Listening To: So What - Pink
Word of the Day: Sugar
Maybe it's the larger amounts of sugar I've ingested this weekend...perhaps it's the caffeine. Maybe, it's just a random synopsis firing irregularly. Whatever it is, I'm in a pondering mood.
When I say plague, famine, disease, hatred what is the first thing that comes to mind? For some it's God, for some it's Global Warming, for others it's George W. Bush, or maybe aliens. Personally, I think it's the Clowns.
I just read an article on a humour site, that was actually very serious in nature. The article dealt with common ground between Athiests and Christians . I'm neither one, and I enjoyed the commentary. I've always been a big proponent of live and let live...so long as you don't hurt my family.
When it comes down to it, and I've said this in my blog before, living a life according to your personal beliefs is your choice. But, there are moral restrictions on how we should treat others.
I work retail, I'd love to tell some people exactly what I think of them for the way they treat others, but, morally and ethically, it's not my place.
Humans, whether they believe in a higher power, or the all mighty molecule, on some level or other have something in them that tells them right from wrong. For some of us, it's what we're taught when we're children. For others its from the experience of living life. And, then they choose which side of the moral railroad tracks they're going to travel down.
I spent a good portion of my mis-spent years rallying against the "fanatics" those that are so religious that they can't see the damage they do around them. Then I realized that it wasn't just the crazy mainstreamers that were guilty of this. We're all guilty of it. And it comes down to the basic need to be right.
We can't stand it when someone tells us we're wrong in our beliefs, so we fight back. And by we...I don't mean each and every one of us living on this planet, it's a general "we" comprised of a majority of the people that inhabit the earth.
Conquest and progress have been a major driving force over the last couple thousand years. Expand the mind, and expand the borders. People allow themselves to believe in progress so much, that they actually start greying the lines between right and wrong. Many of us choose to forget where we came from, or what our foundations really were, because it's inconvenient to remember those things. And really, there's a larger terrorist organization at work in the world now.
For some reason we like to forget that a majority of the northern hemisphere was gained through terrorist activities. And while I'd love to blame it all on the Romans, conquests began long before Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and overthrew the old guard. We may not be directly responsible for our ancestors actions, but we certainly have reaped the benefits for it. As just one of the many examples I could use, European explorers and settlers came in and forcibly took over North and South America from the inhabitants that had called it home for countless centuries. Then in an act of domestic terrorism, there was a little incident where some of the colonies separated from the British Empire. But that wasn't really terrorism, because it was for freedom!
Today, terrorism is cut and dry right? We know who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. Right? There aren't any reasons for people to go seeking further rights and freedoms are there?
Ok...before we go any further, I do not condone any actions that anyone takes which causes destruction of property or loss of life to anyone. I'm really trying to make a point.
What one person perceives as "helping", another can view as "oppression" It's all in the point of view, and lets face it...the media that is spun around certain activities or actions. Missionaries go on pilgrimages to save the souls of the uneducated and "godless" Aid societies set up training facilities to educate people into their way of thinking. But what kind of damage can these actions take, if the people that are being "assisted" don't really want/need the help?
I found it rather funny in the..."funny how disturbing and stupid a concept" way...when I was finally old enough to realize that a number of the places that were hotbeds of chaos, had influence from outside that made the chaos possible. As an example, outsiders going in to a county and training militant groups. Supplying them with weapons, giving them the methods to overthrow the old regimes... and then freaking out when they take that training and turn it back around on the outsiders when they realized that they just earned their freedom...but weren't free from influence to pursue it.
Basic human nature drives us to stop those outside forces that don't allow us to express ourselves, and gain free will. The biggest problem here being that once those groups who overthrew the old governments are now acting in a way that creates a stereotype, and the innocents who are still trying to survive are being grouped in with the "terrorists" You know...like in the sandbox in pre-school. That brown haired kid stole my truck, all brown haired kids are evil.
We spend so much of our time worrying about what the other person is doing, that we're not looking at our own actions, and gauging ourselves against that basic moral calculator in our own minds. While it's an old cliche, and became the butt of many a joke..."Can't we all just get along?" Such a simple statement, but Can't We?
