Excuse this little rant here I'm about to make...I'm posting it here because it touches on my own personal philosophy and what I innately believe to be true (maybe we should rename this the "Religion, Politics, and Philosophy" forum?).
I've been reflecting again lately...and I've been trying to pinpoint exactly how our society came to be so seperated from each other. Now, as anyone reading this will likely know by now, I'm rather liberal-leaning in my ideas of morality and values and whatnot...but I have to admit that the one thing I think the Conservatives have right--at least on a fundamental level--is the concept of community and family. Not necessarily the family as many Conservatives define, with no gay couples or abortions and only abstinence and Creationism being taught to children...no...I simply mean the concept of taking time out of your own life to address the needs and wants of others, simply because their are people other than yourself in this world, and to care for others is perhaps the greatest reason to be alive.
But it seems to be the trend, so I learned in my Sociology class, that with increased technology and specialization among a society also comes increased individuality, with people slowly drifting away from each other. Have we simply let it go too far, though? Is it too much to ask anyone anymore to stop and help someone who needs it, stranger or not? What has instilled so much fear and doubt of one another in our lives anymore? We've degraded our bonds to the point that we have to question the very motives of any stranger who does something more generous for us in public than hold open a door. We're so afraid of even our very own children that we feel the need to put up zero-tolerance policies and metal detectors in schools that feel much more like daily prisons than places of enlightening education. So many of us even covet our own iPods and X-Boxes more than our own aunts and uncles.
But why? Why are we so afraid? Why is the alleged leading nation of the world operating on the same basic fears that grip 3rd world countries, when other 1st world nations such as Canada feel comfortable enough to keep their doors unlocked, and whose "ghettos" look like middle-class suburbia here? Somehow, I feel that part of it is our own personal history. Our history is built on the struggling underdog to overcome oppression and prejudice: from its founders fleeing religious persecution to todays homosexuals, polygamists, and other "deviants" fighting for equal treatment, both de jure and de facto. Our history has led us to be wary of anyone and anything that might try to bring us down and control our lives, and that sort of paranoia has grown and flourished, branching into other fears and worries, to the point that we can't even accept a
kind hug from a stranger without thinking there's something more sinister to him/her.
So what is the answer? How do we lessen the stranglehold these fears have on us as a society? As tired and weary as the answer might be, I truly believe that we have to love one another. It's a word and concept that's been thrown around and exhausted so many times to us that it's practically lost all meaning...but I'm in earnest. To love and care about someone else; to treat them with the same amount of respect, dignity, and decency that you yourself desire; to be unafraid of being selfless to the point that you hurt yourself to improve the life of someone else; to understand that everyone has the same basic needs, and therefore has the same basic right to struggle to meet those needs in life, from the most starving child in Ethiopia to the richest man in the world...this is the attitude we need anymore. It's what all peoples of the world have always needed since the dawn of man. I will never stop believing that to love is the greatest reason to live, and that to love is to improve the quality of life on a level that is unquantifiable, that is far deeper and further-reaching than any other need that could be fulfilled. If I were to die the most painful and grueling death, after having lost so much else in my life, I could still die with grace and dignity knowing that I am loved.
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