything is okay. Because everything is most certainly not okay. We are destroying our planet. Corporate greed still influences major political decisions. Billions of people are living in poverty, hungry and riddled with curable diseases. When will we say enough is enough? What precipice do we need to teeter on to snap us awake and force us into action? The following are some of the darker thoughts that rattle around in my brain about the world we have created. It helps me to get it out on paper and I thought sharing could be cathartic as well.
Are we trained to want the wrong things? We are taught success is a good thing to want. And it turn, that somehow comes to mean failure is something nobody wants or thus learns how to cope with. We're told having lots of money is good because it means you can buy things. These things are supposed to fill our lives and make them better, and because they're better we'll be happier. But in the end they're still just things. And because we don't quite feel fulfilled that emptiness that was always there gets a little bigger and is definitely more noticeable. Pretty soon, the emptiness is a chasm and there's no way to fill it all back in.
We're filling the emptiness with the wrong things. Instead of love and joy and laughter, we want Ipads, the newest smart phone, and the most expensive car. You often see pictures or hear stories of people who are dirt poor and happier than anyone else. They haven't complicated their lives with this need for material things, this constant craving for more. They are purely satisfied with what they already have. They enjoy the small things in life and count each day as a beautiful blessing. That makes each one you get after that much better than the last.
Are we taught to admire and respect the wrong qualities in people? We value shrewd business tactics over fidelity to one's spouse and emotionally supporting one's family. We respect people who are stoically composed at all times instead of expressing how they truly feel. We admire strength and virility. We respect wealthy, successful people. But what about kindness? What about people who are able to successfully mediate a dispute instead of using their fists? What about generosity or humility? Aren't these more admirable qualities than ones possessed by someone who will stop at nothing to get to the top? Maybe it's why bullying has become such a problem in our schools. Kids are learning that being strong and mean will get you a lot further in our world than being nice to others. Where did they learn this and are we okay with them learning it? It all comes down to what are we teaching our children?
Putting the needs of individuals over the masses is putting our planet in peril. Are we going to do something about it, and will it be enough? One of the most eye-opening books I have ever read was Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. It reads like a thriller but the most chilling aspect is that it is all true. It provides a first hand account of exactly how many developing countries the U.S. has exploited in the name of progress and just how long we've been ravaging countries for their natural resources, nonchalantly destroying the environment. Perkins has a great quote from another one his books, The Secret History of The American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals & The Truth About Global Corruption, about the connection between selfishness and extreme poverty. He says, "Stop being so greedy, and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion pages for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowning in poverty, but your people don't even hear our cries for help. You shut your ears to the voices of those who try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or Communists. You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There's not much time left. If you don't change, you're doomed. (Perkins, 2008).” It is up to us--that is what it comes down to. We can choose to fight and attempt to correct the problem or we can die slowly at our own hands. The choice has always been ours.
There is always a new group to oppress. In the twenty first century it's the homosexual population. Is it necessary to declare one group of people lesser and strip them of equal rights to learn from ourselves and move forward as a species from an evolutionary standpoint? Or are we still just too ignorant to learn from our mistakes, doomed to keep repeating them instead? They say history is cyclical. You can see it in the way empires always rise and collapse. Does this cyclical process mean oppression is inevitable as well? As long as one group of people seeks to have power over another someone will always be oppressed? It makes sense when looking at it from a historical perspective. Using this logic, one could then argue there are certain things we will just never learn. I refuse to accept that. One day someone has to get it right. One day, there has to be a civilization that learns the value of widespread symbiotic relationships--cooperation gets you further than war, peace can be profitable too, and nobody is happy unless everyone is happy. At this rate, we may not be alive to see it but I just hope it happens someday. I hope it is possible.
Are we too far gone to fix? How do you keep living in a world that disgusts you and breaks your heart daily? And when you can't imagine a happy ending, are you just supposed to go on living anyways? Sometimes I honestly find myself wondering if we should just drive ourselves into extinction. Maybe it's what we've deserved, and in hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of years the next advanced species to come along will do better than we did. It gets difficult for me to think about raising kids in a world that scares me, one I see getting worse with each passing day. There are so many things I don't agree with; so many things I find morally repugnant and that make my skin crawl. But there is still the tiniest sliver of hope. I have the smallest inkling of a feeling that things can still turn around. We're on the brink of a revolution. You can feel it. It's slow, but it's happening. People are starting to care about the right things. We're starting to realize it's up to us. Nothing ever changed unless a group of people demanded it. Because I can see these seedlings of change being planted, I know it's too soon to throw in the towel. The power of hope can never be underestimated. Hope is a powerful weapon, and once it's grabbed onto there's no telling what it can do.
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