I hope this absence hasn't been viewed as a sign that I've lost interest in my thinking on human rights. On the contrary, since coming back to Vancouver, I've been hypersensitive to what's going on and"mildly" appalled at the thinking that occupies the minds of people living in this comfortable and relatively carefree environment (based on my middle-class perspective).
Random Thoughts:
We are at a point in human history when it is becoming increasingly important to know the names of cast members on a reality tv program, to try and gain 15 minutes of fame by outdoing 5th graders on basic knowledge questions, and to read mindless tabloids which make us feel better about ourselves at the expense of a celebrity's misery. Why do we do everything in our power to merely be entertained, to stop expanding our minds, and to stop questioning?
A polarity is growing between the religious right, the atheistic right, and the cause searching left (perhaps I fit into one of these categories); our inability to find common ground and to moderate our thinking in all cases is leading to a conflict brought on by a list of details occupying our "righteous" minds. We don't really want to find truths, we want to believe in our versions of them, and even uphold them when the fallacies are discovered.
It is said that the world is getting smaller in this age of globalized communication, transportation, trade, etc, but the paradox is that we are losing our connection to one another, and losing the ability to build and support relationships; we fill ourselves up with information which is usable in the here and now and we disregard meaning. Perhaps it is a coping mechanism for the increased bits of data we receive each day, but it seems detrimental to the "rational nature" of our species. Discussion, dialogue, and philosophical debate bring us closer to an understanding of ourselves, and to eachother, but we are learning to disregard those methods at the expense of newer and faster systems.
And my point is:
Fundamentally, it is stated, that each person in the world wants one thing...to be valued as a human being, and to be treated with respect and with dignity. It sounds like pretty simple stuff, so how is it that we have gotten to a point where a human life is a commodity which can be thrown away, sacrificed, given less value than another commodified life, or simply ignored? We value image, we ascribe status, and we forget to connect with the fundamental reality which lies behind that which our minds have created.
T
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