Who's Fault is it
anyway? It would seem these days, that the only goal of our modern culture is profit. Granted, there are a few of us weirdo's who act like we value human life and the planet before profit. But, for the most part, modern western culture has become comfortable with profit as usual, or at least we hope. The party line is "I have to survive, no one else is going to take care of me". The idea of rugged individualism has been taken to its extreme, and we have been successfully divided and conquered. Indeed, in America, we often walk by the homeless on the street, believing them to be totally at the mercy of their own bad decisions. While we are completely hypnotized by the Mercedes Benz that just drove by. Terrified of becoming them, we know we live paycheck to paycheck in an environment we have absolutely no control over. But like mindless sheep we accept that reality as unchangeable. Survival of the fittest is the general motto of our culture. And although we would never admit it in the light of day, most of us have a price, that we would do almost anything for. Success, security, comfort, the ability to far remove ourselves from the competition of daily animal life in America, is the goal we all aspire to achieve. What would you do to achieve that goal? What most of us don't notice, is that slowly and consistently, everyday, our position is compromised. Indeed, it is the tendency of most American workers to slack. Well, maybe not most, but a good majority of us embarks upon each day to do as little as we can get away with. Why? Most of us would say we're just tired. We're so used to doing so much, when we get the opportunity to slack we take it. Either that or there is someone we work with who gets away with more slack than we ever did, usually the newer employee, and that’s our excuse to slack when we can. Or, the most popular, we don't make enough money for what we're asked to do. More and more we do it because we know we live in a pirate culture, and if we can get away with it we do it to get ahead. But, all in all, every time we think we're getting ahead, we're actually falling behind. Right when we think life should get easier, it gets harder. The old job demands more than we are willing to give, so we find a new one that looks better. The money may be better, but the job is harder, and the cost of life is consistently going up. We fill a position two people used to fill. Or maybe we're the sole survivors in the position two people used to fill. Cutbacks, layoffs, downsizing, streamlining, reorganization, there is a variety of names for it. We all experience it. But gradually we end up doing the things we don't want to do to survive. Eventually our illusionary work morals dissolve in the face of survival. We learn to do what we must to survive, because the basis for survival is constantly changing. Some of us actually endeavor to spend huge amounts of money getting a college education so we can move more quickly ahead of the pack. The investment balances out with the larger potential salaries we hope to secure. Its not so much the job we will have to do, as much as it is how comfortable we will be able to live. Will we be able to buy happiness? The sleek Euro sport sedan, the nice home with beautiful furnishings and an attractive partner. Because we know from TV and Hollywood, that wealth and prosperity attract attractive people to us. We will have personal power. It is considered smart to hang around wealthy people if one aspires to become wealthy one day. But, we would never dare to call it prostitution. It is an established moral of our culture. So, off we go to the job, eager to perform some involved task in our new capacity. Our company sells a product; we perform a task to help our company sell that product successfully. We read the company goals. We meet those who have been successful with the company so far. We hear the story of how the company got started, how successful it has been thus far, and how successful it plans to be in the future. When we will be eligible for our 401k and potential profit sharing and/or bonuses based on sales. We work with hundreds of other people, or just a few, working towards this same task for these same reasons. But, do we stop to look at the impact on the world around us that our product has? Suffice to say this is the reality of a capitalist culture. Everything is for sale, including us. So, upon what premise do we establish the moral concepts of our culture? In America, we wave the cross of Christ and Christianity like that is all we need to validate our cultural expression. But we would do almost anything for money, including acting like we love someone. Is survival then the higher standard we rise to, and Christianity just a casual poster child we defer to in times of moral questionability? What of our U.S. Constitution, and the principles of human rights we profess we support. In America we say everyone is equal, when they are not. We say we support democracy for the rest of the world. But we only do that when its profitable to the pirate Industrialists we harbor and support. We have created quite a few dictatorships, to create the illusion of opposition to our illusionary democracy. Filling the coffers of the Military Industrial complex with the sell of military products. Even our democracy is a fake. We don't elect our presidents, we elect a successor to the throne chosen by those who rule us, and we live in a plutocracy. Our elected officials consistently compromise