Orion Digest №30 — The Imperative to Build a Better Future
The view of the world as cruel and unfair has unfortunately become commonplace. Largely in relation to the political problems listed last issue, most people have become more and more accustomed to the idea that things will continue to get worse rather than better, and that trying to savor what precious little time we have left and escape from the madness is the best option available. It’s not without reason, but it is largely a defeatist argument, because the task of fixing what we have done seems so big, and so impossible, that most people think there is no way that, even united, we could. However, it is not a question of whether or not we can. We simply have to.
Below the level of political turmoil that the world is embroiled in, on a societal level, there is disarray, more consequences of the antagonistic and conflictive system humanity has built. This one is written deep, on the human psyche — not universal and absolute, but a common idea that it is not in humanity’s nature to coexist peacefully. What follows from that assumption is inherent distrust of other people, bids for power and disregard for the wants and needs of others — an inclination to look out for oneself rather than to put faith and trust in their community. People carry weapons of war because they don’t believe they can walk around without being attacked, and people do attack them because the attackers believe society is cruel, and that taking what they want is the only way to get it. As with the issue of world peace, this is not unfounded — unless everyone were to have faith in one another, people used to these ideas would still act as they always have, acting in their own self interest out of fear that everyone else would do the same.
Worse yet, despite the many years we have had to change and learn, our grasp of concepts like equality and respect remain loose, with most nations still behind on the idea of civil rights and discrimination. Some lessons take long to learn; treating people like humans no matter their identity should not be one of them. It is not even kindness to provide people the same opportunity to succeed as anyone else; it is basic decency, and when we cannot even accomplish that, it is clear that the time has come for a change. But with such institutionalized concepts as discrimination and fear, it is much more difficult than a government to take down. Rather, it will take not just the opportunity, but the trust of the world to build a better future in order for us to break down those barriers we have created, to learn to trust each other.
People have power, and the causes and realities they choose to throw their weight against are those that achieve success. The difficult task provided to us is that we need to provide people hope, an idea that they don’t have to fight to survive against the rest of the world, while also needing people that believe in the cause to help us accomplish things that provide them with hope. While this means that getting that initial push is difficult, it also means that the more people willing to take the first step, to embrace the idea that this system — the economics, the politics, all these stigmas and stereotypes and labels — is not all there is and ever will be, the more we can show others the possibility of a world not dominated by such fearful things as defeatism and complacency.
Every day, we edge closer to a higher level of societal understanding — the fact that we know now that such practices and behaviors are immoral shows that we’ve learned and grown from our past mistakes as a species and a global society. However, at this point, we still have a decaying relic of our past transgressions that we feel largely unable to overcome, and much of the world still has some catching up to do. To make it through before our past destruction renders us extinct, we need to be moving much faster, and the enormity of the task causes people to falter, to assume that no mountain that big could ever be moved. But it’s that exact belief that is the deciding factor — how many people are willing to lie down and die in the face of the mountain, and how many are willing to take a risk and push?
Just as we have a moral imperative to change or even replace a society that does not work for its citizens, we also have a moral imperative to serve as a positive example, to lead and guide us to a place where can both politically and socially lay the foundation for a greener, fairer, and better future. To say we simply need unity would be to ignore the evident corruption — we cannot move forward without learning from the hardships of the past, because if we continue to fear and hate each other, we will just be standing in our own way, allowing incompetent social structure to let the masses starve and die. No, we must be both united and fully aware of the human condition, so we can seek to improve it.
While guiding modern society to transition us to the society of a future is a very vague mission, many of the basic concepts are not new to us. The idea that all people, regardless of where they are born, what they look like, who they love, who they identify as, and what they believe in should deserve equal opportunity and basic treatment is one that would make a world of difference if genuinely respected and upheld. Furthermore, the idea that these same people deserve the ability to either work reasonable hours and have time for leisure, or be fairly compensated if they are unable to work, so that their basic needs may be met, is another that would revolutionize the modern world. Recognition of society’s flaws and the possibility of fixing them is another idea that would need to become common in the first place if we were to gain any ground.
On every level, we have become deluded of our place in the world. We, the human race, are a family that lives together on the Earth, and we have the means to construct a working system to organize our lives in a way that meets our needs from survival to self-actualization. However, in order to do that, we have to coexist and work with each other, as well as respect the balance between our own ambition and the limitations of nature. Earth is a big place, but it isn’t infinite, and so we must use our environment carefully, as well as get along with everyone around us, or else we turn this planet into a slowly burning hell. We didn’t understand all of that the first time we built human civilization, but after all these years, we’ve learned, and we can do better, together.
- DKTC FL
