They lie to us. If not overtly, then through omission. They seek to manipulate us, to drive us to adoration, or to fear, or to desire, or to action, but they do it through manipulation. They act upon the predilections we already harbor, or they pound into us a continuous stream of doubt, or simply repeat the words backed by a seeming surety and sincerity that resonates with us.
But it is all lies.
They want to convince you that they are clean, free of the taint of evildoing. They want you to believe they are right, no matter what the evidence says. They want you to trust them, though their behavior leaves you with a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach.
They are the poltroons, mountebanks, jesters, and megalomaniacs that exist at the edges of society, seeking to use their wiles to manipulate us into giving them what they want: power, money, respect, obedience, obeisance. They flit around us, walk among us, and meander through us, spreading their miasma of incoherence and insensitivity, which clings to us like an unseen coat, poisoning our faculties. We want to believe them, have to believe them, find it difficult to break from their penetrating gaze. We create a veneer of respectability around them that hardens into an armor that deflects even the most pointed queries about those parts of their behavior that trouble us.
We find them in business. We elect them to government, We elevate them in the celebrity parade. We kneel before them in houses of worship. We cheer them in sport. We surrender the natural power of our own intellect in their presence, allowing them to dull our senses and bypass our reason. We want to believe what they say and do is true; oft times, we simply surrender to that belief despite all evidence to the contrary.
Judge not, lest ye be judged, but that does not mean we must suspend all judgment. It means we should not simply place people and things into neat boxes without ascertaining the truth of them. It means we must suspend our innate desire to measure every thing against what we believe and be willing to accept those facts brought before us, irrespective of belief. We must be willing to bend, to narrow the number of absolute codes we carry with us. It means we must not allow ourselves to be so easily led or fooled by those who wrap themselves in the trappings of those things we trust.
The lie is not the thing, for to lie is as easy as telling the truth. It is the intent behind the lie that matters. We call upon the "white" lie to prevent the discovery of a surprise, to spare feelings, to cover a thousand minor infractions in our life, and very rarely can it be said to be harmful. The lie that harms us is the lie told as truth, the lie cloaked in fact, the lie embedded within a web of other lies, the lie built specifically to prevent us from knowing the dark purpose behind the lie. The worst of the lies is that which is coated in officialism, that is "true" because the speakers says it is true. When you have looked to someone as trustworthy, when you have invested in them a tremendous level of respect, when you have marked them as important, the lie they tell breaches your defenses and is deposited in the deeper recesses of your mind, to sit, to fester, to grow, to ensnare reason in the tendrils of deceit. The mind, so swathed, refuses to push back, and reason is choked off.
Not everyone is a liar and not every lie told is intended to do damage, but those that are, when coupled to those figures we deem important, carry tremendous destructive potential for our society. When placed in positions of power, venerated as heroes, imbued with the rank of their office, they can build barriers against the normal forward course of society, attempting to roll it back to beliefs and superstitions and nonsense that previously caused human society to totter on the brink of self-annihilation. Worse, still, they can make it seem that to do as they did or to speak as they spoke carries an air of veracity, that from their lips the words gained truth simply through being said by them.
The lie is perpetuated because it is left unchallenged for those who choose not to apply any discrimination to it. Where facts are rejected out of hand, where belief is stronger than reason, where fame outstrips normality, the lie suffers no damage to many, even where those outside it can support their contention that it is a lie with reason and evidence. There is no comfort in knowing that so many of our fellow human beings in our society choose to simply accept the lie uncritically, content to back in its shadow.
This is the critical point, like so many before now, where we must face down and gear up against the lie. Those in the reasonable, thinking majority of us can no longer stand idly by and let the lies go unchallenged, no longer put up with our fellow citizens and the rank hypocrisy they bathe in. Pull them kicking and screaming we must, out of the dark mists of Middle Age thought and into the 21st Century age of reason. Until we rise up as a mass and proclaim reason a more fit way of providing peace and liberty to all, we will suffer the indignity of ignorance and play with the fire that still threatens to consume us all.
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Friday, January 18, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Carrying On For Weywerdsun
It is considered laughable by some that those you meet in social media, people you have no other physical connection to, can be considered friends. After all, as we are surely all aware, the Internet is the ultimate masquerade ball. No one can ever be thought to be truly what they seem. Doubt nags at the corner of the mind for some; others take everything to be true. The Internet has scrambled our perception of reality and the people in it.
So many of us have so many connections via our social media that we often lose contact with people we have "met" at a time or another and found to be kindred souls. When you begin to interconnect with hundreds and thousands of people, some invariably get lost in the shuffle. Most of us think nothing of it, as they usually resurface at some point.
Then, last week, I ran across a bit of, for me, disturbing news. Someone I followed on Twitter has died, apparently right around Thanksgiving. His handle was @weywerdsun, his name unknown to me and perhaps the thousands that followed him. It took me aback, because I swore I had seen him many times, but realized that the holidays had created a temporal myopia that made me mistaken.
Herein, I do not seek to eulogize him, for to do so requires a depth of knowledge of the man I have no access to. He was an acquaintance, a free thinker, a man who would pose meaningful questions, not because he expected answers, but because he wanted dialog. He believed -- as far as I can surmise from our few interactions -- that problems were solvable with thought. He has the same level of impatience I do with politics. He also believed, as do I, that ignorance is our greatest enemy. Where we seek to believe but do not seek to question and to learn, we deny ourselves truth and the solutions to our problems.
Now he is gone.
As with Aaron Swartz, another person doing their part to lift up humanity from the weeds, @weywerdsun has left us. It is in this moment, when we sense the loss, that we can take our moment to mourn, but only just a moment. What it takes for us to truly prove our love and kinship to these people who are merely ephemeral to most of us, is to recognize their goodness, recognize their forthrightness, see what they were trying to accomplish, and to pick up where they left off. We must continue the dialog. We must continue to seek truth. We must continue to improve. We honor them only by our action, and so we must carry on.
So many of us have so many connections via our social media that we often lose contact with people we have "met" at a time or another and found to be kindred souls. When you begin to interconnect with hundreds and thousands of people, some invariably get lost in the shuffle. Most of us think nothing of it, as they usually resurface at some point.
Then, last week, I ran across a bit of, for me, disturbing news. Someone I followed on Twitter has died, apparently right around Thanksgiving. His handle was @weywerdsun, his name unknown to me and perhaps the thousands that followed him. It took me aback, because I swore I had seen him many times, but realized that the holidays had created a temporal myopia that made me mistaken.
Herein, I do not seek to eulogize him, for to do so requires a depth of knowledge of the man I have no access to. He was an acquaintance, a free thinker, a man who would pose meaningful questions, not because he expected answers, but because he wanted dialog. He believed -- as far as I can surmise from our few interactions -- that problems were solvable with thought. He has the same level of impatience I do with politics. He also believed, as do I, that ignorance is our greatest enemy. Where we seek to believe but do not seek to question and to learn, we deny ourselves truth and the solutions to our problems.
Now he is gone.
As with Aaron Swartz, another person doing their part to lift up humanity from the weeds, @weywerdsun has left us. It is in this moment, when we sense the loss, that we can take our moment to mourn, but only just a moment. What it takes for us to truly prove our love and kinship to these people who are merely ephemeral to most of us, is to recognize their goodness, recognize their forthrightness, see what they were trying to accomplish, and to pick up where they left off. We must continue the dialog. We must continue to seek truth. We must continue to improve. We honor them only by our action, and so we must carry on.
