Before I cruise my spaceship back into the blogosphere, I would like to apologize to all my friends, I've been gone for a while, but I'm back. I must have misheard the song, because I've been gone since November. Well, since I've been gone, I've been observing the world around me, now I have some things to write about for a good minute. Here we go!
Just last weekend, I had a rather enthralling conversation with a few people. The parlance begin with a debate on the government's responsibility versus the public responsibility. Whenever it comes to that debate, I find myself a little conflicted. On one hand, I believe that the government has an obligation to oversee the protection and well-being of it's citizens. But, then I start to think, the public is accountable for themselves. One of the participants in the debate stated that the "Liberal Agenda", that a small percent of the population controls everything, is a false belief. Now, anybody that knows me, or has read my blog, knows that I am a conspiracy theorist, and I deeply prescribe to the "Liberal Agenda". He claimed that everybody is essentially a good person, and that if information is beneficial to everyone, then nobody would hide it. Well, coming from where I'm from, I believe that people, on a basic level, are solitary animals. Humans may live in groups, but if a situation arises, Humans tend to regress to a state that is other than altruistic, downright selfish. My friend said that if a person has children of their own, then they can truly be empathic towards others with children. But, as I've been taught by most parents, they generally put their children and themselves before anybody else. So, I argued that if keeping information or money away from others secures your children and yourself, you probably won't think twice about who's suffering, which is apathy, not empathy.
The debate, at that point, basically came down to Human Nature as a science. More specifically, the view on morality. My friend, Heezy, argued on the side of moral relativism, the thought that the concepts of right and wrong are relative to a person's environment and social grouping. While another of my associates stood on the side of moral objectivism, that the concepts of right and wrong are beyond Human opinion. At that point, I rolled my eyes and said "oh no"! From all of my debates, I know what comes directly after somebody says something is beyond Human opinion, understanding, knowledge, etc., that it's divine command, or basically, God. Fortunately, Heezy's father took my usual stand on God (the whole myth thing). Basically, divine command of Human morality means that, according to the general religious consensus, God is good. Also, according to the "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" (BIBLE, for all the 5%ers and GZA fans), man was made in God's image. So as a direct correlation, Humans are, on the lowest level, good, because they were created from God, whom also is good. I, being the asshole that I am, like to use the inverse to substantiate an assholish point. Check this out, Humans rob, steal, kill, rape, pillage, torture, and over a hundred of other evil things. If tempted, the most well behaving member of our society most likely will take that unguarded piece of candy off the shelf. So using the inverse of the chain rule that "they" use to prove that people are good, I prove that God is evil. "If Humans commit evil acts, and they were created in God's image, then God does evil acts, making God evil!"
Had to throw Michael on here!!
I always grit my teeth whenever a conversation takes that turn into a religious debate. To me religion is one of the most destructive beliefs in society. Look at most wars, an underlying reason behind these conflicts are religious ideologies (and the money to fund the spread of these ideologies). Hitler, Nazis, the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc., all claim to be Christians, doing God's work. Certain extremist within the Islamic sects known as Sunnis, Shias, Sufis, etc., all claim a directive from Allah, that they are the chosen submitters of Allah, and Jihad is their obligation. Jewish extremist in Israel bomb Palestinians to "protect" their Promised Land (which is one of the largest economic areas within the Middle East, I sense another reason). Just listen to any Presidential speech right before America goes into a war, the President always says that the soldiers are doing "God's work". The Crusades, The Muslim Conquests, The Reconquista, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, etc., are all wars created to spread or defend a religious ideology. Muslims call it Jihad, Jews call it Milhemet Mitzvah, Christians call it the Just War Theory. Most religions have a name for a war fought in the name of their God (except maybe Buddhism).
Over the years, I've changed my position on religion (a little). I no longer find religion to be an evil institution, I find the people within the religion to be evil. I'm not saying that everybody within a religious group is evil, just a good amount of them (most of them are the leaders). How many religious leaders have been caught dipping into the church funds, violating the churches tenets, or just doing something that is downright amoral? Religion created Jim Jones (the Kool-Aid one, not the "Ballin'" one), Yahweh ben Yahweh, David Koresh, Dwight York (or whatever he calls himself nowadays), L. Ron Hubbard, etc. So in the end, it's not ideology that created these people, it was the power they attained by claiming to be the voice of ideology. It's more akin to the famous quote "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". What power is more absolute than divine power? Many people wants something to believe in, and they'll throw away knowledge and common sense to believe in something. The power that comes from sucking these people in using their beliefs is the closest thing to absolute power, and many people want power, it's Human nature. And now the conversation comes full circle! On the most basic of levels, Humans are selfish creatures. No matter how hard we, as Humans, try, in the end, we are the least altruistic animal on the planet. That is probably why revengeful behaviour is only seen in Humans.
I guess, I'm just saying that, for us as Humans to get over these humps that we have at this point, we need to forget about Human nature. Human nature makes us want to be individuals, but in this day and time, we need a more symbiotic approach to society. Hopefully, with a new President, we all can come together to build a better world!
Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!
Friday, January 16, 2009
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