Our society is currently based on a system that breeds apathy and complacency.
How?
I can best use myself as an example.
For the longest time I was convinced that money was the answer for everything.
If I could just make enough of it, well, then everything would go right with my world…the world.
How much was enough?
That’s a question I could never seem to answer to my satisfaction.
I did make some money…by some standards, a lot of it.
Did everything go right?
No, it didn’t.
And then something happened to me.
That money could not bring happiness…
to me, or…
to the world.
The indigenous cultures that our western capitalistic-minded ancestors displaced…
in their insatiable quest for land, gold and slaves…
knew very well that money wasn’t the answer. In fact, they didn’t even use it.
They knew that happiness comes from being part of a tribe consisting of individuals who don’t frantically seek their own well-being…
but the well-being of the tribe.
But we dismissed them as savages and just, well, kinda brushed them out of the way of our development.
That something’s wrong when your life is reduced to a constant need to produce just enough of those little green papers adorned with pictures of dead notables…
to barely eek out a living.
The thought of taking care of a tribe,
well, that becomes a preposterous idea.
I’ve got to take care of me…and I’ve got my hands full just doing that!
Leave the taking care of others to people who have the whereabouts to concern themselves with that sort of a thing.
Leave that to the 1%’ers who we often see trumpeted in the media for giving back…
when in reality only a handful give a tiny fraction back in order to salve their aching consciences….
aching because of the gross luxury of their existence…
while some have nothing but a hole to shit in.
I saw a bunch of right-winger Facebook posts the other day admiring Donald Trump for giving 25 grand to the marine who was held in Mexico.
Trump giving $25,000 to that guy is like me giving 25 cents to a beggar on the street.
While both acts are laudable, they’re not worth going viral about.
We need more compassion than that to save this world.
After this dawning of my impact consciousness I began to feel the pains of the problem we all face when considering a life of impact…
How do I make a living?
Ah, the paradox of our system.
The answer to that question can be so daunting that we just give up on the notion.
We become apathetic once again…
We’ve got to fight against that inclination.
We, the 99%, are the ones who are going to change things for the better.
I can assure you that we cannot afford to leave it to the Donald Trumps of this world. The system works too well for them.
The time to act is now.
Let’s get busy!
image credit: jonathan_franzone via Compfight cc
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