Posts tagged humanity

Demonizing the other side will not get you what you want.

Not all religious people are intolerant morons.

Not all men are misogynistic.

Not all white people are selfish and racist.

Not all rich people are greedy.

Not all ___ are ___.

As tempting and satisfying as it may be to lash out at a group in general, the only thing you achieve by doing this is to fuel those who oppose you and turn those who would be sympathetic against you.

It can be hard, at times, to remember that the ‘other side’ is just as human a fallible as we are.  Or, conversely, that we are just as human a fallible as they are. But if we are to have equality in this world, if we are ever to evolve as a species, we have to overcome the need to demonize, to think in blanket terms and see our ‘opposition’ as anything less than human.  We need to learn compassion for our foes, only then can we see through their eyes and understand how best to solve the conflict.

PIPA, SOPA, it is not a question of if they would fail, but only a question of when.  Such attempts at blanket control, especially of a people who have tasted freedom, are never going to be successful, if for no other reason than humanity cannot be indefinitely subdued.  Freedom is an innate desire, built into our very being.  It cannot be wholly removed or suppressed.  Countless times throughout history, the tale repeats itself in the fall of mighty kingdoms and the bloody revolution of the enslaved.  Humanity cannot be repressed.  We will have freedom, if not given now, then taken later.

Even if the laws were to be passed, they would come into being with a numbered life, counted by the toes stepped on and the voices silenced.  Because they cannot really silence our voices, only muffle them, contain them.  But, like any force, once contained the voices of the oppressed become more powerful, more explosive.  And the more voices they stuff into containment the more explosive, the more powerful the protest would become and the more marked the resistance.  The very powers that would have capitalized on the abuse of power would find themselves suffering, as they face countless angry and vindictive citizens demanding their rights restored.

So, in this way, we should not fear these laws.  They are doomed.  But their doom is forged by our hands, and it is in our choices that the when of their failure is determined.  Sooner or later?  But don’t fight them out of fear.  Fight them out of pride, out of dignity, out of honor.  Because we are humanity and we will not be oppressed.

And so it is that another year comes to an end.

A lot of people see this as a time for frivolous partying, drinking, and that’s fine.  However a person wishes to celebrate the new year is fine by me.  For my own part, I have always seen the new year as a time of reverence.  A time to reflect upon all that has been, what is now, and what is desired to be.

Two-thousand and eleven has been a strange and heavy year for me.  It was my twenty-ninth year of life on this little blue-green marble we call home and with it came the sudden realization that I will soon be thirty years old.  To those already past that point, thirty must seem trivial, but to me it struck a sudden chord.  Thirty is when you are no longer a young-adult, but just an adult.  You are officially grown up.  Now, while I will always stand by the Fourth Doctor with the idea that there’s no point in growing up, if you can’t act childish sometimes, I realize that I’m not getting younger and that soon I will be entering into an uphill battle with age.  When a person hits forty, their body starts to slow down.  I’m not exactly in the best of shape right now, and it will only get harder to get into shape as I get older.  Ten years isn’t a short time, but it isn’t a long time either.  This, then, is my wake up call to get a move on and pull myself together.

There have been many wake up calls this year.  My mother has been going through a lot of medical problems, making me realize how ill prepared I am for anything that might happen to me, reenforcing the idea that I need to get myself into shape or things will just get worse for me.

And then there was my father.  My father had been on a downward spiral for years and when he went into the hospital with cancer, we who were still close to him knew he wouldn’t make it out.  We never imagined, however, that it would be as painful a process as it was.  The speed with which he degraded after he got into the hospital was astonishing, yet somehow it just dragged on and on for several months as the doctors tried different treatments.  In the end it was clear his heart just wasn’t in it, he had given up and eventually he died due to complications arising from his treatments.

This was a difficult time for me, to say the least.  My father wasn’t the greatest man in the world, but he wasn’t a terrible person either.  He had serious emotional troubles and was unable to cope with a lot of them.  But, I loved him as my father, even if I knew he couldn’t really love me back.

