I honestly try to avoid talking on current matters affecting the world, but I feel extremely urged to talk on this one for reasons which I shall bring forth within this short write up.
Firstly, I would also like to state that this post initially did not come about due to the Sudan situation, the train of thought had just arrived there after numerous thoughts had passed by. For how to start this, I am really not sure, I feel it would be best delving straight into the issues at hand, but, before I do that, I have one very huge task to ask of everyone reading...
Please Please Please Please... Turn off your auto-pilot for the duration of this post, please be reflective, and please take your time to think about the points I bring up. Thank you.
I shall not be starting with the Sudan crisis as I feel following the same thought pattern that lead me to think more in-depth on the situation would aid in the transition from auto-pilot to reflective thought.
With that being said, I would like to begin on the topic "Ease of damage".
Ease of Damage
This is the issue which placed me into a quickly collapsing frame of thoughts. What I mean by ease of damage is simply "The power any one person has to cause damage to others". A very amazing and wonderful example of a significant rise in ease of damage in the world is the advent of the gun; a simple and affordable device that is designed so well that babies have even been known to "benefit" from its ease of use. Another great example is the ability for a person to hide her/his identity from the world and be able to interact with various sorts of people including [but not restricted to]: children, the depressed, the oppressed, the weak, the strong, etc. with no risk to the person wishing to cause harm whatsoever.
I hope the issue is clear?
The ease of damage as technology improves is proportional. The power in which a stranger has over the lives around him/her is at it's highest and is unlikely going to stop rising soon. What should we do about this? I will propose a few suggestions later on, but I want this to be cemented now before I continue, think about how unnerving it is knowing this.
I feel the saddest thing about it all is the cognitive dissonance one feels when reflecting on their daily life. The majority of us leave our houses, go out, interact with several different people and come home safely just to hear about a mass killing, rape on the rise and kidnapping becoming more and more frequent on the news... It truly gets us to question the society we live in, but again the next day, we go out and see none of it... It leaves one confused and restless, wondering where are all these evil people, and how come we're so lucky to not encounter them... But what if we do?
The Issue of Auto-pilot
"During World War II, a total of about 13.6 million soldiers served in the German Army between 1935-45. Germany's army personnel were made up of volunteers and conscripts."
13.6 Million.. 13.6 Million people promoting Hitler's Anti-Semitic ideals...
Does this sound right? Does it seem likely that 13.6 million people were truly evil?
If your conclusion from this is that humans are inherently evil, I ask you why then you believe yourself to be the odd one out with emotions amongst savages?
The issue at hand is not innate human nature to be evil, but the innate human nature to be cooperative, consistent, dutiful, compliant, conforming, yielding, passive.. mindless...
We inherently all want to fit in, this hasn't changed, just that the trend at times is to seem to not fit in.
There are countless proofs to this, the Milgram experiment and many in group out group experiments, just to name a few [I recommend watching this, this and this for more knowledge on the subjects]. The one problem causing these issues is the lack of reflective thinking that ensues us all, we forget that it's people we are interacting with, we mistakenly form solipsistic views of the world and forget that we aren't special; this leads to the most disgusting atrocities when it happens in the extreme. This mirrors the Sudan situation in many many ways...
13.6 Million.. 13.6 Million people promoting Hitler's Anti-Semitic ideals...
Does this sound right? Does it seem likely that 13.6 million people were truly evil?
If your conclusion from this is that humans are inherently evil, I ask you why then you believe yourself to be the odd one out with emotions amongst savages?
The issue at hand is not innate human nature to be evil, but the innate human nature to be cooperative, consistent, dutiful, compliant, conforming, yielding, passive.. mindless...
We inherently all want to fit in, this hasn't changed, just that the trend at times is to seem to not fit in.
There are countless proofs to this, the Milgram experiment and many in group out group experiments, just to name a few [I recommend watching this, this and this for more knowledge on the subjects]. The one problem causing these issues is the lack of reflective thinking that ensues us all, we forget that it's people we are interacting with, we mistakenly form solipsistic views of the world and forget that we aren't special; this leads to the most disgusting atrocities when it happens in the extreme. This mirrors the Sudan situation in many many ways...
