Where are the Selfless and Caring?

In Cannibal Land it is ok to to eat one’s neighbor. How different is it in ours’? Just that we eat into each other’s innermost selves, exploit the weaker and cut the ground from under the feet of those who trust us when they are not looking.

Are we guilty of being a senseless, short-sighted society, obsessed with the competitive acquisition and accumulation of power, position, prestige and possessions. Winning our only goal, no thought for those who lose, uncaring about those who must pay the price of failure.

We talk incessantly about hopes and intentions, not of opportunities, possibilities and probabilities. We analyze the past and why things happened the way they did. We expound on past occurrences as if everyone is totally uninformed and without opinions of their own. Human rights and political issues are very popular in talk shows where we ridicule those we do not agree with and blindly applaud the views of those we support.

Every day, every newspaper carries reports and articles on topical issues and how they affect us. Reporting them like pearls of wisdom, going around in circles, reiterating the sane arguments, laying blame on everyone else but ourselves. More concerned about self promotion than making a valid point.

What of the future? Why not the future and how or what we should do to make things happen to benefit us all, not just the few. We raise issues on human rights but do not create effective strategies to prevent abuse. We listen politely to new ideas and concepts but then look for all the reasons we can think of to prove they cannot be done. Never reasons to support trying.

We complain about rising prices and, government inaction about abuse and exploitation, yet a few days later we accept those conditions and move on to other issues to attack or cry about. Is it any wonder that those who take advantage of our vulnerability, care nothing and do not take our protests seriously?

There are people wielding great power in this world who cannot see any wrong in their failure to deliver on their promises or meet their obligations. Worse still, they stretch the truth and some will deliberately lie to get their way. To our shame, no one raises any concern that such people are among a country’s leaders who strut around as examples for our young.

They may be inviolate under the law, our children are not. Some are utterly ruthless , selfish and insensitive , blind to what they are doing. Raw power is all the matters.
We hear a lot about the Hague and the punishment of those who misuse power, but the UN, a World organization supposedly representing the people of the world, seem to be more concerned about not interfering with despots and oppressors, while the populace under them continue to be violated.

We air our views and protest about unfairness, but never follow up on those appeals. We pretend a concern for the poor, the helpless, the downtrodden, the weak, the disadvantage, the under-privileged and the distressed, but fail to do anything positive about them. We want the World and our friends to believe that we are sincere, refined, caring, perceptive and sensitive but we fool no one but ourselves.

We like our friends to believe that they can depend on us but at the first sign of impending difficulties, we quickly distance ourselves. Dependability it seems is conditioned by the value of the benefit we would risk by not being there when needed.
We profess a deep adherence to our faith but only observe the tenets that allow us to do as we wish. We go through the motions of being charitable but our generosity is governed by an expected return in publicity or profit.

How can we presume to teach our young to do what is right when we are still groping around inside a mental cloud? Children are a great deal more mature and knowledgeable than we were at their age. How can we expect them to sit unquestioning in the background while we continue to repeat the same deplorable, expensive mistakes? Is it surprising that children are fast losing respect for their elders.

What are we leaving for those who must follow? A Planet short of food and water, its forests decimated, its fauna depleted. Global hunger and want for the many while a few are privileged to satisfy their desires as if there is no tomorrow for the World. The sincere, the sensitive, the selfless and caring, reduced to lives of minuses while the World’s largesse is annexed by the insensitive and selfish.

The animals may lack what we have, an opposing thumb for dexterity and an extensive vocabulary to communicate with. They may not be able to sit at table and not make others uncomfortable., but they are natural, take only what is necessary for their survival and never pretend to be other than how they feel. “Human” must indeed be a dirty word in their lexicon.

The natural order which operates outside the control of man may be the Planet’s salvation. With fast advancing technology, we are already through the threshold of knowledge and ability equalization. Every man, woman and child regardless of prowess, can express themselves through a mouse and a keyboard. Effectively equal in communicative interaction with any other across the Globe.

What matters to those they communicate with is performance, not the face, figure, power, position, prestige, wealth or antecedents. Not race, creed, religion or political preference. Not the house one lives in, the car one drives, the quality of life, the academic degrees one has earned. Each is, without qualification, equal to the other. In some parts of the World, we have arrived at equal advantage and opportunity. How long must we wait until every man, woman and child, wherever they live is also able to reach out and satisfy every need free of limit, oppression and fear?

It matters little to those in want, whether there is life as we know it in outer Space or whether more advanced civilizations will invade us. Whether UFOs are ships from outer space or from a later time frame, when they must helplessly watch their children waste away and die from hunger and lack of medical care. What matters is NOW. Each one’s ability to meet the needs of the weak, dependent upon their ability to provide and care for them.

Do we go after peace and neglect the needs of the people? The poor, the distressed, the maimed, broken bridges, endangered communities? We have an inherent responsibility to ensure that we leave this World a better place than we found it. There are babies , helplessly suffering the consequences of the mistakes we make, there are generations yet unborn, who must arrive to suffer the conditions we leave for them. Can we leave them a Planet they can breathe in and enjoy?