LJ Idol - Week [24] - Hurt for Help
Oct. 9th, 2014 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penpusherIt’s a little bit difficult to avoid all of the suffering, the worry, the fear, the anger, the senseless actions of humans making knee-jerk reactions to other humans that every web page, every news organization, every tweeter that wants a retweet is spewing right now. And Now. And again NOW.
It’s also difficult to negotiate the sidewalks of New York City without nearly crashing into someone so obsessed with their handheld device (I would call it a phone but who uses it for that purpose?) they can’t be bothered to watch where they’re walking. There is far more interest in things and less in other people than I have ever heard or read about in the history of humanity, not that we’re talking about a long time here.
In no particular order, a bunch of actresses had their private photos hacked and placed online. The legislative branch of government refuses to do much of anything. A group of people in the Middle East are seemingly on a quest to determine just how many journalists and kind souls they can decapitate. And everyone is worried they’re going to catch a disease that is extremely difficult to catch.
As disparate as these topics appear to be, there really is a common thread for all of them. It is a simple case of hurting someone when help should have been provided.
We, in the First World, as it is referred, have tended to ignore the plight of those in the Third World. Heck, we ignore people in our own country who are not of our standing, so why would we care at all about people thousands of miles away on a continent we probably won’t ever visit? Now, we’re learning why.
There is no “First World” and “Third World!” It’s all ONE world. The earth is a closed system. Everything is connected. And the horrific conditions in those countries with a dearth of wealth are so dramatically lower than our own, an epidemic of a deadly virus has sprung forth.
But think about it. If you set off a nuclear bomb, or release irradiated water from a damaged nuclear power plant, that stuff doesn’t fly off harmlessly into space. It gets released into the air, water and soil of the planet, and we breathe, drink and eat it. Some theorize this is why Cancer is so prevalent in certain areas of the world.
Bringing this back to our fellow humans in West Africa, what if we had been there to help these emerging countries with the technology they need to get their health care system up to standard, years ago? Maybe there would be no health crisis, today. But we didn’t. So now we are facing these issues, instead. Now we’re the ones asking for help and are facing the fear of hurt.
Similarly, our economic system tends to reward the rich for everything, while the poor must do more and more work just to tread water. Rather than make certain that everyone gets to a reasonable standard of living so that they won’t break their backs just to feed their families, we are more focused on punishing someone for stealing an item because they couldn’t afford to buy it, and more ready to throw them in jail for the trouble. We force people to make the choice between paying their rent or going to the supermarket on a monthly basis.
This isn’t improving over time.
Everything is connected. That means our oceans, our land, our atmosphere and yes, all people are all connected. How are we treating each other? How are we treating ourselves? Are we doing what makes us feel good at the expense of someone else? Are we ignoring someone else’s massive problem just so we can have some more pleasure? Are we polluting one part of the planet just because the people who live there have no voice or their government is getting a payday?
That dovetails into our fascination with those devices, the items that seem designed to lower our humanity even further.
When you’re more interested in texting a person who isn’t where you are than in talking to the people who are, you can’t say our humanity isn’t slipping just ever so slightly. And if you have to ask the person you’re with to put down their iPhone or Android, we’re definitely taking a step backward into the grade school classroom. How we behave, what laws we choose to uphold or ignore is something the rest of the world is watching.
And that leads to the issues of privacy and the celebrity photo hack. Maybe there’s no true expectation of anything that is posted through any online service remaining private forever. But maybe that shouldn’t matter. In the days when Lady Godiva protested her husband’s taxes on his tenants, she rode through the streets nude on horseback and people simply averted their eyes. But that was some 800 years ago.
Today, everyone is all about seeing everything. So, who really cares about privacy? Maybe we all should, when we see how the people who have had their private lives thrown wide open to the internet. This isn’t help, it’s hurt.
So where is the solution? How can we repair this four letter word to be what it should be? We all have to do it. We all have to be there for each other, just like the shore is there for the ocean. We have to think about what we would want, were we the victims in a circumstance. We have to take action to support those that need it, not punish them for a circumstance that caused them harm.
We all have to do this. Humanity is at a crossroads. Will we save ourselves or destroy everyone and everything on this planet? We know the answer, but when will we begin to take action?