The Sudan Situation
I lack sufficient knowledge to talk deeply on what is happening in Sudan, I have a very shallow understanding of it and so I shall not be speaking in-depth on the subject. Do I believe a lot of the atrocities are being done out of mindless obedience? Yes. Am I defending the offenders? In no way is this what I plan to do, in fact, I intend to bring light to a few more offenders; you and I.
In 2013 a trend spread around called the ice bucket challenge. The challenge was meant to bring awareness to ALS, a motor neural disease that had not been getting that much awareness up until then. The challenge was a simple act of having a friend pour a bucket of ice water over your head to simulate the symptom of the disease or so [when looking back, this idea doesn't quite make that much sense in retrospect]. This challenge worked, it brought in a huge amount of donations for research and a lot of awareness, so what is my issue with it? Well, I did it and I didn't donate, didn't talk about afterwards, nothing. The thing is I wasn't alone in doing this, a vast majority of people are also guilty of this.
The issue is becoming more and more prevalent in today's society, once it was an act of pouring ice water over one's head, now when genuine lives are being lost we change our profile pictures to a countries flag or a colour and type "Pray for ___" and move on with our lives..
The truly enraging thing is seeing people with genuine power, with genuine money who can try to make a difference also simply jumping on this trend as if the terrorists or so would view it and be like "Oh shit, I need to stop raping and slaughtering". To be honest it is truly disturbing...
This is just another case of auto-pilot that we all refuse to see... We aren't putting enough effort, we all aren't; you'd see artists and writers and bloggers all doing the same, people with talent just changing their profile pictures to blue and calling it a day... It's sad, irritating and annoying, one can see why a lot of meme pages are making fun of the situation... We need to put in more effort.
I have no more to say on that issue, I wish for those with money to start an initiative or small charity or something who can try to help the situation in some way. Sending over private soldiers or something, volunteers or something. These things would make the difference.
On Mental Health
This truly is the biggest plight of the future and now... We need this to be as championed as education is. We need people to be more aware of themselves and others otherwise this "evil" we hear about isn't going away any time soon.
I end this post here and would like for everyone to listen to a few songs that I feel will make us think that bit more.
Fela Kuti - Zombie
Fela Kuti - No Agreement
I lack sufficient knowledge to talk deeply on what is happening in Sudan, I have a very shallow understanding of it and so I shall not be speaking in-depth on the subject. Do I believe a lot of the atrocities are being done out of mindless obedience? Yes. Am I defending the offenders? In no way is this what I plan to do, in fact, I intend to bring light to a few more offenders; you and I.
In 2013 a trend spread around called the ice bucket challenge. The challenge was meant to bring awareness to ALS, a motor neural disease that had not been getting that much awareness up until then. The challenge was a simple act of having a friend pour a bucket of ice water over your head to simulate the symptom of the disease or so [when looking back, this idea doesn't quite make that much sense in retrospect]. This challenge worked, it brought in a huge amount of donations for research and a lot of awareness, so what is my issue with it? Well, I did it and I didn't donate, didn't talk about afterwards, nothing. The thing is I wasn't alone in doing this, a vast majority of people are also guilty of this.
The issue is becoming more and more prevalent in today's society, once it was an act of pouring ice water over one's head, now when genuine lives are being lost we change our profile pictures to a countries flag or a colour and type "Pray for ___" and move on with our lives..
The truly enraging thing is seeing people with genuine power, with genuine money who can try to make a difference also simply jumping on this trend as if the terrorists or so would view it and be like "Oh shit, I need to stop raping and slaughtering". To be honest it is truly disturbing...
This is just another case of auto-pilot that we all refuse to see... We aren't putting enough effort, we all aren't; you'd see artists and writers and bloggers all doing the same, people with talent just changing their profile pictures to blue and calling it a day... It's sad, irritating and annoying, one can see why a lot of meme pages are making fun of the situation... We need to put in more effort.
I have no more to say on that issue, I wish for those with money to start an initiative or small charity or something who can try to help the situation in some way. Sending over private soldiers or something, volunteers or something. These things would make the difference.
On Mental Health
This truly is the biggest plight of the future and now... We need this to be as championed as education is. We need people to be more aware of themselves and others otherwise this "evil" we hear about isn't going away any time soon.
I end this post here and would like for everyone to listen to a few songs that I feel will make us think that bit more.
Fela Kuti - Zombie
Fela Kuti - No Agreement
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