War, Whatever
Mood:
quizzical
Topic: Critical Thinking
War, Whatever
Current mood: 
contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry
WAR, WHATEVER
The War and all wars are eternally at either the back or front of my thoughts and feelings. What makes us continually repeat and repeat and repeat ourselves, especially our mistakes and cruelty towards each other, ourselves and our surroundings day after day, year after year, century after century, eon after eon? Do we really evolve that much? Or are we devolving? Which end of the cycle if there are truly cycles are we on?
I think it is important to take action and stand up for what one thinks is right so don't think when I write the following I am saying stop or don't write, phone, email, fax your government representatives. I am not advocating that people stop participating in the attempt to influence elected officials and other bureaucrats. In fact I will say that more people need to speak up in whatever way they can, even if it's just in personal emails, blogs, chat rooms and conversations in coffee shops or on mountain tops. But until we also take personal responsibility for ourselves and our own actions large and small, until we can truly look each other in the eye without fear or suspicion, until we can allow each other to have different opinions, ways of life, goals, philosophies, religions, sexual orientations, in other words until we can tolerate and see we are separate yet connected and that everything we do or say effects the whole then Wars on a larger and deadlier scale will continue. We can end this war but unless we also end the war within, the petty arguments with friends and neighbors and the belief that if somebody else's way of life is different from our own that they are some kind of threat then we, humans will never be free. We won't have freewill, but the illusion of it. We won't have peace. We won't have safety. We will perpetuate lies and secure our own destruction as a species.
Of course maybe that is what the planet needs. Perhaps humans are a virus when we are at our darkest. And by our darkest I don't mean when we do "evil" things to each other. I think humans are truly at our darkest when we become apathetic, blank, controllable sheep willing to follow any charismatic leader, any "daddy" who lies to us convincingly. We will allow that father figure do perpetuate destruction, to rape, to torture,to imprison, to murder, to devour as long as he tells us what we want to hear and convinces us it is for our own good. We like to take the path of least resistance. We want to believe everything will be ok if we just lie back, max out our credit cards and let big papa and his friends make all the difficult decisions for us. In between we can watch other people's problems and mishaps for entertainment on so-called reality television. Why worry about Iraq, Global Warming, the increasing gap between you and "daddy?" As long as we have stuff and don't think about anything too big or too deep, everything will be fine. "Daddy" will get rid of the bad men. "Daddy" will hire scientists to figure everything out. He will save the day at the 11th hour. We don't have to worry about a thing.
Meanwhile we can become increasingly suspicious of each other. We can stop looking each other in the eye. We can stop communicating face to face. We can turn in our neighbors with foreign sounding names because we don't know them. Who are they to us? Who is anybody? Why not insult them anonymously via an online forum? Who cares if they are human? Who cares if they have feelings? Become self serving. If we really developed compassion, if we really started caring about ourselves, each other and the planet how controllable would we be?
If you are sad or angry or lonely don't take a pill. Connect. Truly connect. Yes, the internet can be a way to do that but only as a first step and not as a substitute for real life relationships and real life communities. Try not saying or typing something mean. Try not judging your friends and neighbors. Try not assuming that a frown from the clerk at your local store is about you personally. Try listening to yourself, others and the leaders. Think about what you hear and read. Consider if people actually do what they say they will or have. Keep track of whether they change their stories. Heck tell each other stories. Meet people face to face no matter how depressed you feel. Keep connecting. Build communities that aren't suspicious of other communities who may or may not be different. And yes if you are angry about the War, stand up, shout, write, protest and tell as many people you can who can do something about it. Try putting apathy to rest.
I can say all this as if it's easy. I tell it to myself every single day. But it's a daily struggle to live it. I complain about how often and for how long my upstairs neighbor waters the lawn. I over react when a new roommate wants to throw away old tupperware containers that happen to be mine. I take any glare or frown from a stranger personally, especially when I am in a bad mood. I get upset about the little things and try to pretend the big ones aren't there. I am sometimes lazy. I am human. I fuck up continually. But I am hopeful and I am trying in spite of knowing that the cliche "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" is most likely true.
End of my didactic diatribe. My next entry will be about "Into the Wild." Probably.
 | Currently listening :
Live Seeds
By Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Release date: 11 February, 1997 |
Posted by annettesugden
at 5:03 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 27 September 2007 5:12 PM PDT
spacey
sick 
