Before life, nothing mattered. There was no meaning. No value. No emotion. No thought. Noone to observe. No one to name things. No one to care. Just rock and water.
Life is the 1 from zero. Life allows for logic, math, concepts, representations, language, technology, emotions, meaning, and all the rest that we fight for.
Life without death is boundless like the universe.
If life is the first thing that mattered, then death is the second.
Without death, life would not know loss.
Death creates competition, speed, and endurance.
Knowledge of death creates urgency, planning, and consideration.
Death forces procreation and adaptation.
Without death, there would be only very old single-celled bacteria. Maybe not? Maybe, there are other reasons to reproduce?
The modern world is full of communication channels and with everyone expressing their opinions it seems that everyone knows best. Along with their criticisms comes their prescriptions for others. So much of the internet is just people telling other people how to think, how to live and how to vote and I find it to be overwhelming pretentious, self-righteous and annoying.
I'm not sure why everyone wants to control everyone else. Ok, that's not true. I get that everyone is power hungry but why are they so confident? They speak with such certainty and aggression it is as if they think that if everyone just did as they said the world would be perfect. This sounds like an overbearing parent to me. Maybe those who demand subjugation are reenacting their perception of moral nurturing. In demanding others adhere to their ethical framework they are telling others they care and want the world to be better but since their only model for teaching such methods is through demands they bark orders instead of negotiating toward a solution.
This applies more obviously to those that lobby the state to enact their brand of justice. Many hold the government as the ultimate in paternal enforcement and moral justice and it is reasonable to think this way as the government does have the power to take, punish and demand but for those that do not accept that these means are justified, the government is merely a group of control freaks trying to tell us what to do. What is curious is how everyone seems to think that they are in control of others and while many comply with the will of others it is not because the demander is in control.
I think we are only as free as our ability to choose but we are not infinitely free. Nor are we infinitely oppressed. We long for freedom and find those that impede it an enemy. It seems that given enough time humans tend to rebel and fight oppression. I suppose that those that wish to fight the power structure require the means to fight and the alternative has to be worse than fighting so some choose comfort and stability over revolt. This seems true in North Korea, although I am not sure if a significant proportion of their population actually believes they are being oppressed. They might be brainwashed into thinking they are free or at least protected, loved or otherwise part of a meaningful group.
But if the people of North Korea decided to band together and fight their "Great Leader", Kim Jong Un would find that he is not in control anymore. And if someone from inside his own party decided to assassinate him he would find that he is not in control. If he were to get cancer and die he would find that he is not in control. We are not in control of much it seems.
We humans can barely take credit for controlling ourselves but somehow so many think they deserve to control others. We should not be so quick to offer our cure for the world's troubles. Instead, we should focus on our immediate environment, make that better and then work outward. This does not mean we should not act to help others or create change but it does mean we should not be attempting to control others through megalomaniacal demands, force, or shame. We should be humble and honest about our lack of understanding about humanity and about what is best.
I would prefer to think of the Freedom From perspective. This means that I want to be free from others' oppression and impediments. Freedom of association and participation means not being forced to be on someone's team or contribute to someone else's notion of morality. Freedom from laws that force me to go against my beliefs about what is right and wrong. It also means taking responsibility to deal with the consequences of my associations and actions that affect others. I don't believe we should be seeking Freedoms To do whatever it is we want or make others act in a way we want.
I realize that I am prescribing what people "should" do in this while criticising those who do the same but I think that what I want to do is highlight the difference between trying to influence thought and trying to control behavior. Those who try the quick route of influence via force and coercion are adding tyranny to the world while those that use words and ideas to influence are introducing alternatives that can be disregarded or adopted based on its value and accuracy.
After watching the newest stand up special by Dave Chappelle I realized that while I understand why there is racial solidarity among many black Americans I will never really understand what it is like to share a collective burden with those that share my skin color. I respect Dave Chappelle and find him to be very intelligent and exceptionally funny so I had to ask myself, "why does he fight for his race?"
If I think about it I can see why the potential for solidarity amongst black people in America is so strong. This is due to two main factors; the history of slavery and their proportion in the population. Even today the history of slavery seems to be on the mind of the majority of black people, especially in the generation that is attempting to go out into the world for the first time. Those two aspects seem to combine to produce a unique solidarity among many black people and it is nearly impossible for me to relate to as a white person in America.
