Spiritual Judo: A Response to the Human Crisis

A friend of mine wrote one of her sad but beautiful pondering-the-state-of-humanity blogs recently, and inspired me to write a whole separate blog on my own about it. I hope it still makes sense out of context.

"and maybe people really honestly believe [racism] no longer exists... or maybe we are complacent and after all it is well hidden...under this sort of cloak."

We were talking about immigration between the US and Latin American countries in class a few days ago and I brought up that often this issue is just a smokescreen for racism...people continue to fear and forget we're a planet and everyone deserves a little piece of happiness...

"you are taught to care selectively...care about the sad story of a woman with cancer who you see on oprah...care about your family..but you aren't suppossed to care about random people..."

Oh you care about plenty of random people, as long as it is in your interest to care about them. Since we're one of billions our actual lives become less relevant. What becomes relevant is something else we talked about in class today, something I'm sure you as a tool fan are quite familiar with...the idea of living vicariously...more and more we are passive partiipants in our own lives. We want to be voyeurs, see and feel all of the emotions of knowing someone without actually having to invest the effort to do so. Each generation is sucessively more passive, dissecting other people's lives in reality shows so we don't have to do that to our own, god forbid. And glory factor, how the average person on the street an only give us so much attention but we can almost touch the fame of the nothings on American Idol that have become Somethings...not to mention the "DANGER!" of the masses--even a child can figure out that the more people there are, the higher probability that one of them will be a murderer or a rapist...so why trust strangers?

"but...imagine this world if people just cared.

good and evil...why are there so many people who hate and so few people who love?"

Oh, people do care, and people do love. They just do so selectively, as you pointed out. Don't forget cynic's rule #1: People always act in their own self-interest. It's in the definition of the words. It is perhaps not an ideal world where cynics are the only non-delusional people, but that is simply how people work. You love and care for things which benefit you in some way. The problem is sometimes those who do evil percieve it is in their best interests to do evil instead of good, since it is more profitable and runs you less risk of getting fucked if you reach out to the other guy. Game Theory controls the power dynamics, even on a social level, which inevtably leads to human survival and wealth but leaves the beautiful parts of humanity poor and going extinct.

Proof comes from your own writing.

"that you become NUMB and INDIFFERENT to because they are JUST A PICTURE you wont ever know that person and yah its sad but you know...you arent there witnessing it before your own eyes...what about the people you see everyday though...on the sidewalk sitting so hopelessly...those pictures...those images are real"

In another class earlier today, Tannas told us of her experiences in India, where she stayed for four months, and how incredibly different the culture was there--getting usued t the sights, sounds and smells, which were all mainly horrifying, like the image above. And she talked about how over that period of time a sense of numbness and helplessness set in, and eventually indifference, because she realized there was nothing she could do and it's simply the way things are. Apathy is lethal; first it runs a deficit your soul and eventually the blank check--on the environment, on the poor, on the value of a human being--will bounce, damaging you physically in the form of tidal waves, riots, and emotionally generations emotionally maimed people and pleasure-receptor-trained hiveminders.

"and i know i should stop bitching like a maniac and do something proactive instead of sitting behind an energy consuming cancer causing computer screeen...."

I wish I had a 12-step program for liberating mankind. AA already did that for alcohol but I think some of those steps are useful in removing humans from other forms of bondage as well. So here's my 3-step program for human animal liberation:

1. Admit you are powerless to save the world. Adopt the cynic's attitude. History is a pretty good litmus test for the power of self-incentive. In all probability, we'll continue down this path until something big and nasty makes us reconsider the other fork in the road.

2. Reprogram yourself using Cycnic's rule #1 as a motivator instead of a hindrance. Remember why it is that this life isn't in your best interest, and most importantly, replace it with one that is, to the maximum extent allowable under the system. Remember why the risk is worth it, why imagination trumps the cliche, why a moment of genuine connection is more fulfilling than lifetimes of instant emotional fallacy. Create systems that emphasize and reward self-improvement and self-expression, and the sharing of these products in community, as an end in itself, not as part of economic commerce. Trade the ignorant bliss for the terrible knowledge, and be content in that choice. Flip the value switch from instant gratification to long-term reward, from personality to character, from destination to journey. Stage a coup on your heart, and dethrone the false god of Pleasure and restore the Trinity of Truth, Virtue, and Beauty. Not because you have to, but because you WANT to.

3. Since you can't save the world, think smaller. Use that motivation to make ripples in the circles you swim in. Lots of individuals united in making ripples in their immediate vicinity, together create a tidal wave of change. That's the secret: lead by example; act, do not speak; play the hand you are dealt the best you can with what you've got. It's beyond your control whether the cards come out right, but it's not beyond you to stack the deck in your favor. Greatness is just consistently doing a lot of little things right.

"but why don't people care...do people really just not realize???? "

The physical precedes the mental with our species. We've got a lot of lag time between the defeaning boom of material development and the deafening silence of our own ignorance. Our species needs to evolve to the next step up--controlling our animal brains with our human ones, instead of the other way around. Short of an act of God or a catastrophic global emergency, the only way to make this happen is YOU. Be better in all the right ways and breed like rabbits. Cause right now, evolution is favoring the stupid.