This is a violent, hate filled nation with a morality so twisted as to be indistinguishable from evil. Our politics are utterly corrupt. Our courts are stuffed with religious fanatics. We have politicians who sanction rape and laws written specifically to excuse murder, racism and oppression. The culture's dominant religion (various forms of Christian fundamentalism) preaches a god that rewards the rich, despises the poor, supports the powerful, punishes the weak, loves guns, endorses war in any form, and considers women to be second class citizens. Theirs is also a god that rewards blind faith and is an avowed enemy of knowledge and education. And while the ultimate failure of a society as ill as this one is assured, it sometimes seems as though the rest of the world is following close behind.
At the moment war is eminent in parts of the old Soviet Union as Russia seeks to provoke a confrontation with the Ukraine. China is showing every intention of instigating war with Japan, while N. Korea is ever posed to invade the South. (China would be well served to have N. Korea start a war with S. Korea when they take on Japan.) Russia and China are working together on war games. None of this is ideologically driven, there is no effort to spread communism around the world. This is pure greed for resources, power, and land. And the people of the world, as usual, rally to the propaganda of their leaders. Human kind is infested with war and hate, and it is likely a disease fatal to the whole of the race.
The next series of wars brings the full Monty, nukes, chemicals, biological weapons, terror attacks across the globe. Drones will reach into every neighborhood and the police state will battle its own citizens with the same zeal as the military battles enemies of the state. All of human society seems intent on an orgy of self-destruction.
And I don't have a clue what a moral, self-aware person it supposed to do in such a world. Rejecting the entire ethos of war, greed, and self-gratification seems the only choice, but it is a choice that matters little. A single drop of fresh water in a raging ocean. People everywhere accept the nation / state and follow the leaders of their tribes. In the US liberals follow the liberal playbook without comment, doing battle with the conservatives who do the exact same thing. Each side vies for power and control, just in different guises. Vote for the liberals and one votes to cede power to the nation / state. Vote for the conservatives and vote to surrender power to the corporations and the religious fanatics. Pick a side. Each intends to battle to the death in order to rule the world.
The only hope for the future is for an entirely new ethos to sweep across the planet; an ethos that rejects the concentration of power in governments, religions, corporations, and the military. It must be an ethos that rejects greed as the foundation for running an economy; one that grants basic civil rights to every human, everywhere. It will have to be a tough ethos, one that accepts casualties as a part of sweeping out the old. And it will have to be one where people simply refuse to support the old, not going to church, not voting, not paying taxes, not accepting being indentured to a corporation in exchange for a meager living with little hope for joy.
Such an ethos would be evident when the Pope speaks to an empty St. Peter's square, where elections are held and no one supports any of the corporate approved candidates, where governments fall for simply suggesting war is a viable option. It will have to be an ethos where workers walk away from the production lines building weapons of war; where, in the land of the Second Amendment, gun stores shutter their doors for a lack of customers. No one sharing this ethos would volunteer to wear a military uniform. Those conscripted by force would march and train and take up weapons. But when it came time to fire they would be aiming at their own officers, not those conscripted by the “other side”. (This on both sides of the front line.)
The foundation of such an ethos is simple, individuals are responsible for the actions of the collective. Not a matter of judgement but one of personal responsibility. A responsibility felt at the deepest core of being, at a place where each steps up to, or abandons, the claim of being human.
In this place generals are murderers, but so are the privates, cooks, mechanics, and office workers who kept the military machine working. The propagandist is the enemy of truth, but so is each person who responded to the lies without thought, the people who write the speeches, the media CEOs who air them, and the sponsors who supported them.
The CEO of the weapons manufacturer is guilty of genocide, but so is each worker who makes a living helping create the weapons used to kill thousands of innocents, right down to the cleaning staff who empties the trash cans each night. The CEO who sacrifices the quality of life of his employees in order to add a few pennies to the company stock price is a thief, but so it the board of directors and the bankers who reward the “increased productivity”.
Where the people vote each would be held responsible for the politics of the elected. If “your guy” supported the NRA each child killed is your responsibility. The rich prosper while the poor starve? The politicians bought by the corporations are guilty of corruption, but so is each poor person who voted them into power. Education subverted to fanaticism as the teaching of lies? Every single parent, school board member, and teacher is guilty of failing the next generation.
Human kind is responsible for its own survival, but until a large majority of us realize this truth, our survival is highly unlikely.
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