(no subject)

[ladynox25]

It's a measure of how busy my life has become lately that I only just now sat down at my computer and learned about London.

Will we *ever* learn? Will we *ever* wake up, open our eyes, and look around? Will we *ever* see that all the "differences" that we hate about each other, the "differences" that keep us apart, are no more or less than the uniqueness that makes every human being special? Will we *ever* understand that race/religion/belief/age/gender/sexual orientation/disability/ability doesn't matter, that we're all the same inside? That we are all just people? People with lives, with hopes, with dreams, with fears, with doubts, with loves, with hates, and yes, with problems?

How many bombings will it take? How many wars? How many shootings? How many drug overdoses? How many deaths and rapes and robberies and mutilations will be enough? How much carnage will we offer up as a sacrifice on the altars of hate, greed and envy?

Am I wrong to want a better world, with a better race of humans to inhabit it? Am I crazy to think that it might ever someday be possible? Am I crazy? Am I?

How many more headlines will I have to see? How many more times will I have to grieve for strangers I don't know?

God above, how much more can this planet take?

Comments

[mauzybroadway.livejournal.com]

...kind of makes heaven that much sweeter and precious, doesn't it?

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't want to have to wait until heaven. I want to believe that we can make improvements *here*. Maybe not big ones, maybe not fast, and certainly not perfections, but improvements here. Is that too much to want?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_constantine/]

This planet has seen much worse, and will see much worse again. Yes, it's horrible, but there cannot be a good without a bad, for what is bad but the absence of good, and vice versa? What is joy but the absence of sorrow? We will never be rid of it for these are the boundaries that define us.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

You have a point, but does it have to be so bad? Does it have to seem like we've made no progress, no evolution towards civilization since the bad old days of Cro Magnon?

Fences Make Good Neighbors

[whiskeyrivers.livejournal.com]

Where are things going from here? Well, I got to say I agree with constantine -- it's gonna get worse.

I think what you're looking at is a case of cultural conflict. Remember, that from their perspective, someone of a different race, a different religion, a different belief, ...even someone of your gender having voting rights and walking around with their face exposed is worse. So what you're really asking is "when is everyone else's cultural viewpoint going to come into alignment with my own, since I'm more enlightened..." and that's kinda part of the problem as why the world views our country as being a little bit arrogant. It's not what we're intending at all, but that's the message they elect to hear. How can that happen? Differing cultural views on arrogance -- you see it when an eastern young person corrects his elder, despite being right, it's where the message came from that caused offense.

Cultures that have been around far longer than ours still have caste systems, and they seem to think that's worked pretty well in the past, so it ought to work pretty well in the future. Equality? That's disorder, and perhaps one day worth fighting over. Our American ways have their attractive sides too, and instant gratification offends many; our reaching out to embrace the world puts off people who see us diluting their own cultural values by introducing our own. Sometimes what we represent, or even just being who we are is enough. Your typical Arab and Jew conflict shows that each side has a point, and that's not gonna get resolved either.

I will, however, take slight issue with Constantine on the statement that there can be no good without bad. But, our difference, should it get explored, will boil down to one of definition.

Imagine a number line with zero being neutral, positive being good, and negative being bad. It is possible for both him and I to do a charitable act [me 4, him 7], and his may be more good than mine, but that doesn't make mine bad simply because it was exceeded. Robbery, for instance, is a case where something is 'bad' [-3]-- it leaves the situation worse than it started.

Mauzybroady's comment about heaven would simply be a truncation of the negative end of the spectrum, much like the Kelvin scale of temperature - there is a brickwall limit, even though temperature is often treated as subjective in nature. Though the problem, culturally, is a diferent problem. What's negative movement to one culture is a positive movement to another. Point being, we're not all using the same frame of reference to measure our understandings of good and evil.

The more mixed the world becomes, the more contrasting the differences will appear, the more our own definition of normal is threatened, and the more discontent that's bread. Leave and let live will never work when the other guy doesn't adhere to that principle. Meanwhile, we'll always think of ourselves as being the "average Joe" and that most other people think the way we do.

Re: Fences Make Good Neighbors

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

So basically, your answer boils down to: "Yes, you *are* crazy, sorry."

I appreciate your candor, although it's not likely to help my mood much. Especially since this issue seems to be at the core of my depressions.

But thanks anyway.

*hugs*

Crazy no, Idealist yes

[whiskeyrivers.livejournal.com]

Crazy implies madness, insanity, foolishness, unreasoning, deranged, or dangerous. I count you as none of those things.

It's clear that what you want is a better world, and the observation was that what you view as "better", and which I happen to agree with, is not in alignment with what the terrorists deem better by definition.

Consequently, a strugle ensues, as you each aim toward reaching your own goals in ways that seem right and moral to you. The problem is, the terrorist believes that causing people with opposing opinions of his world to suffer is righteous. His society, culture, and belief system all support this.

This incidently is why all paths can't lead to the same God. It is also the answer to "why can't we all just get along."

Until we share common beliefs, that can't happen. You either agree to disagree (which as we see, some viewpoints do not account for), or you try to attack the problem with logic and reason (a tool of the Western devil) or start hurting people as a way to strong arm people into your [Eastern] view out of fear.

Problem is, logically we've worked the problem through -- we know in advance that doesn't work. And, since it's not working, their only current recourse is to step up the program in despiration, or abandon it entirely. The latter, of course, is admitting defeat (another cultural concession that won't be had over this topic).

The question is, are you willing to hand over control of your emotional state to either the terrorists or our government? It's the same question one should ask when driving down the road and someone cuts you off.

To me, the answer is no. Worry about the things I can directly change. That doesn't mean ignore the problem, it means recognizing that your role in the grand scheme of things is different. Not insignificant, different.

Re: Crazy no, Idealist yes

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Walt.

Although I would take issue with the idea that strong-arming people out of fear is purely an Eastern way of doing things. We have all too much of a history here in the West of doing exactly that same thing.