Humanity And Its Potential

There is no end to the list of what's wrong, what we are doing wrong, what they are doing and how we can fix it.

Not only is the list larger than anything we can document, I sense our ideas and values need a complete overhaul to support such a move forward. To begin I suggest we are tender with ourselves and avoid blaming or being hard with judgement.

You are not to blame for the level of dysfunction in our society today. When a system is in place, it affects our thoughts, our feelings, our relationship to all things, our art, our music, and our struggle to find solutions.

However you are responsible to how you relate to the violence that erupts from this dysfunction.

I am not a sociologist, psychologist or even a political scientist. I am not even chosen by a deity. Furthermore no-one has asked for my opinion on this large topic, and no-one will be silenced because I have written this. Should I be expressing my thoughts then?

Yes, as a human being, revealing to you my limited credentials. I write as a single person. No armour or authority. 

First I must confess my opinion of suffering caused by an "authority". Children abused by parents, people abused by police, the homeless and the poor abused by economic systems, lonely strangers abused by neighbours, and all those who are abused by traditions that favour some over others.

I am not saying that nothing works in our society, I am saying that tradition has a built in weakness.

Tradition, laws, governance and our reliance on reward and punishment is contained by a prejudice that allows most of us to believe that we are right and they are wrong. Emerging from prejudice is hard work and never ending.

How does the economy respond to our alienated innocence and vulnerability? Whose task is it to save the world?

The "who" is all of us. The "what" is acknowledgement of the shared burden. The "how" is enquiry. The "what" is duty. 

Since it is human activity which has cut down trees, poisoned wells, and destroyed cities and nations. Bulls and Elephants have not been as destructive as humans, and humans who live within nature do not build pipelines for bitumen—it's us who live in complex societies.

Since we don't have weapons to fix what's broken we need to fix what we can with dialogue and curiosity. When someone responds to your tender questions with dismissive put-downs turn the enquiry towards them.

In reply to accusations that you think too much, you are too sensitive, too naive, too gullible ... turn the question back to them.

What do you think about, what troubles you at night when you want to sleep, what responsibility do you feel you have in maintaining a livable society, and lastly ... what efforts are you making to keep a fair and open society?

Yes, it's broken. Yes, we are broken. What are you going to focus on to protect your grand-children? 

If you get the answer—looking after #1. Move on. You are talking to a creature who has given up his or her humanity.