His passing made me again take stock of my life and realize that I had to do something about my life, to take hold of it.  I didn’t want to wind up in a hospital like that.

But never are there clouds that aren’t broken by sunshine.  This year also brought me a lot of joy.

I transferred to a new store where I met some nice people who I would be proud to call my friends, giving me much hope for my social life.  This has also brought me a decent increase in hours and some very nice paychecks which have made a lot of what has come to pass this year much easier to manage.

It has also been a year for me to return to my artistic roots.  I found my old notebooks and have felt compelled to begin again on The Story and to that end I created this blog (although it has had less time here than I had wanted, but I aim to change that).  I have felt desire to draw again, and my camera has clicked away like mad on the greatest vacation I have ever had.

And on that note, I had the greatest vacation I ever this year.  I visited a very good friend that I hadn’t seen in far too long and was reminded that, hey, I’m not really that impossible of a person to be friends with.  It was a vacation for fun and with a mission. 

There have also been small personal victories as I saw those who chose their paths frivolously yet boasted to me of their choices (much to my annoyance) flounder as their lack of conviction and passion failed them.  This sounds spiteful (and it is >:D) but it also reaffirmed that I was doing the right thing by choosing my path from my heart, rather than by outside pressure.

Finally, I have taken up a membership at a local gym and have been working out with the aim of getting into shape.  I haven’t done spectacularly, although that can be somewhat blamed on starting during the major holiday season, where making any kind of solid routine is always tricky.  But this is a major step for me.  I am not in good shape, physically, and I have been too cynical about myself to make changes, but with all that has happened, good and bad, I have found the strength to change.

Change.  That will be the theme for two-thousand and twelve.  It will take courage, and strength of conviction, but the dividends will be priceless.  I will get in shape.  I will become the artist I have always desired to be.  I will make my place in this world as an adult.

And so it is that a new year begins.

Happy New Year :)

I was given something by a friend that got me thinking.  It wasn’t anything big or expensive, just a little paper crane, personally folded. It was given at a whim, as a friendly gift, because I expressed an interest and admiration for origami.

Now, some might dismiss such things as trivial, but I pride myself on seeing more than most and sometimes finding meaning where others might not think to look.  And so it is that, as this little paper figure sits upon my desk, I find myself thinking -

How like humanity this is, to take something flat and plain and with a few deft folds, turn it into something remarkable.  Giving shape to the shapeless and meaning to the meaningless.

How like humanity this is, to give ones time and energy, if only in small portion, to someone, out of kindness and friendship.  To give freely and eagerly, a small gift, but well placed, because the giver knows it will please the given.

How like humanity this is.

I shall find some string and hang this little paper bird somewhere where I can see it.  For, though given as a novelty, I can see in it much that makes us human and it reminds me why humanity will never become wholly fallen.  It’s the little things that speak the loudest, the smallest sparks that start the largest fires, and the least gifts that mean the most.

Random Thought:

From the broad perspective of the universe, we are but infants.  We are babies still grasping at the strange and inexplicable objects that surround us in the cradle of Mother Earth.  We’ve crawled a little, taken a few stumbling steps into the cosmos around us, but we are still so young, still learning so much.

Is it any wonder then that we make mistakes?  We’re children, and children are prone - even more than any adult - to faults.  And if we are children, then what benefit is there in condemning us as a whole, when we are doing what any child that ever lived would do?  How can we learn and grow if we refuse ourselves the right to falter?

When a child, a person, fails, there is no benefit in condemning them, for even if they are so blind in their ignorance that they do not even know their mistake, they will never find the chance to realize their fault, when we throw out even the hope that they can improve.  The only course for such situations is to show them compassion and understanding, to help them to see where they went wrong and to encourage them to seek a better way.

So to, then we must encourage ourselves as a race, spreading compassion and hope from person to person, for no other course can bring betterment on a species-wide level.  We must love and learn and forgive, for we are all children and we all make mistakes.