The Blame Industry

 

The first tendency I must resist when I hear of bad news - is to work out who is to blame. It quickly lets me off the hook and so I must examine my own part in the story.

Laying blame is something I learned early on. You don't have to know the truth to blame someone as soon as discomfort arises, especially if you do it behind their back.

What would happen to our world if we stopped blaming anyone or anything?

First we would look at ourselves. What can we do about climate change, poverty and violence? What can we do about selfishness and greed? To do nothing is where we allow the unthinkable to happen.

I know there are many arguments about big issues and their causes. I know I have limitations and so it would not be a good idea to take on something I am not suited for.

What am I suited for? The subjects I am curious about and able to do. I cannot do physics or computer programming or math at the level as those who have spent much of their life studying. I am a dreamer, artistic and creative, so I begin there.

I am not athletic and would not climb mountains or run marathons. Dance is beautiful but my body has not been trained to dance. I am not content to just read the news and accept it as truth. My religion is kindness.

With these limitations there are assets. I am human. I have made mistakes and learned from them. And I have lived long enough to know I am not in control, so I have learned to appreciate the skills and talents others bring and to work with them.

While you and I might have benefitted from inequality - we didn't create it. We didn't create the myths of white supremacy or misogyny or ableism. This means I can listen to the stories of other peoples suffering with empathy. Feeling guilty does not help. Feeling sad and sorry is a good start then it's time to ask "what can I do".

I can interrogate styles of writing and teaching for signs of bigotry. I can see how seemingly innocent stories contain messaging about class. Judgement on "normal", "cultured", "feminine" and "masculine" are part of our conditioning but we can examine how attitudes benefit the status quo and challenge those beliefs.

"Normalizing" is a brainwashing to keep us within the ignorance of our "race" and "class" where we groom our selves and others to make us feel comfortable. For an evening or a day. But we will not survive long if we cannot reach out to all sentient beings. 

Instead of asking who is to blame, we can ask how we got here and what I can  do to let down the barriers to world community.  Prejudice and ignorance only benefits those who believe they cannot survive without servant/slave classes. Their supremacy depends on crippling the freedom of others.