our so-called moral values, and consistently evade the consequences we cannot. So, as a culture, what moral values can we really say we stand for, if any at all? What are we doing to change that? How do we look at the world around us? It's been my observation that most of us think the rest of us are just stupid. The jerk that cuts in front of us in traffic is stupid. However, when we cut someone else off in traffic, the other guy is a jerk for not letting us in. Or stupid for not being well adjusted enough to deal with it in a mature way. Driving our cars is yet another environment where our community values excel. We push and shove always competing for the better position. It has been my observation that in traffic we act the way we really would if we weren't trying to act like we get along. Someone bumps into us in passing and we immediately get hostile. In most situations of incidence, we immediately blame the other person, no matter what happened. We seem to have an inability to except fault for anything, least of all our own actions. In America, with at least 200 million adults all hurrying about on a daily basis, it is statistically certain that we will create a certain amount of accidents daily. The mindless busied frenzy of our culture makes it impossible for us to not have accidents. In fact the potential frequency of accidents is only increasing every day. You could say the frequency of our incompetence is becoming a tangible aspect of our every day life. Applying the domino theory to that concept doesn't paint a good picture of the future. It would even be wise for businesses to factor into any potential venture, a percentage figure that would represent random loss. Most businesses already recorded it as waste. Call it the undeniable evidence of our imperfection. But how many of us can accept our faults gracefully? How many of us persecute others for our faults or insecurities? Indeed, our illusion of community is usually just that, illusion. It typically extends only to the extent of our immediate social circle, when we are around them. We act like sensible people to impress those who give us social recognition. When we are away from that group we behave in ways they would probably not believe. We have discovered that to act in seeming compliance with someone else's perspective of who they think we are wins us social recognition. Who we are in public and who we are in the privacy of our own minds, are usually two different people. When one observes the reality of our culture from the perspective that actions speak louder than words, one can observe hypocrisy everywhere. So, whose fault is it anyway? An age old question. If we are good people, how do we hold those who are bad accountable? How do we define "bad"? In America, "bad" has become whatever the white male majority defines as bad. Thus, even though the constitution was written so that all men would be treated equal. It was interpreted that only certain white men deserved that privilege. Women, indentured servants, and people of color were automatically excluded. This was the condition in America when this very document was drafted. Women were seen and not heard, there were many white indentured servants working off contracts to their Lords (feudalism), and there was already a brisk trade in black slaves from Africa. So why did those so-called patriots even draft such a document? Was it just to have something to wave at the King of England as proof that they stood for something? When indeed, the very rights they aspired to achieve for themselves, they in turn denied to people under their control. Let it be known, that as a concept of social organization, they destroyed the very constitution they fought so hard to put in place, at the very point of its inception. The proof is evident in America today. Since it's inception, the constitution has been a fraud. The fact that even today, racism is institutionalized in America shows that never in our history has it stood for what it meant. The children of Africans brought here as slaves still fight against oppression in America today. Women are still second class citizens across the board. Fighting for the right to have control over their own bodies. We have laws that forbid a woman to make decisions for herself. The concept of organized labor in this country has struggled for 200 years, and still it struggles for fairness and does not get it. We are still indentured servants, paying the lord for the piece of land he leases us, and most of us are quit busy working off our debt to him. So, Who's fault is it? If we are to make decisions for ourselves, it must be ours. The whole concept of the U.S. Constitution was way ahead of its time. The words and the concepts are valid and well written. We have spent 200 years belaboring a simple profound document with mountains of reinterpretation. Because, unfortunately we are still barbarians and we could not accept the simple truth of that document. The Christian, in his pursuit of happiness, cannot be happy if someone else is sinning nearby. The Racist must overcome his own sense of inferiority, by making someone else more inferior than him. The Capitalist must make profit no matter what. Individually, most of us have not arrived at the level of moral commitment necessary to participate in the U.S. Constitution as it was originally intended. Those among us who would be racists will not permit equality. Those who would force the concepts of their god on us will not allow a woman freedom of