After seeing how most of the world has descended into a fog of hatred where the loudest voices are those of divisiveness and an unwillingness to ask the hard questions that NEED to be asked, I'm really disappointed in how "leaders" in seats of power have responded; doing the bare minimum or nothing at all, and then punishing the betrayed and ignored if they "step out of line".
"Accept what you cannot change", they always say. Well, if what you can't change still threatens to change YOU for the worst, how can anybody tell you to "accept" that? There are nations where LGBTQIA+ rights don't exist, and someone comes out as gay, lesbian, or trans, that's a felony punishable by death under a government run by religious bigots. We're telling them to "accept" this because they can't "change" it?
I'm seeing innocent people (my own close friends included) being bullied online by others, and 99.99% of the time the admins of these forums/social media websites side... with the bullies, and even become bullish themselves. All in an attempt to quell the hostilities of people stuck in their digital and metaphysical comfort zones. We're telling the victims to "accept" this because they can't "change" it?
My answer to these problems is that these leaders don't approach them from a moral standpoint. They approach them from a cultural or political standpoint. And it has hurt FAR too many people that in many nations there can be no forgiveness for such propaganda. And this is coming from a Cali Black guy who has to be a closeted Christian now because what passes for his faith on a mainstream level worldwide can only be called heresy.
I remember a quote from one of one of my favorite Star Trek films, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It was the first Trek movie my dad ever spoke of on a plane trip when I was 5, think, but I never fully watched it until around 2012. Everything in that film, I see happening today in the world. Culture wars. Literal wars, waged for the stupidest of reasons, and the warring parties politicizing the loss of life like it's a morality test. And worst of all, nations who have spent their entire existence trying to one up each other in some way, who fully believe eternal armed conflict is the only way to come to a conclusion. Well, eternity has no end, so an "armed conflict" on those grounds can't end either -- unless the Earth dies in a nuclear cataclysm. Citizens in every nation know that, but almost all world leaders can't SEE that. But the citizens are being told to "accept" the way of things until a solution presents itself. Well, we are still waiting, but now the planet Earth is dying. And is anyone really listening? Given that people have been sounding the alarm about global warming for half a century now, I think I can comfortably say that the answer, from world leaders' P.O.V., is a resounding "no" or worse, a "so what -- WE DON'T CARE."
We CAN'T accept that. Today's generation of youth can't accept that -- nowadays kids don't even get to grow up since their lives always get snuffed out as early as age four because some bomber pilot made a mistake and dropped a payload of bombs on the wrong "target". I worked at an agency that assists and cares for the developmentally and mentally disabled, many of which are LGBTQIA+; one binary transgender there is a successful businessperson and saw me as one of their best friends after just one year of my employment (we also have the same birthday -- October 31st, Halloween. They are about 8 years older than I am). They even found a way to bring up some good news at the end of every one of our weekly "News Hour" classes; how about that. A binary transgender business expert who also knows where to find heartwarming news stories our American news couldn't care to broadcast, not when there's depressing and fearmongering "breaking news" to force-feed the masses with. Is it any wonder why so many Americans today are so angry they don't even know how to ARGUE properly anymore? I know in my city, arguments almost always end with someone getting perforated by bullets, with the assailant gone hours before the cops get there. Another half year before the criminal is found, and four more months until the criminal is in custody awaiting a trail whose verdict often ends with a massive disappointment for the aggrieved families.
When I was called (actually, I was unanimously picked by our entire counselor staff as I was about to head home for the day -- still humble about it too. I'm good, but THAT good. Alas, they wouldn't let me off the hook... 😅) to represent my position at work in an interview with a few board members from similar agencies from all over California, I asked to make a statement to our board member first. And I told them the real problem, the REAL disability worldwide that threatens so many. It comes down to two things: arrogance and ignorance. Collectively, these two things have been around since the first human could talk. And since then, these two things have always impeded progress in everything: fair wages at a job, racial equality, the acknowledgement of the basic human right to life for women, kids, and especially the LGBTQIA+ community... It's 2024, and humanity STILL can't wrap its head around simple stuff like this. Seriously, we all have to look at ourselves sometime and ask ourselves why this is still the reality.
The only answer I've got is that people MAKE this reality the norm with arrogance and ignorance: prejudice, discrimination, and criminalizing anything they don't have the slightest clue how to solve rationally... because this is the easiest and "instantly gratuitous" way to "solve" a problem. Well, over the decades everybody's seen that this is always a soggy band-aid solution that rolls off the moment someone steps out of bounds. Looking at all the improvements we've made in tech, I've been saying to my other friends, "C'mon, man. We are better than this. Humanity is better than this."
I'll end this admittedly long response with an apology and the reference to Star Trek. Captain James Tiberius Kirk spoke these words at the climax of the film when a peace deal that was lightyears in the making between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire was almost foiled:
"It's about the future, Madame Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history quite yet. Your father called the future - "the undiscovered country". People can be very frightened of change."
