“We were told things would run more smoothly – less crime, less disease, less unhappiness, less trouble – if everyone stuck to the same plan, pursued identical goals. What makes me want to run was the ease with which people gave in.”
Eric Rutterman – Resistance.
Sometimes I am puzzled over my disenfranchised state. By any accounting I am one of the “winners” of our society. As a young, married, adult I started out at the very center of US society – a Bible believing Evangelical Christian Fundamentalist working my way (somewhat unconsciously) up the economic ladder. What I lacked in a formal collage education I made up for with solid technical skills in aviation maintenance, piloting, and management. With a life long willingness to take risks and a bit of luck to survive those risks I “made” it…good income, nice house, fun toys. I should have settled in and enjoyed the ride. But it didn’t work quite like I expected.
Religion failed first. A simple description of what was a longish road was that I could no longer worship a god who needed a hell. It was a bit of a relief to discover that both were just myths. Though many of my non-religious friends still find joy or comfort in various forms of spirituality, all my mystical leanings faded with the god belief. For me the mystery (not mystical) and grandeur of an unimaginable cosmos, of which I am as much a natural part as any star or ocean, are more than adequate. In us at least part of the cosmos has evolved with a yearning for love and place, acceptance and humor, joy and adventure. We are born with all we need to find our way; we just need to quit confusing ourselves.
Next to crumble was my faith in industriousness. Work is one of my favorite things. I love work. I love to work. But our society has perverted work into something mean and burdensome. No longer a skill practiced for the benefit of family, friends, and neighbors; work has become an insatiable demand for service. Productivity is the new Holy Grail, producing the most while getting paid the least. Thus working no longer brings joy, just weariness and ache, and a paycheck meager when measured against the toil. (The Christian idea that work is somehow a punishment for sin has aided in this perversion, and is another reason to abandon the religion.) Now we work to earn profits for others; others who rule, and punish in ways both subtle and cruel those who demand a fair share for their efforts.
With religion rejected and my attitude towards work changed, there were clear fault lines showing between myself and the culture where I once felt at home. Still, I was a rampant consumer – a big fan of toys. Slowly though, I began to realize that the toys didn’t hold the value, it was what I did with them. Those that let me explore new places, experience new things, and face new challenges were also things I didn’t hold too tight. Invariably the toys I loved the most, airplanes, motorcycles and small, ocean-going sailboats, could get me killed. My view of consumerism took a shift similar to my understanding of work. It isn’t the toy, it isn’t possessing the toy, that matters. It is the experience and the mastering of a skill that holds value.
By now I had moved far from my starting place, and many years had passed. Religion, work, consumerism, my views clashed loudly with those of my culture. But I still clung to modernism – the drive to “make things better.”
“Make things better.” What things? Better how?
We certainly make things more efficient. We produce more food than ever in the past. Instead of reducing hunger we just flooded the world with babies and made more hungry people. Some of us live longer and healthier lives. Many of us don’t, and many of us who do basically just live longer in misery. Often we push the years of unhealthy living off to the end, finishing up in a long twilight of pain and fear. With our planes and our trains, our cars and our diesel powered ships, we travel much faster than we ever have before. But just a little further. A few have travel into orbit, fewer still to the moon. The rest of us can go no further than did Magellan.
We are making things better, but not much better, and not for many. Realizing this lead me to another serious rethink, and another degree of separation.
Democracy. That was a foundation stone that could never be moved. Democracy is the triumph of human social evolution. Shed of the tyranny of Kings, War Loads, Nobles, Barons, Popes and prophets…everyone longs for democracy and freedom.
True but…have we really found either democracy or freedom? Some of us have shed the Kings and War Lords and tyrants in other costumes. Yet Kings and War Lords flourish across the globe, mostly supported by us. If not for us most of them would have been overthrown long ago. But so long as they will strip the land and abuse the people they rule for the resources we demand, we will do all we can to see that they remain in power. The US has long proved we will not support democracy at the cost of whale blubber, grazing land, coal, diamonds, or oil. Are we really a democratic people if we survive by employing tyrants? Does that not make us the tyrant instead?