Monday, April 9, 2012
It Is Not My Privilege
By the unfortunate accident of birth and genetics, I am ensconced atop the human social pyramid. As a white male, I am leavened with privilege to a degree I find uncomfortable and embarrassing. It puts me at odds with the world I want to see surrounding me, a world where the color of your skin is just that and nothing more, where the god or gods you worship, or those you don't, do not mark you as different, where your gender, from birth or through change, does not categorize you, where age is worshiped, and not resisted.
In short, I want a world where you are defined by who you are and not what you are.
It's hard to see the inequities of the world from my perch and realize that I cannot simply right them. Harder still, to know that I can never truly understand the unremitting stream of persecution, bigotry, and hatred so many are subject to day after day. Worse even than that, the knowledge that I cannot offer true solace to those who suffer, so detached am I from their plight.
I may not understand their pain, but I do know pain and suffering in my own degree, and I do know that a human life is reduced and degraded by the suffering of pain. If the pains of my life are relatively mild by comparison to those who suffer for their race or religion or sexual orientation or gender, I know intrinsically that if I cannot endure so easily the slights of my life, how can these people be so forced to endure what must be excruciating suffering? To know that there are people around them, who look at them with fear, loathing, and violence in their hearts... to fear that one day, they will be the victim of hideous and horrible crime, simply because of who they are. Who should have to carry that burden in this day-and-age?
To my fellow white brethren, I say this: you may feel no direct connections to the events that have transpired over human history to force these people into their daily bondage, but you and I bear the guilt nonetheless. Somewhere in our deeper past, our line intersects the lines of those who perpetrated the crimes that may not bear our name, but definitely bear the stain of our history as white people. Your hand may not have held the lash. Your hand may not have turned the knob on the gas chamber. Your hand may not have set the fire at the stake. But you and I descend from those hands that did those deeds in the name of sanctity and piety and superiority of race and religion and gender. Go back far enough, and we are connected to them, as surely as the furthest leaf from the ground on a thousand-year-old redwood tree is connected to the deepest root beneath the earth.
If you cannot empathize, cannot sympathize, cannot see the plight of those groups who have spent the better part of thousands of generations under the heel of their tormentors, then it is time to remove the blinders privilege has placed over your eyes. For while that oppression may not be as overt as it was in darker times, it is still extant, especially where we dismiss or downplay the anger and frustration of those who have been oppressed. We cannot expect them to simply "play by the rules" when we continue to keep them at arms length, even though there is no reason to. To react in horror when they dare to contradict us or denigrate us is the acme of our privilege; we have no business denying their pain and anger simply because it offends us. If anything, that should be the signal that we need to stop dictating conditions and start listening to their stories.
A world based on true equality starts, not simply with raising up those who have been relegated for so long to the gutters, but in stepping down ourselves from the pedestals we have lived on for so long. True equality starts when we eschew the security our white race and our male gender hand us, and allow ourselves to be cast into the milieu that we held ourselves above for so long. It needs to start now, because to maintain the convenient fiction that it has always been thus, so it shall always be so, is the last conceit of the privileged before the gates are flung open, the walls are knocked down, and all is wreathed in flames. Let us not allow human society to burn, such that all that remains are charred ashes to be buried under the sediments of time.
In short, I want a world where you are defined by who you are and not what you are.
It's hard to see the inequities of the world from my perch and realize that I cannot simply right them. Harder still, to know that I can never truly understand the unremitting stream of persecution, bigotry, and hatred so many are subject to day after day. Worse even than that, the knowledge that I cannot offer true solace to those who suffer, so detached am I from their plight.
I may not understand their pain, but I do know pain and suffering in my own degree, and I do know that a human life is reduced and degraded by the suffering of pain. If the pains of my life are relatively mild by comparison to those who suffer for their race or religion or sexual orientation or gender, I know intrinsically that if I cannot endure so easily the slights of my life, how can these people be so forced to endure what must be excruciating suffering? To know that there are people around them, who look at them with fear, loathing, and violence in their hearts... to fear that one day, they will be the victim of hideous and horrible crime, simply because of who they are. Who should have to carry that burden in this day-and-age?
To my fellow white brethren, I say this: you may feel no direct connections to the events that have transpired over human history to force these people into their daily bondage, but you and I bear the guilt nonetheless. Somewhere in our deeper past, our line intersects the lines of those who perpetrated the crimes that may not bear our name, but definitely bear the stain of our history as white people. Your hand may not have held the lash. Your hand may not have turned the knob on the gas chamber. Your hand may not have set the fire at the stake. But you and I descend from those hands that did those deeds in the name of sanctity and piety and superiority of race and religion and gender. Go back far enough, and we are connected to them, as surely as the furthest leaf from the ground on a thousand-year-old redwood tree is connected to the deepest root beneath the earth.
If you cannot empathize, cannot sympathize, cannot see the plight of those groups who have spent the better part of thousands of generations under the heel of their tormentors, then it is time to remove the blinders privilege has placed over your eyes. For while that oppression may not be as overt as it was in darker times, it is still extant, especially where we dismiss or downplay the anger and frustration of those who have been oppressed. We cannot expect them to simply "play by the rules" when we continue to keep them at arms length, even though there is no reason to. To react in horror when they dare to contradict us or denigrate us is the acme of our privilege; we have no business denying their pain and anger simply because it offends us. If anything, that should be the signal that we need to stop dictating conditions and start listening to their stories.
A world based on true equality starts, not simply with raising up those who have been relegated for so long to the gutters, but in stepping down ourselves from the pedestals we have lived on for so long. True equality starts when we eschew the security our white race and our male gender hand us, and allow ourselves to be cast into the milieu that we held ourselves above for so long. It needs to start now, because to maintain the convenient fiction that it has always been thus, so it shall always be so, is the last conceit of the privileged before the gates are flung open, the walls are knocked down, and all is wreathed in flames. Let us not allow human society to burn, such that all that remains are charred ashes to be buried under the sediments of time.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Promised Land
The man had a dream, a dream he did not live to see. This day, April 4th, 1968, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was laid low by an assassin's bullet. The man who had worked tirelessly to raise people of color up and out of the mud that white America continually forced them to wallow in, the light and fire of a people's righteous indignation, the scion of non-violent protest in the name of justice, was taken from us by the bigotry and racism he fought. No power on Earth could shield him from the determination of hatred to see him struck down.
The night before he died, he uttered the stirring and prophetic words that have since become iconic:
One believes The Promised Land that Dr. King saw was that which he outlined in perhaps his most famous speech: a land in which people of all races and creeds could live in harmony. He had a vision of the future that -- to him -- was as palpable as the pressure of the collar of his shirt or the weight of a Bible in his hand. Somehow, some day, he knew it would come to pass. He was also sure he would probably not live to see it.
That this man saw the future so clearly is testament to the vision that some human beings, harnessing the native power of cerebral intellect, can will into existence in their own minds, laying aside the dark fears, incongruities, and instincts built up over millions of years in more primitive parts of the brain. Not given to fear or to hate or to prejudice, he extrapolated forward and saw the world that would come to pass, and saw his role in bringing that world into sharper focus. Fortified by the words of The Bible, girded for battle in a cloak on nonviolence, the man would will that world into existence, if he could. He laid out that vision, in the hope that others would recognize it, clutch it to their chests, incorporate it, make it their own, and help propel humanity forward.
