I understand that life can be cruel. I also understand that time can help in healing pain or misery. This is not to say that there cannot be any human intervention in the healing of wounds. If we simply throw our troubles into the unruly wind, then where do we draw the line between accountability and impunity? Impunity - or absolution - seems to be the drug of choice for most people in life.
Take our current administration, for instance, which thrives on this "rarified delicacy." Those in power are not held accountable for their actions as they use the "natural course" of events as an alibi in both foreign and domestic matters. The amount of influence government behavior and disposition can have on a society - both consciously and subconsciously - is immense. This cannot be denied. The reckless abandonment of accountability trickles down from the top and penetrates our personal lives, as citizens and as neighbors.
However, this influence very rarely stems from the government itself. It stems from a network of interconnected private interests, which currently have the government under their thumb. I could go in to a diatribe of how the private elite has strategically designed a society in which people are immersed in decadence, relativity, and apathy. But the bottom line is that it is up to the current administration at any given period in time to fund and cooperate with these aloof think tanks. I'm not saying that this administration is responsible for every action of its citizens. But the fact that our environment is greatly influenced by the "powers that be" - is irrefutable.
There is a conscious force behind any social system - and if systems are selected and created, then systems can be changed. But first, we must understand the alternatives and objectively choose the one that best promotes the general welfare. If the end-all and be-all is "self-expression" and "relativism" and you would add an exploitative and manipulative media, then the end product will ultimately be decadence.
Moreover, to think that there is no common humanity is absolutely preposterous.
Here is why:
- We, as humans, are aware of the idea of a universe.
- We can think about systems such as the nation-state, an engine, a solar system, and the idea of a supreme, supernatural being ...a.k.a. God. (And yes, this includes atheists, since one has to first be aware of an idea before he can oppose it)
- For all other species, the universe is only what they experience through their senses
- We can think about the past and a future
- Humans are also capable of thinking about the "self" as an object.
- And only humans have the potential to set out to understand the world for the purpose of changing it.
There is a higher morality based on rationale and reason to be sought after, rather than putting a blind faith in something with no tangible proof and something that one has no conceivable control over. Furthermore, all minds should be concentrated on a particular problem so that they might come to a common decision and exercise a collective power in implementing that decision. I've read that the inability to envisage the transformation of society in the future is mirrored by the inability to recognize and comprehend transformations which have already taken place.
In today's society, we are expected to embrace decadence and become indifferent to the future of ourselves and others. What is needed, rather than hedonism, is a sense of solidarity to gain freedom - for both self and society. A more meaningful approach to solving societal problems and even personal issues is with the idea of self-determination and knowing that we do not have to become mere products of our environment.
To fully rely on faith, the supernatural, or simply time is an approach of those who cannot grasp a sense of prudence - or understanding. There is no "natural" course in a socially rational world and we can look to Newton's third law for this.
One must also be able to make the distinction between behavior and action. Behavior occurs with little or no thought, while action is the result of conscious processes. The focus of a social atmosphere must be on the action, in which thought intervenes between stimulus and response. Behavior, therefore, is basically meaningless -- at least in the sense that people simply do it without giving it much or any thought.
The following is an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr's beautifully powerful essay entitled, "Letter From Birmingham Jail," which parallels nicely to my ideas - and it drives my point home. It is as follows:
I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. [...] Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.
More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter From Birmingham Jail"
To rely on time alone to resolve problematic circumstances is to allow for thoughtless behavior to take control of self-direction, or lack there of. It is infantile and lazy to allow for tumultuous times to simply "play out." People say that time heals all wounds. Not so true - we have to be our own best advocates for our own mental health and emotional well-being (for both society as a whole and individual). And to do this, we must be objective, rational and proactive.
