Forgotten principle

Salander

6/12/13

APL&C

A Forgotten Principle. 

I am a hopeless romantic and a stubborn idealist who is under constant pressure to grow up and become a realist. When I look at mankind every day I can't help but feel slightly disappointed. I am not disappointed because I feel as if humans are in any lack of accomplishment, I actually feel quite the opposite. I am proud to be a part of this species, I am proud of the steps we have made and I am proud of the steps we continue to make. Yet, being the person I am, I can't help feel that we've lost something. Sure we continue to strive, we make scientific advances and we make leaps in societal goals like steps towards universal equality. Yet, we've changed. Some would say for the better, I say otherwise. I am glad to be stubborn and steadfast, I think it is a powerful trait. It was Emerson who said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” (Emerson, The Poet)

We live in a dangerous world. That is true. It is filled with dangerous things, dangerous places and dangerous people. It is hard, in such a place, to keep compassion. In the past, compassion was something that was a virtue in society, now it is seen as a hindrance and a weakness. In our capitalist world, our dog-eat-dog world, where everyone fends for themselves so that they can survive, such a notion as compassion for others is tossed aside. Instead, we are told by the so called “successful” who tell us such things as “Greed is good” and convince us all, albeit implicitly, that security (especially economic security) are the root to happiness and in order to obtain it, one must step on a few toes and cannot be a “sissy” who stops to give others the time of day. We are told that we need to grow up and face facts, the world is not a kind place and we need to accept that.

Such notions of self indulgence masked by the necessity for survival have spread like a disease in a crowded space. Now because it has been said to be true, it has become true. Humans treat each other as merely steps or tools for creating their ivory towers. One who may be reading this may say to themselves “Well things have always been so, thats just how life is. That is just human nature” It is exactly that defeatist and lazy attitude that has allowed things to be as they are.

At the dawn of civilization, when mankind began to settle down and give up the nomadic life to group farms and homes together to form the first villages, all humans were aware of the symbiotic relationship they had. Not only were they aware of it, they cherished it. Early man knew that he depended on his fellow agriculturalists to keep his family going, they would share the food for nourishment, the herbs for healing and the weapons for defense. Yet how can I prove that it wasn't merely a means to an end that motivated these pioneers? How can I prove that they weren't driven by selfishness? I can say that it was selflessness and affection for one another that drove them forward and allowed for the growth of civilization. This is evident because the life of the farmer and of the villager and of the caretaker (the style of life that would lead to the birth of civilization as we know it) was, near the end of the time of the nomads, more dangerous than that of the nomad. Men who were caretakers and breadwinners for their families would live shorter lives and wouldn't even grow as tall as nomads. Yet they formed the symbiotic bond regardless in order to protect the weak. It was neither motivated by both compassion for one another and a need for survival. There was a balance. However, I believe that the balance has shifted to one side.

I believe civilization was born with the intent of nurturing one another and to escape from the harsh and unforgiving world of the wilderness where every creature must fight for survival, and create a forgiving alternative. An outsider wouldn't know that from looking us today for the first time. Mankind has left one wilderness and created another. We fight for our survival once again. The weak are tossed aside once again. We are animals once again

I think civilization has slowly been shifting to this state since its creation, but I think certain ideologies and practices, such as mercantilism, capitalism and even Calvinism and its idealogical descendants, have hastened the transfer. If only civilization could return to its conception state for as Thoreau reminds us, “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise
as the day I was born.” (Walden, Where I Lived and What I Lived For) Wisdom often decreases with age instead of the commonly held belief to the contrary.

Man has become afraid, afraid of being able to balance taking care of themselves and one another. So what does man do? He lies. To himself and to others. He says that one can only survive in life is if he fights for himself and his own first, and for others second. He says that it is human nature to do so, so that he may rationalize what he has done. He convinces many that what he has done is part of the human condition and it is natural for they to do thus. Now mankind has the excuse to allow them to take each other's rights away and each other's lives away and pretty much anything else. We all think in a Machiavellian sense, looking at what we can gain from each human encounter to help amass a larger treasure which we defend with our lives. My own home is a testament to this current condition mankind finds himself in.