It is sad to say that we seem no closer to The Promised Land now than we were that day in Memphis. The election of President Obama, which might have been seen in another light as a true representation of our progress, only served to highlight how much work still remains. His election awakened the ghosts of April 4th, and let them loose to vex us once more. Our nation is now locked in a desperate struggle against the forces of intolerance and bigotry once more, and these enemies of all that is human are even more entrenched and brazen. The hangman's noose has been replaced by the 9-mm automatic. The poll tax has been replaced by voter identification requirements. Slavery has been replaced by the prison cell. Now, more than ever, it is imperative to pick up the baton that fell on that horrible day. It is time to show that Dr. King's faith in humanity was not misplaced. It is time for us -- each and every one -- to lead the way to The Promised Land.
The night before he died, he uttered the stirring and prophetic words that have since become iconic:
"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"
One believes The Promised Land that Dr. King saw was that which he outlined in perhaps his most famous speech: a land in which people of all races and creeds could live in harmony. He had a vision of the future that -- to him -- was as palpable as the pressure of the collar of his shirt or the weight of a Bible in his hand. Somehow, some day, he knew it would come to pass. He was also sure he would probably not live to see it.
That this man saw the future so clearly is testament to the vision that some human beings, harnessing the native power of cerebral intellect, can will into existence in their own minds, laying aside the dark fears, incongruities, and instincts built up over millions of years in more primitive parts of the brain. Not given to fear or to hate or to prejudice, he extrapolated forward and saw the world that would come to pass, and saw his role in bringing that world into sharper focus. Fortified by the words of The Bible, girded for battle in a cloak on nonviolence, the man would will that world into existence, if he could. He laid out that vision, in the hope that others would recognize it, clutch it to their chests, incorporate it, make it their own, and help propel humanity forward.
It is sad to say that we seem no closer to The Promised Land now than we were that day in Memphis. The election of President Obama, which might have been seen in another light as a true representation of our progress, only served to highlight how much work still remains. His election awakened the ghosts of April 4th, and let them loose to vex us once more. Our nation is now locked in a desperate struggle against the forces of intolerance and bigotry once more, and these enemies of all that is human are even more entrenched and brazen. The hangman's noose has been replaced by the 9-mm automatic. The poll tax has been replaced by voter identification requirements. Slavery has been replaced by the prison cell. Now, more than ever, it is imperative to pick up the baton that fell on that horrible day. It is time to show that Dr. King's faith in humanity was not misplaced. It is time for us -- each and every one -- to lead the way to The Promised Land.
Friday, February 24, 2012
What Right Is This That Men Make But Do Not Honor?
Let us start from first principles, and accept the premise that -- as was put in the Declaration of Independence -- we are all equal and endowed with unalienable rights. Let us also say that any American citizen, nay, any human being, can be said to claim such rights implicitly.
If we have posited such, and we accept such, and this fundamental ideal is the basis upon which a nation was founded and forged, what business have any of us to declaim against it?
To be fair, we have every right, by the Constitution of the United States, to say what we will in regards to individual liberty and freedom. Any opinion may be expressed; any thought may be, though not must be, shared in regards to it.
However... while we might rant and rail about specific formulations and values of said unalienable rights, we are not given leave to strip those rights from others, merely upon our say-so or the say-so of others. That they are proclaimed "unalienable" means they are not forfeit, not subject to the vagaries of human foible. Though one or all among us might proclaim them limited, their very essence proclaims them beyond the pale.
So, if we take the Founding Fathers at their word, those rights are ours and so on in perpetuity. Those rights may be regulated, where some of us would presume that our rights are superior and therefore should attempt to subject all of us to their whim, but to strip them as to leave none intact is a barbarity that turns citizens into slaves.
As such, the attempts of some legislative bodies in our nation to take the unalienable right to the control and disposition of one's own body -- specifically where one is a woman or of the female gender -- and remove their freedom of action is tyrannical. It is anathema to the spirit and law of the nation. It is a reckless and ruinous attempt to bend the will of women into a subservience that only in the last one hundred years they have managed to dig themselves out of.
The same can be said of the attempt to place those who identify as homosexuals from enjoying the same level of rights and privilege as all other Americans. Where we define things as matters of the State, and where the State is tasked with ensuring that such things are distributed equally to all, how can it be that we deny some the same rights as others? At every level, we have known this to be wrong: with blacks, with native tribes, with women, with immigrants. How can we claim that now another group is deserving of such shoddy treatment in the face of such factual and historical knowledge?
If one wishes to not avail themselves of certain medical procedures, or live their life in a certain circumspect fashion, owing to their personal feelings or beliefs, then they should -- and do -- have the freedom to do so. But as belief is the province of the individual, so is the right of self-determination, and one's beliefs do not automatically supersede those of others, despite what those beliefs might impute. The right of the individual, where such a right does not trample upon the self-same rights of all individuals, is paramount.
Of course, where we come to governance, the rights of the individual must be balanced against the rights of our society as a whole. Where this is true, liberality is preferable to close-fisted adherence. The litmus test must be the effect of the thing on society as a whole, where such effect is broad and direct. More often than not, outside the realm of those who commit crimes, the effect of the thing lays upon the individual's doorstep, not out own. It is disingenuous to claim that the thing affects those who have no direct tie to it, save in a tenuous and ephemeral fashion.
Ultimately, enough things find confluence in our society, that we are all affected, to a degree, and that is where government is tasked to ensure such effects are not deleterious. The government must, in this process, ensure that at no point is the effect so disproportionate to the measures designed to deal with it, that it can be said to remove our unalienable rights. We will be asked to tacitly support some things we do not, ourselves, see as necessary or desirable, but that should be done so only where the greater good will be directly influenced, not where such are in the realm of caprice. The ultimate goal of our unity is the resolution and equality of all things across society.
The diversity of belief, opinion, and action is out greatest strength, where we do not choose to impose it unnecessarily on everyone. Our unalienable rights start and end with us. Where you choose to tread upon those rights in others, you no longer deserve them yourself, and it is oafish hypocrisy to claim otherwise. All people are not subject to your whim, where they have the right, paid for in blood, to be free. It is time to end the continual perfidy that comes of intolerance for the beliefs of others and learn to live within the bounds of the human community as it is.
If we have posited such, and we accept such, and this fundamental ideal is the basis upon which a nation was founded and forged, what business have any of us to declaim against it?
To be fair, we have every right, by the Constitution of the United States, to say what we will in regards to individual liberty and freedom. Any opinion may be expressed; any thought may be, though not must be, shared in regards to it.
However... while we might rant and rail about specific formulations and values of said unalienable rights, we are not given leave to strip those rights from others, merely upon our say-so or the say-so of others. That they are proclaimed "unalienable" means they are not forfeit, not subject to the vagaries of human foible. Though one or all among us might proclaim them limited, their very essence proclaims them beyond the pale.
So, if we take the Founding Fathers at their word, those rights are ours and so on in perpetuity. Those rights may be regulated, where some of us would presume that our rights are superior and therefore should attempt to subject all of us to their whim, but to strip them as to leave none intact is a barbarity that turns citizens into slaves.
