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Mar. 18th, 2005 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueWe have become a nation of hypocrites and fools.
The so called "first world" has lost it's way.
Christmas this year, was a festival of gluttony, avarice and capitalism.
Easter this year, will most likely be a festival of greed, of "if you don't get enough easter eggs, your mummy doesn't really love you.".
A religion is actually really simple to lay out. In Christianity, the rules are fairly simple - there's ten commandments. Follow them, and you'll do OK. The rest, festivals, ceremonies etc. are just window dressing. They exist to allow you to fulfil your belief, but they're not the central point.
But too often that message is lost. And a religious festival, serving to mark an occasion of significance to followers of the faith, is perverted.
This, I think is a symptom. I think we have the same problem in our day to day life. Focussing on the rituals and rites, and the forced diet of media pressure, rather than the actual spirit behind the laws of our land. Immigration is set to be a hot topic. The problem is, both 'major' parties are taking differing degrees of xenophobia. Oh no, not _racism_ (as the tory advert says), but it is xenophobic.
And it is devaluing the humanity of 'johnny foreigner'.
What's gone wrong? Beneath this veneer of civilisation, this country is getting more and more barbaric. I think we've focussed more on the 'political correctness', of statements, and words. After all, it's far easier to quibble about whether it's right to call someone "black" than it is to actually try and chance the hearts and minds of a nation, that at some level believes that different is synonymous with 'inferior'.
Calling someone "black" is not racist. It's an adjective, and used in the same context as describing someone as tall, overweight, skinny, short. But too often the sharp tongue of criticism jumps on the low debaters tactic of declaring the opponent 'racist'. These things don't matter, unless you make them matter. You don't have to be colour/gender blind to be 'fair'. You just have to make your choices based on relevant information.
Skin colour doesn't affect someone's ability to do a job.
I think we're suffering, simply because we have a generation who have not been shown the reason to work as a community. At first glance, the 'easy' way to live life is to take everything you need from someone else. Be it the state, or just stealing from your neighbour. It's hard to see at first glance whilst 'collective' support works better. We're missing that.
I think the cornerstone of a community used to be religion. It used to be the case, that whilst not everyone followed 'the rules' they were at least informed of them. And there was a certain amount of pressure to conform, basically by being a 'valued member of the community'.
Over the last few years though, I don't think anyone would argue that 'religious fervour' in this country is on the decline. Our new religion is TV and computer games. Unfortunately, they're sadly lacking in the moral element.
And I think I've lost the thread of this rant.
Oh yeah, here it is.
There's an old adage. It goes "For evil to triumph, all that is required is that the good do not intervene". I think that we're getting too self obsessed, and intravert, and too content to complain about the way things are. It's easy, I know. But the real question is an 'easy life' a good enough reason to accept oppression, corruption and horrors commited in the name of the 'public good'.
But no one likes to be apathetic and to honestly say 'they don't care'. And so we quibble about points of law, rules, and a load of stuff that makes absolutely sod all difference.
Ignoring the 'unacceptable' doesn't make it go away, it just makes it acceptable, so next time it happens again. When it comes to election time, and it will in the next few months, not voting because 'it'll not make any difference' is no better than casting a vote for the _worst possible_ alternative. Do you really want someone to win an election, simply because no one could be bothered to vote against?
The so called "first world" has lost it's way.
Christmas this year, was a festival of gluttony, avarice and capitalism.
Easter this year, will most likely be a festival of greed, of "if you don't get enough easter eggs, your mummy doesn't really love you.".
A religion is actually really simple to lay out. In Christianity, the rules are fairly simple - there's ten commandments. Follow them, and you'll do OK. The rest, festivals, ceremonies etc. are just window dressing. They exist to allow you to fulfil your belief, but they're not the central point.
But too often that message is lost. And a religious festival, serving to mark an occasion of significance to followers of the faith, is perverted.
This, I think is a symptom. I think we have the same problem in our day to day life. Focussing on the rituals and rites, and the forced diet of media pressure, rather than the actual spirit behind the laws of our land. Immigration is set to be a hot topic. The problem is, both 'major' parties are taking differing degrees of xenophobia. Oh no, not _racism_ (as the tory advert says), but it is xenophobic.
And it is devaluing the humanity of 'johnny foreigner'.
What's gone wrong? Beneath this veneer of civilisation, this country is getting more and more barbaric. I think we've focussed more on the 'political correctness', of statements, and words. After all, it's far easier to quibble about whether it's right to call someone "black" than it is to actually try and chance the hearts and minds of a nation, that at some level believes that different is synonymous with 'inferior'.
Calling someone "black" is not racist. It's an adjective, and used in the same context as describing someone as tall, overweight, skinny, short. But too often the sharp tongue of criticism jumps on the low debaters tactic of declaring the opponent 'racist'. These things don't matter, unless you make them matter. You don't have to be colour/gender blind to be 'fair'. You just have to make your choices based on relevant information.
Skin colour doesn't affect someone's ability to do a job.
I think we're suffering, simply because we have a generation who have not been shown the reason to work as a community. At first glance, the 'easy' way to live life is to take everything you need from someone else. Be it the state, or just stealing from your neighbour. It's hard to see at first glance whilst 'collective' support works better. We're missing that.
I think the cornerstone of a community used to be religion. It used to be the case, that whilst not everyone followed 'the rules' they were at least informed of them. And there was a certain amount of pressure to conform, basically by being a 'valued member of the community'.
Over the last few years though, I don't think anyone would argue that 'religious fervour' in this country is on the decline. Our new religion is TV and computer games. Unfortunately, they're sadly lacking in the moral element.
And I think I've lost the thread of this rant.
Oh yeah, here it is.
There's an old adage. It goes "For evil to triumph, all that is required is that the good do not intervene". I think that we're getting too self obsessed, and intravert, and too content to complain about the way things are. It's easy, I know. But the real question is an 'easy life' a good enough reason to accept oppression, corruption and horrors commited in the name of the 'public good'.
But no one likes to be apathetic and to honestly say 'they don't care'. And so we quibble about points of law, rules, and a load of stuff that makes absolutely sod all difference.
Ignoring the 'unacceptable' doesn't make it go away, it just makes it acceptable, so next time it happens again. When it comes to election time, and it will in the next few months, not voting because 'it'll not make any difference' is no better than casting a vote for the _worst possible_ alternative. Do you really want someone to win an election, simply because no one could be bothered to vote against?