My last foundation stone wasn’t as stable as I imagined.
So in a religious, industrialized, consumer based democracy I discover I am not really any of those things. To put it another way; elected to any post in the Federal Government I would be a miserable failure. The US is not “#1,” we have no right to impose our definition of freedom, or our economic ideologies, on anyone. Freedom OF religion does not exist without freedom FROM religion. People should be masters of their skills not slaves to their work. The endless production of “things” need not, should not, be encouraged. Production should be coupled as directly as possible to raising the quality of life for humanity – medicine, healthy food, clean water, educational materials, quality clothing and material for homes. Tanks, guns, bullets and knick-knacks? No. And as long as democracy rests on tyranny, neither society is free. Uttering any of those thoughts from the floor of the House or the Office of Oval, would get one accused of treason, trashed by the talking heads of corporate media, and probably shot at.
As I see it humanity’s only hope for greatness lies in an allegiance, the worship if you will, of a single, shared morality whose basic tenet is simple, and which applies to every one of the six plus billion individuals sharing the planet. I will not force you – you will not force me – we are all actually responsible to each other.
Girded by a dedication to this simple principle we can work together freely. It becomes a matter of the heart. What is my intention? Is it to labor with you, to pool our resources that we may finish some larger work or share in some accomplishment? Or is it to coerce, fool or force you to toil for my benefit without regard to yours? It is a subtle turn of intent, but the latter has led to most of the evil in the world.
So the breech is complete. Regardless of creed, religion, social status, citizenship, political party or stated intent, what do your actions say of the intent of your heart? Do you rely on trickery, lies, propaganda, subtle inducements, or outright force to get others to do your bidding? Do you guard the gates of some ideology that imagines it has all the answers to all the questions of every person breathing? Do you fancy yourself a “leader” and assume you know better than I what I need or want? To the extent that you do I will count you as a servant of evil. Your claims of wisdom, as a speaker for god, as a representative “of the people,” or as a protector of human rights, will not count. The same yardstick applies to my own life.
This is a new thing and will take a while to work out the details. I do hold toys with an even lighter touch, and hold fewer of them. They all take up space in a life, and each of us has only so much space to spare. And, to be honest, many of them are being built by people who are laboring, not working. Building my toys is not really doing them much good. That makes me guilty, though removed by some steps, of forcing my will on them.
Slowly, as wisdom and opportunity allow, I hope to reduce the amount of resources I think I need. Not always, but often, those resources appear to be stolen. My unlimited demand serves mostly to enrich the thieves while adding to the number of victims.
It is the way our world works and I am well aware I can’t change it…much. But I need add no more too it than I chose. And I chose to add less than I have.
And maybe I can off-set some of the evil simply by pointing it out, demanding an accounting (as ineffective as that currently seems to be) from those who engage in the most evil…the movers and shakers, the leaders who think they know. Religious, political, corporate, union, liberal, conservative…whenever they use force, where ever they use force, be it outright or by lies, be they Popes or illiterate religious fanatics hiding under some rock, Presidents or self proclaimed “movement leaders...” pass the story on to me and I will pass it on to the next person.
More importantly I will do as little as I can to help their cause. Whacked out religious sect? I won’t be joining, nor will I be putting any money in the collection plate. (And I will vote for the first politician who says he will work to eliminate tax exemptions for religious organizations.) Corrupt Union? I won’t be joining if I can avoid it. If I must join I will soon be looking for some other job some other place. Liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican? I’m done voting for the “lesser of the evils.” If no one on the ballot measures up I will not give credibility to a failed “democratic system.” Boycotting can be an effective civil action. What would “democratic leaders” do if they threw an election and no one came? The old USSR held elections, Cuba, China; turnouts neared 100%. But it didn’t matter. Only those approved by those already in power ever made it too the ballot. It is the same in the USA today. Elections are a Hobson’s choice between two flavors of evil.
On the one hand it isn't much. On the other it is everything I have to offer.
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