As such, the attempts of some legislative bodies in our nation to take the unalienable right to the control and disposition of one's own body -- specifically where one is a woman or of the female gender -- and remove their freedom of action is tyrannical. It is anathema to the spirit and law of the nation. It is a reckless and ruinous attempt to bend the will of women into a subservience that only in the last one hundred years they have managed to dig themselves out of.
The same can be said of the attempt to place those who identify as homosexuals from enjoying the same level of rights and privilege as all other Americans. Where we define things as matters of the State, and where the State is tasked with ensuring that such things are distributed equally to all, how can it be that we deny some the same rights as others? At every level, we have known this to be wrong: with blacks, with native tribes, with women, with immigrants. How can we claim that now another group is deserving of such shoddy treatment in the face of such factual and historical knowledge?
If one wishes to not avail themselves of certain medical procedures, or live their life in a certain circumspect fashion, owing to their personal feelings or beliefs, then they should -- and do -- have the freedom to do so. But as belief is the province of the individual, so is the right of self-determination, and one's beliefs do not automatically supersede those of others, despite what those beliefs might impute. The right of the individual, where such a right does not trample upon the self-same rights of all individuals, is paramount.
Of course, where we come to governance, the rights of the individual must be balanced against the rights of our society as a whole. Where this is true, liberality is preferable to close-fisted adherence. The litmus test must be the effect of the thing on society as a whole, where such effect is broad and direct. More often than not, outside the realm of those who commit crimes, the effect of the thing lays upon the individual's doorstep, not out own. It is disingenuous to claim that the thing affects those who have no direct tie to it, save in a tenuous and ephemeral fashion.
Ultimately, enough things find confluence in our society, that we are all affected, to a degree, and that is where government is tasked to ensure such effects are not deleterious. The government must, in this process, ensure that at no point is the effect so disproportionate to the measures designed to deal with it, that it can be said to remove our unalienable rights. We will be asked to tacitly support some things we do not, ourselves, see as necessary or desirable, but that should be done so only where the greater good will be directly influenced, not where such are in the realm of caprice. The ultimate goal of our unity is the resolution and equality of all things across society.
The diversity of belief, opinion, and action is out greatest strength, where we do not choose to impose it unnecessarily on everyone. Our unalienable rights start and end with us. Where you choose to tread upon those rights in others, you no longer deserve them yourself, and it is oafish hypocrisy to claim otherwise. All people are not subject to your whim, where they have the right, paid for in blood, to be free. It is time to end the continual perfidy that comes of intolerance for the beliefs of others and learn to live within the bounds of the human community as it is.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Strongest Sex
This year has seen a full-on assault on women and the female gender by men in positions of power or attempting to obtain positions of power. Without pouring over the sordid details, it should be noted that women's health care, contraception, abortion, education, and social standing has been under constant fire with the turning of the year, and misogyny has risen to cast a cloud over our society as never before. This whole movement toward rolling back the status of women to some point in 1950s, on the way to trying to push their rights and privileges back to some point before the 1920s, is unconscionable in the 21st Century. How can we be at this point again?
It boils down to a simple fact: men have dominated human society for millions of years, based solely on the perceived notion that they are the stronger of the binary genders, a notion conceived and reinforced through the application of wholly artificial standards and practices developed to stack the deck in their favor. In the distant mists of the human past, when survival was not assured and no mean feat, men perhaps thought that their hunting and fighting skills made them the natural leaders of humanity. A few million years later, it's easy to see why this idea is wrong...
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Normal Isn't
The idea of "normal" is a statistical affectation. It is an attempt to take a large assemblage of disparate items and find some significant middle to them, that ties them all together into a neat package that can be leveraged to make "value" judgments. It is an imaginary line that runs through each and every grouping imaginable, placed there by outside agency, a wholly artificial yardstick against which each and every thing in the group is measured.
From statistics, the idea of normal has progressed into the realm of human society. When you have a group of numbers representing data points in a continuum, you can use those to find a middle, an average, a norm. Then you can place every number in relation to the norm, leading to "above average" and "below average," and "normal," where something varies very little from the mean. And if that works for numbers, why not people? It starts with physical, measurable characteristics: height, weight, percentage of body fat, age, etc. Gradually, it expands to more ephemeral and esoteric regions: intelligence, beauty, wealth, and the like. Soon, we speak of people only in terms of their relative "value," and just how far from "normal" they stand.
This process of measuring and charting and cataloging humanity can be shown to be the determining factor behind the basest of human interactions: spite, envy, bigotry, racism, snark, superiority, hypocrisy, lack of empathy, judgmentalism. Where some artificial "norm" exists, and where we choose to compare others to it, we set up the conditions for placing people in category we find desirable or undesirable. We reduce human beings to numbers, names, categories, and so on; we place ourselves above others through wholly artificial and self-serving measures. We act as if this is how it is supposed to be.
Over seven billion people inhabit the Earth and the genetic variation between them may be unbelievably small, but it leads to a rich and varied species that has come to dominate the planet like no other. If that seven billion can be reduced to any number, it is one -- one species. The individual variations that appear in each and every one of us are part of a pre-programmed inheritance billions of years old, that drives even a singular species such as ours to display as much diversity as possible, to allow for a greater chance at survival. No measure of such variation can lead to anything that resembles a "normal" human being; we must pursue a varied, divergent, and expanding course in order for humanity to survive.
There is no fractionating humanity. Like the picture that is made up of millions of dots, humanity is a species made up of billions of variations. The drive to create conformity, to place everyone in their box, to hold up some as paragons to be aspired to, is to go contrary to everything that gives our species its strength. Unity of purpose and breadth of vision are far greater reinforcements for our advancement as species, than attempts to anchor us to artificial measures that hold no basis in our evolution. Appreciation of our differences makes us human; anything else makes us mere animals.
From statistics, the idea of normal has progressed into the realm of human society. When you have a group of numbers representing data points in a continuum, you can use those to find a middle, an average, a norm. Then you can place every number in relation to the norm, leading to "above average" and "below average," and "normal," where something varies very little from the mean. And if that works for numbers, why not people? It starts with physical, measurable characteristics: height, weight, percentage of body fat, age, etc. Gradually, it expands to more ephemeral and esoteric regions: intelligence, beauty, wealth, and the like. Soon, we speak of people only in terms of their relative "value," and just how far from "normal" they stand.
This process of measuring and charting and cataloging humanity can be shown to be the determining factor behind the basest of human interactions: spite, envy, bigotry, racism, snark, superiority, hypocrisy, lack of empathy, judgmentalism. Where some artificial "norm" exists, and where we choose to compare others to it, we set up the conditions for placing people in category we find desirable or undesirable. We reduce human beings to numbers, names, categories, and so on; we place ourselves above others through wholly artificial and self-serving measures. We act as if this is how it is supposed to be.
Over seven billion people inhabit the Earth and the genetic variation between them may be unbelievably small, but it leads to a rich and varied species that has come to dominate the planet like no other. If that seven billion can be reduced to any number, it is one -- one species. The individual variations that appear in each and every one of us are part of a pre-programmed inheritance billions of years old, that drives even a singular species such as ours to display as much diversity as possible, to allow for a greater chance at survival. No measure of such variation can lead to anything that resembles a "normal" human being; we must pursue a varied, divergent, and expanding course in order for humanity to survive.
