Alton Sterling, just the next in a long line of black men shot by excessively aggressive white cops. Three reported cases of islamophobic violence in the U.S. within just the past week. Donald Trump drags Judaism into his “crooked Hillary” smear-campaign.
It has clearly been yet another rough week for the concepts of “tolerance” and “human dignity.” Trends of late seem to make even the Bush-Blair era in light of Chilcot’s thoroughly damning analysis of the Iraq War appear a lovely haven of all things virtuous.
Yet, hardly a majority of Americans seem to understand this, and far fewer have made any sustained and respectful effort to counter anti-humanist proponents. Without it, there will be only anger, no learning, come the results of this year’s presidential election. Responsibility lies in every individual—Democrat or not—who might complain given a Trump presidency to recognize the following:
The ignorance, hatred, and violence of even a single human hurts all humanity. It is personal. We suffer, whether knowingly or unknowingly, with every single occurrence of racism, sexism, islamophobia and anti-semitism — each bit of aggravated confusion. Every instance makes the world just a bit more irritated, and, to cope, a bit more numb.
As sobering as it is to admit, most of us don’t feel much anymore at the death of a human being. The shared pain that has throughout history been enough to push us to collectively move (and sacrifice) for better is rarely shared today. Shooting, after shooting, after bombing, after starvation, after preventable illness, we feel pity among little else. EVERY KILLING — DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, WHETHER BY HATRED OR APATHY — IS OUTRAGEOUS.
By nature of our imperfect, entropic universe, some — for lack of a better term — human bullshit is expected, but the amount currently floating through our world is far beyond what could even be argued sustainable. The fibers of society only hold so much.
And not surprisingly, we all feel overwhelmed — who’s to decide whether to trust the dubious when the ridiculous and obscene sit beside it? Even worse, who’s to say what’s ridiculous and obscene at all — “they seem to have a large following they must have a point”. In this existentialism, we’ve lost each other in the fog of questions shouted over their often easy answers. We look to our friends, our neighbors, our families and other groups instead of to our own minds, and more importantly, our own hearts. When everyone is looking around, up, how do we know who’s paying attention to the facts and looking in?
However, this shift towards the extreme and preposterous is not a free fall. If we want to stop it, reverse it, make a world more just and more productive than ever before, it’s quite possible, even likely. The only question is: how much pain is enough to make you not only wonder what’s better, but to start talking about it, voicing dissent and intent in private and in public, amplifying the voices of those who already do? And, please, vote. In short, we need to get woke, people.
