Who we are and what we do is a reflection of the society we live in.
When we read another grim news article about some lunatic killing innocent people, we easily accuse and blame. WE are to blame. Everyone is. Because WE uphold a social system that inherently breeds malevolence, ignorance, greed and injustice. And allows it to prosper.
Like disease in our bodies, these things don’t happen over night even though they may manifest in minutes. Nothing does. Life doesn’t work like that. Who built the bullet? Who sold the gun? Who caused the hate? Who caused the hate-causer to relinquish their hate? So who pulled the trigger?
I did. You did. We did. Society did.
Who was killed? I was. You were. Everyone is killed. Everyone pulls the trigger.
Ignoring the suffering of others is possible. Everything that is possible is natural. Robbing the quiky mart or reading your girlfriends journals is possible. Cats kill mice for fun. But what’s possible doesn’t make it right. We as humans are capable of understanding and predicting consequences from our actions. This knowledge gives us great power. But power also brings responsibility. Otherwise it’s not power. It’s weakness.
Of course we would rather look at the fairytale. To stay happy. To stay motivated. Avoid the negative. Turn our heads. Develop ourselves. Focus on our careers. Of course that is important too to maintain homeostasis and keep our bills paid.
But avoiding the negative and turning our heads is apathy. There’s nothing worse than apathy. Give me ten Charles Mansons over apathy. Give me nazi germany over apathy. At least they had passion…
And I know apathy. I know it well. Because I have spent most of my life in that state. Voluntary comatose. Zombie martyrdom. And I glorified it too… Called it many names. I let myself be brainwashed by our modern culture. Pop culture. Hollywood. Rock ‘n roll mythology. The misery/art paradox. It’s all nonsense… (or as some might say, bullshit. But I think bullshit is a degrading, speciecist, nonsensical term so I refuse to use it in that context).
Many times during my twenties I tried to jolt myself out of that cultural trance but the world told me to not dream. And many times I listened. Instead of going after my braveheart dreams I went back to watching braveheart (after pirating it online). Instead of eating my vegetables, I went back to being a vegetable. And I was eaten instead, from deep within by all that I knew I shouldn’t be.
In an ideal world, all careers and focus and self-development will be about building the same pyramid. It’s all one big pyramid; a sea of pyramids. Everything is connected. Narcissism and Ayn Rand’s pro-american-dream-individualism-pursuit-of-happiness-free-market-capitalism-objectivism-etc-etc is a foolish concept (as cool as it is to read about because her books do kick ass) because nature is one big organism.
We all need clean air. Clean water.
We all need nutrition and love and nurture.
We need to be creative. To laugh and have fun.
And not to be shot in the forehead when we go buy tooth paste because some innocent person was robbed of their youth and spat upon by those who failed to see the robbery. And not be forced into a system that discourages us to pursue a lifestyle that violates these needs and causes us to think that our needs are actually something completely different.
Some of us have the good life. I kind of do. But many don’t. And those that don’t have it deserve it because when they have it, everyone will have it even more. It’s win-win. The world will be safer. Happier. Healthier. More honest. Technology will sky rocket and not be hindered by competition and money. Politicians and other useless opportunists will be a thing of the past. There will be no more hostility between nations who think their god/race/religion is better than another’s. No more feeding the beast.
We all deserve that world. And I will forever dream of it and do what I can to not forget my own words. Not choke on my own ignorance as I often do. And I think we all want it. Even Hitler wanted it. He just got hopelessly confused. And abused. Look how far he got?