There is no fractionating humanity. Like the picture that is made up of millions of dots, humanity is a species made up of billions of variations. The drive to create conformity, to place everyone in their box, to hold up some as paragons to be aspired to, is to go contrary to everything that gives our species its strength. Unity of purpose and breadth of vision are far greater reinforcements for our advancement as species, than attempts to anchor us to artificial measures that hold no basis in our evolution. Appreciation of our differences makes us human; anything else makes us mere animals.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Look Not Forward, Nor Back, But Within
As the hours close on another calendar year, this is often the time for reflection on the events that have transpired since the last time the calendar turned and the making of resolutions for how things will change in the coming year.
Maybe, however, we should not be concentrating on these things. Maybe, this would be a good moment to disconnect from the societal externality that surrounds us and withdraw within ourselves. Maybe, we should be dissociating ourselves from the things which drive us from the outside, and look to those things that should drive us from the inside.
Our modern world, in supplying us with a seemingly endless stream of information and drawing the various cultures of our globe in tighter toward each other, is creating an undeniable pressure on each of us, whether real or perceived. That which was local is now global; events we thought hidden from view are thrown into stark relief in the glare of attention. From its dark corners and dank places, the true breadth of humanity bubbles up, exposed to the light of day, and leaves us wreathed in fetid miasma. We are not the enlightened and social species we convinced ourselves we are; we took our societal progress to be a finished product, rather than the papering over it is.
We may strive each day in vain hope that Utopia lies within striking distance, but as a twist to the admonition goes, objects in society's mirror are further than they appear. Struggle though we have, gain though we may, voices raised in protest or in song, we have not breached the smog to find clean air, only pockets slightly less choked with the by-products of hubris and fear. Our moment in the calmer air is all too brief.
I often speak of human duty, that idea that lies dormant below the surface of many, wherein it is our responsibility to see others as we see us, to provide for them as we provide for ourselves, to do for others as we do for ourselves. While this is a noble aspiration, and many have known it full, it is not a state of being that can be attained without knowledge and understanding of the self. Without seeing our true reflection in the mirror, without reading the lines etched upon us by time and life, without casting a critical eye at each thought, action, or utterance, striving to free ourselves of our selfish tendencies is a course in futility.
Those of us who have worked tirelessly to alter ourselves, who have given up so much of us that we give more to others, have done so with the knowledge that in as much as we have done these things, perfection lies beyond our grasp. To deny discrimination, to suspend judgment, to reach beyond the surface to see behind and beneath the person... these are things that we find ourselves capable of doing, but not completely free to do. Breaking the last ties that bind us to a primitive past is not so easily accomplished.
We must accept that we are only human. Our cerebral capacity for free thought and free action is built upon a bedrock of primitive survival instincts, and the power of the modern neocortex to control all aspects of the human body through the auspices of mind is still easily sabotaged by unconscious mechanisms that dwell in the deep recesses. To overcome fear, ignorance, hatred, and malice is to start a war within, a war that is not always completely won, because the reptilian brain is not so easily chained.
So, at this moment, think not about what has passed, or what is to come -- think about who you are and where you stand. Take no pledge or oath, nor wallow in regret; instead, look down into your soul. There you will see yourself as you are; recognize that person, cherish that person, accept that you are both unique as an individual, and the same as each and every other human being. To change the world, you can start by changing yourself, not radically, but gradually. Enlightenment does not come in a second or a minute or an hour or a day or a year; it is built up each passing moment, through the length of a life and more. Take the time you have, use it well. Treat yourself with care, and you will find it easier to treat others that way.
I bid each and every person on this planet peace, prosperity, and long life.
Maybe, however, we should not be concentrating on these things. Maybe, this would be a good moment to disconnect from the societal externality that surrounds us and withdraw within ourselves. Maybe, we should be dissociating ourselves from the things which drive us from the outside, and look to those things that should drive us from the inside.
Our modern world, in supplying us with a seemingly endless stream of information and drawing the various cultures of our globe in tighter toward each other, is creating an undeniable pressure on each of us, whether real or perceived. That which was local is now global; events we thought hidden from view are thrown into stark relief in the glare of attention. From its dark corners and dank places, the true breadth of humanity bubbles up, exposed to the light of day, and leaves us wreathed in fetid miasma. We are not the enlightened and social species we convinced ourselves we are; we took our societal progress to be a finished product, rather than the papering over it is.
We may strive each day in vain hope that Utopia lies within striking distance, but as a twist to the admonition goes, objects in society's mirror are further than they appear. Struggle though we have, gain though we may, voices raised in protest or in song, we have not breached the smog to find clean air, only pockets slightly less choked with the by-products of hubris and fear. Our moment in the calmer air is all too brief.
I often speak of human duty, that idea that lies dormant below the surface of many, wherein it is our responsibility to see others as we see us, to provide for them as we provide for ourselves, to do for others as we do for ourselves. While this is a noble aspiration, and many have known it full, it is not a state of being that can be attained without knowledge and understanding of the self. Without seeing our true reflection in the mirror, without reading the lines etched upon us by time and life, without casting a critical eye at each thought, action, or utterance, striving to free ourselves of our selfish tendencies is a course in futility.
Those of us who have worked tirelessly to alter ourselves, who have given up so much of us that we give more to others, have done so with the knowledge that in as much as we have done these things, perfection lies beyond our grasp. To deny discrimination, to suspend judgment, to reach beyond the surface to see behind and beneath the person... these are things that we find ourselves capable of doing, but not completely free to do. Breaking the last ties that bind us to a primitive past is not so easily accomplished.
We must accept that we are only human. Our cerebral capacity for free thought and free action is built upon a bedrock of primitive survival instincts, and the power of the modern neocortex to control all aspects of the human body through the auspices of mind is still easily sabotaged by unconscious mechanisms that dwell in the deep recesses. To overcome fear, ignorance, hatred, and malice is to start a war within, a war that is not always completely won, because the reptilian brain is not so easily chained.
So, at this moment, think not about what has passed, or what is to come -- think about who you are and where you stand. Take no pledge or oath, nor wallow in regret; instead, look down into your soul. There you will see yourself as you are; recognize that person, cherish that person, accept that you are both unique as an individual, and the same as each and every other human being. To change the world, you can start by changing yourself, not radically, but gradually. Enlightenment does not come in a second or a minute or an hour or a day or a year; it is built up each passing moment, through the length of a life and more. Take the time you have, use it well. Treat yourself with care, and you will find it easier to treat others that way.
I bid each and every person on this planet peace, prosperity, and long life.
Friday, November 4, 2011
My Values, Your Values, Our Values
What values do we share? Think on it for a minute.
Certainly, we could all agree that each of us, each human being, has an inherent right to be ourselves, to have our own thoughts, and our individual liberty... right? It was a guiding principle behind the founding of the nation.
Certainly, we could agree that, given the above, the right to that liberty should not be infringed upon by others, as individuals, organizations, or government. Again, another founding principle.
Given those things, and the moral history of human culture, there can be no argument that a human individual, secure in personal liberty, endowed with inherent rights, should be free of fear of malice or murder, correct?
Most importantly, given that every person is thus endowed with rights and liberties, does that not also mean that each is as precious as another, deserving of respect and decency to the same degree?
But wait...
Certainly, we could all agree that each of us, each human being, has an inherent right to be ourselves, to have our own thoughts, and our individual liberty... right? It was a guiding principle behind the founding of the nation.
