Life Goes On....

How resiliant are you? 

Life doesn't tend to be a "bed of roses". There are so many idioms about this - "a dogs life", "as you sow so shall you reap", "calm before the storm", "come rain or shine", "get a life", "a taste of your own medicine"... We all need to be able to deal with the good & bad days, the kindness & cruelty of life & other people. 

Some people have to cope with far more though. Some people are tested to the limits of endurance. The bandwidth of adversity is extremely wide. From unkind, cruel or bigoted speech to physical harm & even murder & genocide. Until we have to face adversity we really don't know how well we will cope. I imagine most of us hope that we will deal with whatever happens well, with consideration for others & care for ourselves.

Life really does go on. We cling to existance in the most adverse of circumstances. The great driver is to continue to live. 

In todays unstable world I really wish that there was more understanding, empathy & human kindness & a lot less judgement, self absorbtion & protectionism. When we are faced with "bad actors", (people or organizations responsible for actions that are harmful, illegal, or morally wrong), I wish we all had more moral courage to speak out & take action against them. It seems to me that we increasingly manage to compartmentalise what we see & know. We tell ourselves that our actions won't make a difference, that it's someone elses responsibility, that we will make matters worse...So nothing is done & the "bad actors" win by default.

This is true at a micro & macro level. If someone says or does something that I think is untrue, offensive  or harmful & I do nothing, I am jointly responsible in allowing that to continue. If we as a nation see what is happening at a macro level internationally & do nothing, we are perpetuating evil & discrimination.

The really sad thing is that it is a repeating pattern. We even ignore the lessons of  recent history. We repeatedly say "this must never be allowed to happen again" when we are forced, by evidence, to face up to the consequences of our inaction. Other people are seriously harmed.

There have been so many Public Enquiries in the UK - Covid, The Post Office, Contaminated Blood....Wikipedia has a huge list. There have also been political documentaries like the BBC "Corridors of Power - Should America Police the World"  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020xmq  looking into what happened in Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur, Libya, Syria - Repeated failure to act, over & over again.

We are now doing it again. Unbelievably Syria has continued since 2011. The first Sudanese war lasted from 1955 -1972. The current one has continued for 17 months. What is happening in Ukraine seems likely to go on for as long as Putin is in power. The situation in Gaza & the West Bank has rumbled on for decades, but currently is by far the worst. 

For millions of people life doesn't go on & we just watch on our TV's & smart phones.

I Wonder Why?

The older I get the more perplexed I become. I have always been fascinated by how much the behaviour of people varies. Not only the behaviour of peoples from different cultures & countries, or even within the UK, but specifically in England. We appear to be becoming more & more polarised. Ever more extreme. 

For example why do people mindlessly believe what they are told by social media, "influencers", the press, the TV even? Why do they not use the amazing tools we have to verify information before they react? 

Why do people react aggressively or violently to situations & information without digging deeper to find out not only the truth, but also the underlying causes of whatever has happened?

Why are women targeted by men the world over & treated really badly, abused & even killed?

Why are so many children abused & not cared for properly?

Why is there such a wide discrepency in both opportunity & wealth in all countries?

Why do we think that it is acceptable for a very small percentage of individuals to have more wealth than actual countries? In fact why do those individuals think that squandering their money on mega yachts & several palatial houses is acceptable when there are people who don't have clean water or anywhere to live?

Maybe that is the answer to all my questions. We have allowed our world to become extremely unfair. We have allowed the people who have the wealth & the power that goes with it, to have control over more or less everything from business to politics to economics. We have allowed the richest 1% to own almost half of the world's wealth, while the poorest half of the world own just 0.75%. They literally rule the world & the poorest struggle just to survive. 

Don't even start me on the dictators & truly evil leaders, who squirrel away billions of their countries wealth, while watching the mass of people struggle to live. The Pandora Papers published in 2021 exposed use of "offshore havens" by the wealthy.

If we are to survive & prosper, that prosperity has to be shared more evenhandedly. We need to grow economies to generate income to lift people out of poverty & develop sustainable infrastructure. Everyone needs to contribute to that according to their ability to pay. We do need to have entrepreneurs with vision, but it is not acceptable that if successful they are allowed to amass vast amounts of wealth & then pass it on to their offspring. That just perpetuates privilege.

Not everyone is equal. Humans vary a lot. But everyone should have the Maslow basics & everyone should have equal opportunity to live & succeed.

https://wir2022.wid.world/chapter-4/

https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2021/10/ANIM_F4.3a.mp4  

 

Normal?

We all think we are "normal", but what is normal? How do we define it? Is it behavior that conforms to the most common behavior in the society we live in? In which case how do we reconcile the very different, cultural, accepted behaviours worldwide? Is it the most common behavior for  an individual, whether or not it conforms to society norms? Statistically 'normal' means not significantly deviating from the average. I can only compare myself to my friends, family & aquaintances. My social group, like most people's, is relatively homogenious. So how do I know that represents normality? It is only normal for my group & even within that group there is a wide range of behaviours & beliefs.

We learn what normality is initially from our parents. Like it or not, our parents teach us by conditioning, habituation & imprinting. Our version of what is "normal" depends on who parented us & their social strata. It is "learned behaviour". Teachers follow on from parents & there is an argument that education is also indoctrination.

One definition of normal human behavior is any behavior, including speech, that does not bring harm to  individuals or people. "First do no harm" is probably a good mantra for anyone, not just medics. 

When I compare the world today to the world of my childhood, teens & early adulthood there is some similarity, but not much. My world today is much better in many ways, certainly more financially secure & technologically sophisticated. The world I remember was simpler & more relaxed. I have had to adjust to a new "normal".

The thing is, has that adjustment meant that I accept things that would have been anathema to the younger me? In some ways yes, I'm less judgmental & emotionally volatile. But my moral compass is the same. I'm just far better informed & understand the complexities better. I have the web at my fingertips & can research & verify information.

The most worrying thing is that "normal" seems to mean something so different today that I just can't come to terms with it. Wars, mindless violence, corruption, failed states, poverty, famine, waste, polution, unsustainable lifestyles ..., all of this & more has become normal.

We are in danger of accepting all of this. If we don't resist this new "normal" our society will collapse, because it isn't normal. It's all very abnormal.