We can’t wait much longer.
//
This thinkpost was created for LJ Idol using the prompt: “The Cupertino effect.”
It’s also difficult to negotiate the sidewalks of New York City without nearly crashing into someone so obsessed with their handheld device (I would call it a phone but who uses it for that purpose?) they can’t be bothered to watch where they’re walking. There is far more interest in things and less in other people than I have ever heard or read about in the history of humanity, not that we’re talking about a long time here.
In no particular order, a bunch of actresses had their private photos hacked and placed online. The legislative branch of government refuses to do much of anything. A group of people in the Middle East are seemingly on a quest to determine just how many journalists and kind souls they can decapitate. And everyone is worried they’re going to catch a disease that is extremely difficult to catch.
As disparate as these topics appear to be, there really is a common thread for all of them. It is a simple case of hurting someone when help should have been provided.
We, in the First World, as it is referred, have tended to ignore the plight of those in the Third World. Heck, we ignore people in our own country who are not of our standing, so why would we care at all about people thousands of miles away on a continent we probably won’t ever visit? Now, we’re learning why.
There is no “First World” and “Third World!” It’s all ONE world. The earth is a closed system. Everything is connected. And the horrific conditions in those countries with a dearth of wealth are so dramatically lower than our own, an epidemic of a deadly virus has sprung forth.
But think about it. If you set off a nuclear bomb, or release irradiated water from a damaged nuclear power plant, that stuff doesn’t fly off harmlessly into space. It gets released into the air, water and soil of the planet, and we breathe, drink and eat it. Some theorize this is why Cancer is so prevalent in certain areas of the world.
Bringing this back to our fellow humans in West Africa, what if we had been there to help these emerging countries with the technology they need to get their health care system up to standard, years ago? Maybe there would be no health crisis, today. But we didn’t. So now we are facing these issues, instead. Now we’re the ones asking for help and are facing the fear of hurt.
Similarly, our economic system tends to reward the rich for everything, while the poor must do more and more work just to tread water. Rather than make certain that everyone gets to a reasonable standard of living so that they won’t break their backs just to feed their families, we are more focused on punishing someone for stealing an item because they couldn’t afford to buy it, and more ready to throw them in jail for the trouble. We force people to make the choice between paying their rent or going to the supermarket on a monthly basis.
This isn’t improving over time.
Everything is connected. That means our oceans, our land, our atmosphere and yes, all people are all connected. How are we treating each other? How are we treating ourselves? Are we doing what makes us feel good at the expense of someone else? Are we ignoring someone else’s massive problem just so we can have some more pleasure? Are we polluting one part of the planet just because the people who live there have no voice or their government is getting a payday?
That dovetails into our fascination with those devices, the items that seem designed to lower our humanity even further.
When you’re more interested in texting a person who isn’t where you are than in talking to the people who are, you can’t say our humanity isn’t slipping just ever so slightly. And if you have to ask the person you’re with to put down their iPhone or Android, we’re definitely taking a step backward into the grade school classroom. How we behave, what laws we choose to uphold or ignore is something the rest of the world is watching.
And that leads to the issues of privacy and the celebrity photo hack. Maybe there’s no true expectation of anything that is posted through any online service remaining private forever. But maybe that shouldn’t matter. In the days when Lady Godiva protested her husband’s taxes on his tenants, she rode through the streets nude on horseback and people simply averted their eyes. But that was some 800 years ago.
Today, everyone is all about seeing everything. So, who really cares about privacy? Maybe we all should, when we see how the people who have had their private lives thrown wide open to the internet. This isn’t help, it’s hurt.
So where is the solution? How can we repair this four letter word to be what it should be? We all have to do it. We all have to be there for each other, just like the shore is there for the ocean. We have to think about what we would want, were we the victims in a circumstance. We have to take action to support those that need it, not punish them for a circumstance that caused them harm.
We all have to do this. Humanity is at a crossroads. Will we save ourselves or destroy everyone and everything on this planet? We know the answer, but when will we begin to take action?
We can’t wait much longer.
//
This thinkpost was created for LJ Idol using the prompt: “The Cupertino effect.”