Certainly, we could agree that, given the above, the right to that liberty should not be infringed upon by others, as individuals, organizations, or government. Again, another founding principle.
Given those things, and the moral history of human culture, there can be no argument that a human individual, secure in personal liberty, endowed with inherent rights, should be free of fear of malice or murder, correct?
Most importantly, given that every person is thus endowed with rights and liberties, does that not also mean that each is as precious as another, deserving of respect and decency to the same degree?
But wait...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The One Hundred Percent
Numbers are bandied about continuously to make a point in the Information Age. Statistics, percentages, tallies, proportions, and the like are becoming the drivers of social change, the mirrors behind which truth is hidden, the towers in which power is created and kept, and the walls that keep groups separated. Even now, across the globe, a battle line is being drawn between the ninety-nine percent of the population that is suffering under the economic and social oppression of the other one percent, in which is invested great wealth and greater power.
While it is all well-and-good to be cognizant of the disparities and divisions that are the heart of our current place in human history, the polarization effected by numerical comparisons in any number of axes, far from delineating and defining the problems and potential solutions of those problems, serves to only increase the divisiveness and demonization extant in human societies all over the planet. If our conscience and social change are to be driven by numbers, then there are only two numbers that should truly count: one and one hundred.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
I Don't Feel Your Pain
The world as we know it is a rough place, a series of nettlesome problems laced with personal disagreements, differing opinions, and a variety of points of view. The only constant is that the trials and tribulations are happening to people such as ourselves, people who may be very different from us through casual inspection, but upon deeper reflection, are not that much different. They, too, are trying to survive, trying to flourish, trying to have a decent life.
What disturbs us more than anything, is how so many seem to be unable to empathize with others, for reasons beyond comprehension and through rationales which test rationality. It is so easy for one person to look at another, and allow surface impressions to form their whole opinion, and to parse the information that comes in through various media as proof of that opinion. These opinions, far from fluid and malleable, become the bedrock of intolerance and ignorance, driving people further apart. It is as if the contraction for the world through technology and transportation is being resisted by a visceral repulsion, not unlike the collapse of star being slowed or halted by the fusing matter within.
What disturbs us more than anything, is how so many seem to be unable to empathize with others, for reasons beyond comprehension and through rationales which test rationality. It is so easy for one person to look at another, and allow surface impressions to form their whole opinion, and to parse the information that comes in through various media as proof of that opinion. These opinions, far from fluid and malleable, become the bedrock of intolerance and ignorance, driving people further apart. It is as if the contraction for the world through technology and transportation is being resisted by a visceral repulsion, not unlike the collapse of star being slowed or halted by the fusing matter within.
Monday, August 8, 2011
America, The Post-Racial
Here is a story that tells you where America stands as far as tolerance and individual liberty goes: James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old auto plant worker, was standing beside his car on a Sunday morning in Jackson, MS, when up drove two carloads of teenagers, who had spent the night drinking. The teens "allegedly" got out of their vehicles and proceeded to pummel this man, and then, when he tried to stagger back to his car, ran him over with a pickup truck and drove away.
The kids are white; Mr. Anderson was black. Was, because he is now a corpse, bereft of life and of any conceivable identity that could be assigned to him that would have any meaning other than deceased. He was a living, breathing man, American citizen, worker, brother and son. Assigned by the Constitution of the United States his inalienable rights to personal liberty, he had those rights stripped from him in a brutal and callous fashion, by unfeeling, uncaring, bigoted white teenagers. Allegedly. In the vernacular that we must adopt as outlined in that same Constitution, one is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and so the crime is "alleged" to have occurred. Of course, the Founding Fathers never envisioned video tape or digital recordings.
The whole crime was caught on surveillance video. In sordid detail.
The kids are white; Mr. Anderson was black. Was, because he is now a corpse, bereft of life and of any conceivable identity that could be assigned to him that would have any meaning other than deceased. He was a living, breathing man, American citizen, worker, brother and son. Assigned by the Constitution of the United States his inalienable rights to personal liberty, he had those rights stripped from him in a brutal and callous fashion, by unfeeling, uncaring, bigoted white teenagers. Allegedly. In the vernacular that we must adopt as outlined in that same Constitution, one is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and so the crime is "alleged" to have occurred. Of course, the Founding Fathers never envisioned video tape or digital recordings.
The whole crime was caught on surveillance video. In sordid detail.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Why Feminism Matters On Father's Day
My daughter is six-years-old. She is growing up quickly, into a world where women are under assault, physically, mentally, and socially. Rapists, anti-choice rabble, magazine editors, Hollywood directors, and Congressmen are trying to tell her she's not good enough as she is, that she shouldn't get her hopes up, that she has no autonomy over herself, that her only worth is as a mother and wife. The Women's Suffrage movement of the early Twentieth Century is now under assault by men who have watched their power erode every decade since, as women and minorities assert themselves and take the rights and privileges that are owed them by their mere existence as citizens of America.
As a father, since the birth of my daughter, my leanings toward the equality of women has naturally risen above it's previous levels. My daughter is growing up in this world, and as her father, I am charged with ensuring not only that she is raised to be tough, strong, and intelligent, but with making sure that the world she grows into is not corrupted for women. I am forced to confront the societal ills more forcefully, as I cannot countenance women being returned to their status as second-class citizens in a male-dominated society. She deserves all the blessing of her humanity, and she is a person like anyone else, not an object to be coveted, taken, shamed, or shackled.
It is not just the purview of the father to look out for a daughter. Every woman, of every stripe, in every place, deserves to have the respect of every man. It is a woman we have to thank for our existence, and that should be enough, but beyond our mother, women are our sisters, aunts, grandmothers, teachers, doctors, nurses, soldiers, scientists, and fill every level of human society with their knowledge, their strength, their caring their compassion. Man and woman are equal measure of humanity, and while some men would argue the point, it is only because they have latched onto dogma and steeped themselves in their own need to be superior.
On this Father's Day, let us not forget how all fathers got their opportunity to be such, and let us not forget that our fatherhood does not stop at the door, especially where it comes to our daughters. We, having helped to create a human being, must nurture them, and provide them an environment in which to thrive. This means we must be vigilant, must be engaged, must strive to build a better world for them than the one we inherited. Father's Day is not a day for rest, but reflection, and action, if those Father's Days to come are to be worth celebrating.
As a father, since the birth of my daughter, my leanings toward the equality of women has naturally risen above it's previous levels. My daughter is growing up in this world, and as her father, I am charged with ensuring not only that she is raised to be tough, strong, and intelligent, but with making sure that the world she grows into is not corrupted for women. I am forced to confront the societal ills more forcefully, as I cannot countenance women being returned to their status as second-class citizens in a male-dominated society. She deserves all the blessing of her humanity, and she is a person like anyone else, not an object to be coveted, taken, shamed, or shackled.
It is not just the purview of the father to look out for a daughter. Every woman, of every stripe, in every place, deserves to have the respect of every man. It is a woman we have to thank for our existence, and that should be enough, but beyond our mother, women are our sisters, aunts, grandmothers, teachers, doctors, nurses, soldiers, scientists, and fill every level of human society with their knowledge, their strength, their caring their compassion. Man and woman are equal measure of humanity, and while some men would argue the point, it is only because they have latched onto dogma and steeped themselves in their own need to be superior.