choice. Those who control the wealth will not allow all Americans to be prosperous. These people will not believe on Karma. They will not accept the responsibility for their actions or the consequences of those actions. They don't care about the world they leave their children. If it will have food, or fresh water to drink, or even air that is good to breathe. They are selfish; they live only for the immediacy of their own needs. Which brings us back to the first thought. How do we get bad people to be good? Most of these individuals would rather die than see their agenda's put to rest. This is why the U.S. Constitution can not be realized for the principle's it dared to uphold. In order for the U.S. Constitution to be fully realized in America, we must individually embark upon a road of hardship. We must make the choice to walk away from the racist in our lives. We must allow women the right to their own choices. We must walk away from oppression in our own country. This will not be easy. The racist, the industrialist, and the sexist are all one in the same. They are evil. Evil will not make the rational choice to be good. It derives its power from being evil, and we all fear losing what power we have. But we cannot be uninvolved. This does affect us all; we can all see the level to which evil is rising in our country. The problem with evil is it never has enough? It must always have more. It will not stop until all of our lives are laying in ruin. All of our homes will be wrecked, we will despise each other, and we will oppress each other more so than we already do. The level of hostility we show towards each other, as strangers will increase. We are already fighting for food, and resources, like dogs under our Masters table. This is humiliating and dehumanizing. We are systematically being reduced and isolated, pitted against each other, when we are not each other's enemy. The enemy is anyone who cannot abide by the constitution in its purest form. With integrity and respect for all people. Unfortunately, at this point in American history, we are all being held hostage. We don't grow our own food, we don't produce our own power, and we don't own our own shelter. We are ridiculously in debt to the Lord (banking industrialist). This distracting consumer frenzy we've been driven to is destroying our planet, which is making it harder for all of us to survive. This is not an easy situation to address. The enemy would rather die than lose, and it will win in any form of chaos that ensues. But if we make the choice within ourselves to change we can prevail. Do you work for a company that makes a good environmentally safe product? Do you work for a company that pays you a real living wage? Do you work for a company that produces weapons of war? Less of those will definitely help the future be more peaceful. Do you know racists? When you agree with them you support them. Do you seek to deny women the right to control their own bodies? You don't have that right, no matter what you think god wants. Women are free to make their own choices, just like you and me. Choose to let others live their lives. As much as we identify the issues of the day with persons and entities outside of ourselves, we are as much the source. We must endeavor to look within, and set ourselves on the right track. If we set ourselves thusly, we will make different decisions, and those decisions will help change America into what we believe we think it should be. We already do this. But look at what we've made. We can make something else. It is our fault, after all. Do you work for a company that
produces
weapons of war? Do you want to see your children killed by the weapons
you produce? Do you work for a Pharmaceutical company who only interest
is in having Americans be completely dependent upon drugs? Which is why
these companies spend lots of money lobbying to keep natural processes
of healing out of mainstream reach. Do you work for an Oil company that
has bought up the patents for cheap solar power, just so that it can
continue
to have a monopoly on power? Do you work for a media outlet that
purposefully
controls what information the American people are exposed to? Or one
that
tells blatant lies? Do you work in the Banking industry, our most
corrupt
and evil business concept? Are you a racist Law Enforcement officer
with
no morals? Do you but products made by slave labor in developing
nations?
Nations who are still developing because in order to keep the cost of
resources
low, western industrialists have consistently invested money and
weapons
to keep these communities from succeeding. We are all enmeshed in this
pattern of corruption. It is destroying our planet. It is destroying
the
definition of humanity we all aspire to. The evidence isn't hiding from
us; we just refuse to look at it, because we don't know what to do
about
it. A start would be to speak up. A second would be to only give your
energy
to concepts that promote life and sustainability for the future. Which
means you need to do your homework. Understanding you can't always
trust
info from America's mainstream media. Their job is to confuse the truth
and convince you of the lie. You must become involved in your local
community
and learn to accept its diversity. We must begin to discuss what is
required
for all of us to survive. Not just a select few. We can make better
choices,
more of us are doing so everyday. Our little lifeboat in space is
getting
fuller. If it sinks we all drown. Make good choices! |