Rant: Changes
May. 15th, 2004 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootTime for the cut.
I don't want to talk about the news, and yet I can't avoid it. It's been with me all week. My disgust at the integrity-free world baring its baboon arse out of every screen and newspaper cannot be karmically good for me. And no, I don't think anywhere else is any better. Human rights abuse happens all over the world, in many places far more casually than we dare imagine. There is nowhere better than here, we say, yet even here cruelty and hypocrisy rise and shock us. Why don't things change? Why don't we change?
At least we are shocked. We feel revulsion at tales of murder and rape, we abhor the torture of another, even though that other is a stranger and might be an enemy. We have access to understanding, empathy and compassion.
Another gift we have is judgement. Like most abilities, it can and has been misused. Once it becomes a defence of comfortable headspace, it is no longer judgement but opinion, of interest, but of limited value.
The degradation of judgement, from corrupt use to complete lack, is on every front page, every channel.
Changing the world starts with changing the self. I suspect we avoid that, cos it's not always very pleasant. But if we judge ourselves with clarity and honesty, we can begin to change the world. Otherwise, any changes we implement will in the end reflect our prejudices and vices. And nothing will change.
I don't want to talk about the news, and yet I can't avoid it. It's been with me all week. My disgust at the integrity-free world baring its baboon arse out of every screen and newspaper cannot be karmically good for me. And no, I don't think anywhere else is any better. Human rights abuse happens all over the world, in many places far more casually than we dare imagine. There is nowhere better than here, we say, yet even here cruelty and hypocrisy rise and shock us. Why don't things change? Why don't we change?
At least we are shocked. We feel revulsion at tales of murder and rape, we abhor the torture of another, even though that other is a stranger and might be an enemy. We have access to understanding, empathy and compassion.
Another gift we have is judgement. Like most abilities, it can and has been misused. Once it becomes a defence of comfortable headspace, it is no longer judgement but opinion, of interest, but of limited value.
The degradation of judgement, from corrupt use to complete lack, is on every front page, every channel.
Changing the world starts with changing the self. I suspect we avoid that, cos it's not always very pleasant. But if we judge ourselves with clarity and honesty, we can begin to change the world. Otherwise, any changes we implement will in the end reflect our prejudices and vices. And nothing will change.
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