On this Father's Day, let us not forget how all fathers got their opportunity to be such, and let us not forget that our fatherhood does not stop at the door, especially where it comes to our daughters. We, having helped to create a human being, must nurture them, and provide them an environment in which to thrive. This means we must be vigilant, must be engaged, must strive to build a better world for them than the one we inherited. Father's Day is not a day for rest, but reflection, and action, if those Father's Days to come are to be worth celebrating.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday
The Roman Catholic Church decrees this to be Good Friday, the commemoration of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ by the Romans at Calvary. All Catholics and Christians are expected to observe the day in holy reverie for the death of The Savior.
The sad part of this whole thing, is that so much energy is invested in telling this story and the story of the Resurrection, as if they alone were reason enough to revere Jesus and praise The Lord.
The sad part of this whole thing, is that so much energy is invested in telling this story and the story of the Resurrection, as if they alone were reason enough to revere Jesus and praise The Lord.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Gender Confusion
Man and woman. We have, at our most basic, defined ourselves along those line since the rise of Homo sapiens. Our outer covering, our biological form, our morphology, was the most obvious division that could be made between human beings. That difference was used time-and-again to create rules, tell stories, and try and mold human societies, large and small. Women were often placed in the inferior position, treated more like cattle than people, prized for their power to create children and for their beauty. Men, bigger and stronger, took on the tasks of hunting, scouting, and providing. At the time of the evolution of true humans, these differentiations perhaps provided the necessary framework for the growth of humanity. But now they are an impediment, in more ways than one.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Under Siege
The past is rife with the record humanity's clawing its way up the ladder of development, from simple wanderers, to farmers, to townsfolk, to city dwellers, to citizens of nations and empires. All along the path, cultures, traditions, languages, and religions were established, each scratching out an existence within the human milieu. These patterns, these delimiters, provided both an impetus for the growth of humanity and a handbrake on the true growth of humanity's soul. Where belonging to any of these groups was made an imperative, eventually conflict arose, and where more than one was at play, intrigues and insurrections brought down many a “civilized” society.
Our growth is retarded only by the dead weight of the past that we carry forward with us. Rather than taking the lessons of the past, using them to inform the present, to pave the way for the future, we stubbornly carry along the whole rickety architecture of previous centuries, as if it were some precious gift, rather than the rusted anchor it is. We have much we can learn from the recorded events of our history, many lessons we can take from what came before, but if we insist on holding on to the letter of them, instead of the spirit, we doom ourselves to remaking the same ineffectual and damaging mistakes we made before.
Fear, loathing, segregation, war, poverty, disease – these should all issues we reflect on merely for their historical value. Instead, we continue to perpetuate them by operating using the same tired strictures and obsolescent values, pursuing goals no different now than centuries earlier: greed for money, lust for power, separation of the classes, destruction of those who oppose us. Some of us cling to these precepts as a man to a life preserver in the middle of the sea, refusing rescue, preferring to be saved by drifting to land on the currents. The ridiculous lengths to which groups of people on this planet pursue courses which create conflict, rather than mitigating it, is staggering.
This is not to be completely dismissive of belief systems and organized forms of community different than our own. Everything that has come before us as provided the bricks and mortar that were laid down to create the foundation of humanity. Some bricks were forged in fire, some in blood, some in hope, some in tears, some in strength, but the sum total is far greater than the individual bricks. Still, it may be said that some of those bricks, while seeming sturdy on the outside, are, at their centers, hollow and unsound. A house may be built on a foundation that is not one hundred percent strong, but every percent below that increases the likelihood of eventual collapse. Perhaps there are too few bricks of the type in our home, but humanity cannot be sure, and cannot afford to turn a blind eye and hope for the best.
There is no blueprint for the perfect human society; human beings are too varied to fit one system to all. There will always be those in the human milieu who, no matter the bounty or peace that surrounds them, will agitate against such things, claiming they being stifled and their freedom limited, when that is furthest from the truth. One could hope that there will be new challenges and new frontiers that can absorb these malcontents and give them something to turn their energy towards, but until then, we must suffer along with their presence, as they attempt to divert us from our true destiny.
Those who align against reason, sanity, clarity, and logic are not going to be appeased. They will continue to fight tooth-and-nail against changes in “their” world, for that marks the difference between them and the rest of humanity – they do not see themselves a part of the grander scheme. They look upon those who do not follow their regimens and restrictions as “fools” or “the unworthy” or claim that their ultimate will be worse than the “faithful.” They seek to separate themselves from humanity, and seek to reinforce the dividing lines they have drawn, ensuring that they have the world they wish, without the interference of other forces constantly undermining them. They would return us to patterns of behavior that we passed by long ago as untenable, simply because those patterns are familiar and soothing to their minds.
We do ourselves a disservice to dismiss them callously, or impugn them, or lord our “superiority” over them. They, too, despite their societal flaws, are human, and by the rules we choose to live by, entitled to their opinion, even if we don't agree and it does not add to the peace and stability of society. We may pity them, or perhaps pray for them, but we should never think ourselves above them, for that leads us down the same road they and their ancestors have trodden. We would merely exchange one group of hard cases for another, only then we would find ourselves on the other side of the argument.
We will advance or fall together, of this there is no doubt. We should always keep that in mind. Disagree though we may, eventually we end up in the same place, perhaps slower than we would have liked, but just as inevitably. Let us learn to hold our tongues, extend our hands, and give ground where we can, to foster the creation of harmony, that we might seek a better end for all that much sooner. We have nothing to lose to try.
Our growth is retarded only by the dead weight of the past that we carry forward with us. Rather than taking the lessons of the past, using them to inform the present, to pave the way for the future, we stubbornly carry along the whole rickety architecture of previous centuries, as if it were some precious gift, rather than the rusted anchor it is. We have much we can learn from the recorded events of our history, many lessons we can take from what came before, but if we insist on holding on to the letter of them, instead of the spirit, we doom ourselves to remaking the same ineffectual and damaging mistakes we made before.
Fear, loathing, segregation, war, poverty, disease – these should all issues we reflect on merely for their historical value. Instead, we continue to perpetuate them by operating using the same tired strictures and obsolescent values, pursuing goals no different now than centuries earlier: greed for money, lust for power, separation of the classes, destruction of those who oppose us. Some of us cling to these precepts as a man to a life preserver in the middle of the sea, refusing rescue, preferring to be saved by drifting to land on the currents. The ridiculous lengths to which groups of people on this planet pursue courses which create conflict, rather than mitigating it, is staggering.
This is not to be completely dismissive of belief systems and organized forms of community different than our own. Everything that has come before us as provided the bricks and mortar that were laid down to create the foundation of humanity. Some bricks were forged in fire, some in blood, some in hope, some in tears, some in strength, but the sum total is far greater than the individual bricks. Still, it may be said that some of those bricks, while seeming sturdy on the outside, are, at their centers, hollow and unsound. A house may be built on a foundation that is not one hundred percent strong, but every percent below that increases the likelihood of eventual collapse. Perhaps there are too few bricks of the type in our home, but humanity cannot be sure, and cannot afford to turn a blind eye and hope for the best.
