As I've mentioned elsewhere, truth doesn't have to be beautiful or wondrous. It can be ugly, but the revealing of that ugly truth can result in so much more than just an incredulous response and a discontented apathy. Consistently revealing the truth, within and around us, is how we will continue to function as a society.
How does one foment anarchy? One way, at which we are fantastic, is to maintain a system that thrives on inequality, and work like hell to increase the degree of disparity.
Laws are continuously written and circumvented for the purpose of keeping wealth attached to specific parties. They are not written to help those who have fallen. They are written to separate those who are already standing from the fallen.
From our earliest years, those most dangerous and impressionable years, we are fed a philosophy that encourages us to gather and guard, gather and guard. And the more we have to guard, the less it is possible to feel safe. Whether as an individual or a country, our wealth is at the heart of our discontent. The truth is that great wealth is not a cure for insecurity, but a potential contagion, which is evident in the actions of many today. Look at those of great (or self-proclaimed) wealth, and you will see a trail of disconsolate folk glued to their backsides in the hope that they too will somehow reap the ugly reward of never feeling safe again.
Yes, great wealth will allow a person to do a lot of things. It will buy homes and cars, trips and businesses, and it will buy obsequious acquaintance. It may even buy a lasting place in the memory of those who |
remain after you are gone. And if that is what one is after, well, I have just the place. But all the wealth in the world is no measure of common sense or understanding, no indicator of one's ability to set a functional, worthwhile path for those around them. Nor does it elevate one above the most basic rules of societal interaction. If it does, and we are simply predators in this life, then the rules that protect the barbarity of economic predators must go out the window. For what rule does a lion understand, other than its own power? If one hundred-thousand meerkats decide it is time to exercise their own power, what right does the lion have to attempt to impose any other rule? Fairness?
But there is another place, that asks so much less of us and gives so much more in return. It is a place of caring and kindness. This is not to say that we turn the other cheek at those who would choose to oppress the hopeless, no. No. It is a place where we act tirelessly to return a life to those from whom it has been taken. A place where we act to uncover the truth, no matter how ugly, no matter how close. Because in uncovering the whole truth, we are free to live.
This website is new, and these are the thoughts of this afternoon, August 8th, 2017. Things may change over time, as they have changed over time, but I think the basic theme will remain in place.
Protect the integrity of labour, the value of conscience, and the honour of treating each other equally. |