The characters then slowly erupted into a standing ovation full of smiles and even a few grumpy-yet-in-full-agreement frowns. I just the world can come to that point sometime soon; no nation can enjoy a "great and glorious future" if there's no planet Earth to enjoy it on. Common sense.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-08-24 07:12 pm (UTC)After seeing how most of the world has descended into a fog of hatred where the loudest voices are those of divisiveness and an unwillingness to ask the hard questions that NEED to be asked, I'm really disappointed in how "leaders" in seats of power have responded; doing the bare minimum or nothing at all, and then punishing the betrayed and ignored if they "step out of line".
"Accept what you cannot change", they always say. Well, if what you can't change still threatens to change YOU for the worst, how can anybody tell you to "accept" that? There are nations where LGBTQIA+ rights don't exist, and someone comes out as gay, lesbian, or trans, that's a felony punishable by death under a government run by religious bigots. We're telling them to "accept" this because they can't "change" it?
I'm seeing innocent people (my own close friends included) being bullied online by others, and 99.99% of the time the admins of these forums/social media websites side... with the bullies, and even become bullish themselves. All in an attempt to quell the hostilities of people stuck in their digital and metaphysical comfort zones. We're telling the victims to "accept" this because they can't "change" it?
My answer to these problems is that these leaders don't approach them from a moral standpoint. They approach them from a cultural or political standpoint. And it has hurt FAR too many people that in many nations there can be no forgiveness for such propaganda. And this is coming from a Cali Black guy who has to be a closeted Christian now because what passes for his faith on a mainstream level worldwide can only be called heresy.
I remember a quote from one of one of my favorite Star Trek films, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It was the first Trek movie my dad ever spoke of on a plane trip when I was 5, think, but I never fully watched it until around 2012. Everything in that film, I see happening today in the world. Culture wars. Literal wars, waged for the stupidest of reasons, and the warring parties politicizing the loss of life like it's a morality test. And worst of all, nations who have spent their entire existence trying to one up each other in some way, who fully believe eternal armed conflict is the only way to come to a conclusion. Well, eternity has no end, so an "armed conflict" on those grounds can't end either -- unless the Earth dies in a nuclear cataclysm. Citizens in every nation know that, but almost all world leaders can't SEE that. But the citizens are being told to "accept" the way of things until a solution presents itself. Well, we are still waiting, but now the planet Earth is dying. And is anyone really listening? Given that people have been sounding the alarm about global warming for half a century now, I think I can comfortably say that the answer, from world leaders' P.O.V., is a resounding "no" or worse, a "so what -- WE DON'T CARE."
We CAN'T accept that. Today's generation of youth can't accept that -- nowadays kids don't even get to grow up since their lives always get snuffed out as early as age four because some bomber pilot made a mistake and dropped a payload of bombs on the wrong "target". I worked at an agency that assists and cares for the developmentally and mentally disabled, many of which are LGBTQIA+; one binary transgender there is a successful businessperson and saw me as one of their best friends after just one year of my employment (we also have the same birthday -- October 31st, Halloween. They are about 8 years older than I am). They even found a way to bring up some good news at the end of every one of our weekly "News Hour" classes; how about that. A binary transgender business expert who also knows where to find heartwarming news stories our American news couldn't care to broadcast, not when there's depressing and fearmongering "breaking news" to force-feed the masses with. Is it any wonder why so many Americans today are so angry they don't even know how to ARGUE properly anymore? I know in my city, arguments almost always end with someone getting perforated by bullets, with the assailant gone hours before the cops get there. Another half year before the criminal is found, and four more months until the criminal is in custody awaiting a trail whose verdict often ends with a massive disappointment for the aggrieved families.
When I was called (actually, I was unanimously picked by our entire counselor staff as I was about to head home for the day -- still humble about it too. I'm good, but THAT good. Alas, they wouldn't let me off the hook... 😅) to represent my position at work in an interview with a few board members from similar agencies from all over California, I asked to make a statement to our board member first. And I told them the real problem, the REAL disability worldwide that threatens so many. It comes down to two things: arrogance and ignorance. Collectively, these two things have been around since the first human could talk. And since then, these two things have always impeded progress in everything: fair wages at a job, racial equality, the acknowledgement of the basic human right to life for women, kids, and especially the LGBTQIA+ community... It's 2024, and humanity STILL can't wrap its head around simple stuff like this. Seriously, we all have to look at ourselves sometime and ask ourselves why this is still the reality.
The only answer I've got is that people MAKE this reality the norm with arrogance and ignorance: prejudice, discrimination, and criminalizing anything they don't have the slightest clue how to solve rationally... because this is the easiest and "instantly gratuitous" way to "solve" a problem. Well, over the decades everybody's seen that this is always a soggy band-aid solution that rolls off the moment someone steps out of bounds. Looking at all the improvements we've made in tech, I've been saying to my other friends, "C'mon, man. We are better than this. Humanity is better than this."
I'll end this admittedly long response with an apology and the reference to Star Trek. Captain James Tiberius Kirk spoke these words at the climax of the film when a peace deal that was lightyears in the making between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire was almost foiled:
"It's about the future, Madame Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history quite yet. Your father called the future - "the undiscovered country". People can be very frightened of change."
The characters then slowly erupted into a standing ovation full of smiles and even a few grumpy-yet-in-full-agreement frowns. I just the world can come to that point sometime soon; no nation can enjoy a "great and glorious future" if there's no planet Earth to enjoy it on. Common sense.