It is here, in Fairfield County the wealthiest county in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and my home, that mankind's selfishness can be seen to its full extent. The fact that this nation's most evident examples of decadence in communities such as Greenwich and Westport, can exist within the same county as, and in such close proximity to, such destitute towns as Bridgeport is an insult to what we call humanity. Bridgeport's slums, which are extremely dangerous due to the low socioeconomic class of the populace, lie only a couple of miles away from the estates of this century's robber barons. It is almost as if America is suffering from a reprise to the age of Rockefeller and Carnegie, when socioeconomic divides were as wide as the rapidly expanding nation was.

Yet, the rich sit in their mansions and watch the rest of us like a 17th century European aristocrat watching his serfs and peasantry. They have little care or concern for anyone else or their plight. In fact, some may even argue that the poor have earned their lot. They claim that things are so because of “Social Darwinism”, a term meant to coax the rich into feeling not-guilty about being rich, but instead to feel superior to their common, less successful, man (Ayn Rand would be so proud). To the bourgeois menace, a self made rich man is rich because he is genetically superior and therefore more likely to succeed. The philosophy of Social Darwinism dictates that all peoples are created equal in opportunity and that environment, economic situation and certain media exposure have little to do with monetary success compared with genetics. Such a way of thinking was behind all manner of European genocide including but not limited to the colonization of Africa and Germany's holocaust in the 20th century (rationalized by the Nazi's twisted concept of “Ubermensch”) It is also the same concept of thought as “divine right” that justified the rule of the European monarchs and nobility. These thoughts allow America's wealthy to sleep peacefully at night while their brethren lie starving and dying without a job just a ways off. Though, they may throw their money at a charity or a public service they vaguely understand once in a while to make themselves feel better and gain some morality points with their peers or with their god[s]. God is a topic commonly brought up by the puppets of the oppressors through media outlets. How demented it is, that Christianity is manipulated and twisted to form political agendas and the root of the message, compassion for all human beings, is forgotten.

“But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say.”

-Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed

Then they convince many of us with their nationalist propaganda that we are the freest peoples on earth and our rights supersede all others. I believe the words of Frederick Douglass describing the conditions of the slaves in America and their perspective of the fourth of July are true also for the poor of America today: “To him (the slave), your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” To call a person free who is surrendering an ungodly amount of hours of their life performing demeaning acts to earn a wage that is barely enough to make a living, or one who lives off of the streets, is an insult. Yet such is the condition of the poor and working man.

As I see it, Social Darwinism is refuted by every basic version of human morality and ethics and would/should therefore be seen as wrong if it were a perfect world. However, realism dismisses such ethics and morality and claims them to be mere romantic notions concocted to create an effect similar to dopamine in the bloodstream, easing the pain experienced yet not offering anything healthy and/or practical. Well I say realism can go eat it. It spreads like the bubonic plague, killing our hopes and aspirations and covering us with lesions of despair.

However, This is not who we are. This is not who we were born to be, who we were meant to be. In the words of Jamaica Kincaid:

“You are not an ugly person all the time; you are not an ugly person ordinarily; you are not an ugly person day to day. From day to day, you are a nice person. From day to day, all the people who are supposed to love you on the whole do......”

-Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Humanity is capable of kindness and compassion and I believe it to be our natural state. Even the rich, whom I have so harshly criticized, have a place in the world should they take up the cause of the betterment for humankind.

“Once you cease to be a master, once you throw off your master's yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are a human being, and all the things that adds up to.”

-Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Whatever I do in my life, whatever I choose to do (I have no idea what I wish to do yet) I know that I will be someone who takes up the common gauntlet of an idealist fighting for a change in human thought. Such a change shall be accomplished by inspiring others through my own actions, for I am also someone who has fallen victim to the cancer of hyper-realism. I have lost faith in humanity before (or at least, seemingly so) and I still have my doubts, but I do believe our compassion is innate and a radical shift towards becoming more compassionate would be revolutionary. However, I do not claim to be a revolutionary, nor to be the sole proponent of my cause, but I believe my place in the world is to rally some sort of faith in the humanity of humanity through action and example. I think I am someone who has the capability to call people out on their wrongdoing and I think I can help to inspire others to do thus. My place is to help to unlock the doors to human potential that have long been shut.