Nope, definitely not my original thought! Came across it on a friend-of-a-friend's Facebook page earlier today and it made me laugh.
Not that it's actually funny; except it IS, while also being a somewhat tragic commentary on the state of the world in which we live.
What IS This World?
In some ways, the comment felt like an odd extension of a conversation I was having last week with a friend of ours who lives north of the border, on Vancouver Island in Canada.
She was far from her usual joyful energetic self, and one of the sentences that really stuck in my mind was this: "I don't even RECOGNIZE my country, anymore..."
Mostly, she was referring to the extensive movement restrictions and draconian measures taken by the BC Provincial Government... but she was also referring to the fallout from simply asking questions.
However you might turn it, we're all being asked to walk some variation of the proverbial "Straight and Narrow," but which straight and narrow IS it? And whose is it?
The "easy out" would of course be to universally point fingers at "Evil Governments" or some kind of "Illuminati Power Cabal" and whereas we might be able to lay some responsibility there, I'm yet to see any example of times in which humanity was actually coordinated and organized enough to get everyone with a specific agenda to work off the same script.
Even Hitler (and allies') attempts at world domination during World War II were pretty much all over the map.
Humans — and particularly the ones of the self-involved and power hungry ilk — tend to be far too selfish to be able to walk in unified lockstep, even in service of world domination. Invariably, someone wants to take matters into their own hands and create their own "version," and thus even the best "intentioned" evil cabals tend to fall apart on themselves.
What IS This World? (Part II)
Sometimes, what this world strikes me as really being is an extension of its own apathy and indifference. What guides us isn't really opinions, but ultimate a LACK of opinions.
We can no longer be offended or put off by ANYthing, lest someone get the impression that someone else holds an actual opinion.
We talk a lot about politics, and here in the US it's always "Republicans vs. Democrats" but with every passing decade they actually look more and more the same, getting up in arms with the same fervor over... what? Actually holding an opinion?
Whatever anyone might think of Donald Trump, I suspect much of his support was based not in what his opinion might be, but the fact that he had an opinion and freely spoke it, rather than make ongoing statements of "no opinion."
Personally, I found him to be a coarse boor, but I still admired the fact that he had an opinion about things.
Wishy-Washy and Fence Sitting?
"But... uhmm... aren't YOU normally pretty neutral, Mr. Denmarkguy?"
An interesting point, within a limited scope. My reply to which is that there's a big difference between "not having formed an opinion" and actively "not giving a shit." In most cases, my ostensible "fence sitting" relates to the former.
I don't really believe in running off endlessly at the mouth, simply for the purpose of hearing myself talk... so I don't.
It all brings me back to a book a read many years back, called "Power vs. Force." The author — one Dr. David Hawkins — attempted to describe the different levels of Human Consciousness, and one of the interesting points he made was that to the uninformed observer a person rooted in a sense of inner peace can actually come across as very similar to a person in apathy and indifference The difference being that peace is an active state, while apathy is a passive state.
What IS This World? (Part III)
It seems to be a world in which my very existence is "Against Community Guidelines" because I prefer to operate between the lines, rather than by picking up arms and banners and going to war over some specific point of view that might not even reflect *mine." Instead, I use systems to change them, rather than fighting systems to change them.
In some ways, I am like the "printer" who provides the service of printing political flyers for both sides of the argument; in some ways, I am the "information keeper" without feeling compelled to assign a particular value to that information.
UNLESS, of course, I am moved by the facts I am able to discern from the situation.
Reminds me a bit of something I had in one of my web profiles 20 years ago: "Carries instructions on how to build a bomb, but nobody knows whether he's likely to BUILD bombs or DEFUSE bombs."
I am not sure why I felt compelled to write these words... maybe I just read one too many "angry extremist" opinions today. Or, as one of my cousins once remarked (in reference to fairly militant individuals) after leaving an organization he had helped start: "Too many people mistaking CONVERSATION with CONFRONTATION."
With that, I'm going to go eat dinner. Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your weekend!
How about YOU? Have you ever felt like your simply "being alive" is a problem for parts of the world? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20211120 20:41 PDT
0412/1656