When you grow up and see others that look like yourself you gravitate toward them. If you are a minority it is easy to see the one or two others like you in a school classroom and because you already have something in common you can group up with them with little effort. If you are white and most of the other kids are white then you have to come up with other characteristics to justify affiliation. An immediate characteristic that divides groups, other than race, is sex. Boys tend to group up with boys and girls with girls. Or you might group up based on economic class, shared homerooms, sports, clubs, religion, neighborliness, or a myriad of other factors. I think most of my friends growing up were found in sports, religion, and neighborliness.
I can't truly understand what it would be like for a minority child going to school and dealing with life. I don't know what it is like to so quickly be identified as less common, less understood, and less represented by the general population. To be thrust into a historical environment that is tainted with injustice and resentment and not knowing exactly where you fit into all of it.
I can imagine a young black student learning about American's history of slavery and racial violence. The young man seeing the poverty and violence in black communities and not knowing what to do or how to help. Seeing the white group as "in charge" or oppressive. The funny thing is that most white people do not give a fuck about white people or keeping the race going. We just don't think about it. There are so many white people running around and most are ethnic mutts so racial identity just doesn't show up until you start to learn about it on the news and on social media. Everything is Black this and White that and you have to sit back and think, "what the fuck are they talking about?" because you don't actually understand what it is like to care about your color or the people that share that color.
I can see that when you are in a minority group you know a larger percentage of that group's total population and you take on more responsibility to represent that population. This kind of group identity is reinforced and fostered in conversations that people have day to day. If you can be a champion for your group you can garner significance in your own mind and you may be rewarded by your group for acting in a way that bolsters your group's position. The critical question is whether it is actually significant and worthwhile. To what end?
When I was growing up and I hung out with my friends we never talked about color. We never talked about how we had that in common because there was nothing to say about it. I didn't know the ethnicities of my friends and I didn't care. I remember talking about how I was a jew but I was one of the only jews in my small town and we didn't practice Judaism so I didn't hang out with other jews. I suppose if I had I might have talked about what it was like being a Jew. I did have a period of time where I felt like I was Jewish. I learned about the history of the Jews and I felt a connection to all of it. I wore a yarmulke to school, I watched a lot of World War II stuff, I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and I thought that it all mattered.
As I thought about it more I realized that the Jewish people didn't care about me and that I had no right to take credit for anything that I didn't do. I was never enslaved or persecuted other than by those around me and the government I was born under. No Jews knew I existed or cared that I cared about their group. What benefit was it for me to identify as Jewish anyway? It seems that the benefit is only in the continuation of an ideology based on race and religion and not to the individuals that prop it up. At least not in secular America. In the past, it was essential that groups maintain power in order to defend against groups and maybe that is what the black community is expressing with Black Lives Matter and the like.
If the goal is to create peace then harboring and sustaining modes of thinking that divide peoples will have the opposite outcome. If the goal is racial superiority then, by all means, stick to maintaining the significance of your racial identity. If the goal is legal equality and your race is not being treated equally by the law then you will find allies from many groups as legal equality benefits humanity as a whole. If the goal is to have equal outcomes for all people then you will have to work hard to turn us all into identical robots and even then the uncertainty of life will emerge and bewilder your delusional mind.
You don't get to take credit for a group's virtue, only your own. If you identify with a group then you have to take on all the good and bad connotations that identity entails. If you see yourself as a white person then you have to take on all the good and bad done by white people but that is an impossible task and one that can only lead to dysfunction and pain. Take responsibility for yourself, be a part of groups that produce positive results for humanity, and be wary of those that take on the guilt and pain of others.
I do not want to dismiss the plight and angst of anyone just because I don't relate to it, so I try to understand it from their perspective and I think I understand how it would be enticing and rewarding to defend one's racial group. I genuinely do not have a group, other than my loved ones, that I would fight for at this time and I think that America is one of the best places to live. The future that I hope for is not one marked by group divisions but of individual peace, trade, and collaboration but there are still battles to be fought and it seems that humanity will continue to progress toward prosperity because of those battles.