There is no blueprint for the perfect human society; human beings are too varied to fit one system to all. There will always be those in the human milieu who, no matter the bounty or peace that surrounds them, will agitate against such things, claiming they being stifled and their freedom limited, when that is furthest from the truth. One could hope that there will be new challenges and new frontiers that can absorb these malcontents and give them something to turn their energy towards, but until then, we must suffer along with their presence, as they attempt to divert us from our true destiny.
Those who align against reason, sanity, clarity, and logic are not going to be appeased. They will continue to fight tooth-and-nail against changes in “their” world, for that marks the difference between them and the rest of humanity – they do not see themselves a part of the grander scheme. They look upon those who do not follow their regimens and restrictions as “fools” or “the unworthy” or claim that their ultimate will be worse than the “faithful.” They seek to separate themselves from humanity, and seek to reinforce the dividing lines they have drawn, ensuring that they have the world they wish, without the interference of other forces constantly undermining them. They would return us to patterns of behavior that we passed by long ago as untenable, simply because those patterns are familiar and soothing to their minds.
We do ourselves a disservice to dismiss them callously, or impugn them, or lord our “superiority” over them. They, too, despite their societal flaws, are human, and by the rules we choose to live by, entitled to their opinion, even if we don't agree and it does not add to the peace and stability of society. We may pity them, or perhaps pray for them, but we should never think ourselves above them, for that leads us down the same road they and their ancestors have trodden. We would merely exchange one group of hard cases for another, only then we would find ourselves on the other side of the argument.
We will advance or fall together, of this there is no doubt. We should always keep that in mind. Disagree though we may, eventually we end up in the same place, perhaps slower than we would have liked, but just as inevitably. Let us learn to hold our tongues, extend our hands, and give ground where we can, to foster the creation of harmony, that we might seek a better end for all that much sooner. We have nothing to lose to try.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Each Another's Audience
The attempt to differentiate ourselves, be it how we dress, how we act, what God we do (or don't) pray to, and so on, is something that absorbs the greater portion of our lives. We want to be noticed for our individuality, even as we try to fit in with some social class we think is desirable. We value independence, even as we surrender our will to the whims of the crowd. We don't care how others feel, except to wonder what they think of us and imagine the worst, or worse, believe they think well of us when evidence suggests we do not. We want to stand on our two feet, even when we are most assuredly not even ready to crawl.
What most of us fail to realize is that we are, for all intents and purposes, as different as the next person. Our DNA writes a story specifically for us, shapes and molds us, sets up the conditions under which we integrate into our environment. The code of every living human is different, even where they may be “identical.” Variation is the name of the game evolution plays, and it seeks to keep us as differentiated as possible, to ensure that we retain the maximum adaptability of the species. That is the key to our survival – having the greatest range of traits available, to allow for the greatest number of useful combinations, encouraging the welfare of humankind.
What most of us fail to realize is that we are, for all intents and purposes, as different as the next person. Our DNA writes a story specifically for us, shapes and molds us, sets up the conditions under which we integrate into our environment. The code of every living human is different, even where they may be “identical.” Variation is the name of the game evolution plays, and it seeks to keep us as differentiated as possible, to ensure that we retain the maximum adaptability of the species. That is the key to our survival – having the greatest range of traits available, to allow for the greatest number of useful combinations, encouraging the welfare of humankind.
Monday, March 21, 2011
People Unclear On The Concept
In this age of information access and the free exchange of knowledge, it is amazing how so many of us decide to fall back on ignorance and inaccuracy to state our case. The backlash against reason, the constant rhetoric that decries “elitism,” the gutting of programs that would increase access to knowledge for millions of Americans, is staggering. The country we live in now is hardly recognizable as the nation that sent men to the Moon; in fact, a depressingly high number of Americans believe we didn't actually go to the Moon, that it was simply a government ploy. And this willful ignorance is not limited to areas of science and industry, but even religion, where the profusion of Christian sects that do not practice adherence to the words of Jesus and The Holy Roman Bible is confounding and confusing.
It is as if we live in a modern age wrapped in a dark age, a kind of yin-and-yang society, where intelligence and ignorance are attempting to coexist, but none too successfully. Intelligence tries to enlighten; ignorance tries to proselytize. Intelligence makes aware of real dangers; ignorance makes us fear phantoms and shadows. Intelligence seeks broad consensus; ignorance works to enforce its rules and ideals on others. Intelligence seeks to strip us of our burdens; ignorance seeks to make out yoke heavier and chains more sturdy. The problem is: the two disparate sides of the same coin have trapped us in the middle. The average American can be too easily swayed, and both sides seek to buttonhole us, forcing us to choose which shall rein supreme.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Societal Myopia
There is a movement afoot – and when is there not – to get the Ten Commandments placed in every courthouse in Georgia, as if the mere presence of this Biblical coda can somehow imbue all those who read them with the moral fiber they lacked previously. Strangely, these commandments have been around for centuries, but they do not seem to have made much of an impact despite the number of adherents to the faith from which they spring. It could be posited that these words contain no power, save where the individual who reads them chooses to incorporate them into their life as precepts to be followed. Other than that, they are simply relics of an ancient time, like hieroglyphs on an Egyptian tomb.
It would do no good, really, to go about putting such holy inscriptions on government edifices or government-supported public buildings, even were it not a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. For, to have any impact, these words would have to be seen, interpreted, and incorporated by those exposed to them, and they could be written on every wall and sidewalk and building, and have no greater affect than they do now, sequestered between the covers of a religious tome. Our society has developed myopia, a collective short-sightedness that does not allow us to see the true nature of the world around us, and therefore, we do not recognize what is put before us.
It would do no good, really, to go about putting such holy inscriptions on government edifices or government-supported public buildings, even were it not a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. For, to have any impact, these words would have to be seen, interpreted, and incorporated by those exposed to them, and they could be written on every wall and sidewalk and building, and have no greater affect than they do now, sequestered between the covers of a religious tome. Our society has developed myopia, a collective short-sightedness that does not allow us to see the true nature of the world around us, and therefore, we do not recognize what is put before us.
Monday, March 7, 2011
From Woman Borne, Persecute Her No Longer
What woman has not brought a life into the world, of her choosing, and not been happy to care for it, raise it, and send it out into the world? There are some who, in circumstances we cannot fully comprehend, become a mother and are not so enamored of it; the vast majority are certainly not in that camp, or so we should hope. A mother raises a child to the best of her ability, and hopes to turn out a stellar example of humanity, trying though that path might be.
Still, it begs the question: why are so many male offspring of human mothers so hateful toward the female gender? One could imagine it if every boy were maltreated by a mother ill-equipped to handle the strain, but even some of the better-educated, intellectually-forward, well-raised men in our nation, seem predisposed to a venom and bile against women that they scarcely deign to hide it. Nowhere is this seen in greater profusion that in the halls of legislation, State and Federal, where male-dominated legislatures seek to impose heinous penalties and outrageous restrictions on women who merely seek to live their life as they see fit.
Still, it begs the question: why are so many male offspring of human mothers so hateful toward the female gender? One could imagine it if every boy were maltreated by a mother ill-equipped to handle the strain, but even some of the better-educated, intellectually-forward, well-raised men in our nation, seem predisposed to a venom and bile against women that they scarcely deign to hide it. Nowhere is this seen in greater profusion that in the halls of legislation, State and Federal, where male-dominated legislatures seek to impose heinous penalties and outrageous restrictions on women who merely seek to live their life as they see fit.
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