The Inequities of the Selfish, and the Tyranny of Evil Men
There are times when I get very depressed about the state of the world (and these are normally the times my blog moves from the personal to the political. You must know this by now). The thing is though, it's not necessarily the actual state of the world that depresses me. I mean, poverty, injustice, prisoners of conscience, war, disease, famine, lack of political freedom... all these things and more are profoundly wrong, depressing and sad. But here's what really pisses me off, and what really makes me realise that in many ways there is little hope for the human race:
Nobody cares that much.
Seriously. I am hard pressed these days to find anyone that cares more about, say, child soldiers than they do about the price of their ceramic hair straighteners, or whether they will get a pay rise next month. And I'm guilty of this a lot of the time myself. I'm not saying we should all be martyrs to a cause, but it says something when the contestants on Miss World are more likely to get press coverage for uttering the words 'world peace' then political activists are, and that's only because they're wearing bikinis while saying it (the Miss World girls, not the activists).
Historically, men (not sexism, just fact) became leaders because they were considered to be more noble and more righteous than normal men. Leaders were supposed to stand up for the poor, the opressed, and the weak, and ensure that their voices were heard. This is the basis on which democracy was established. And, most importantly, these leaders gave the citizens of a country the right to be selfish. Damn, if you've got someone in power looking out for you, making the best decisions for you and everyone else, keeping you safe and secure, then you can toddle off and worry about your hair straighteners all you like, because you don't need to worry about the wider issues.
But in these days where the most powerful countries in the world are ruled by self-serving egomaniacs who are more concerned with maintaining and promoting their own power than they are in serving the people who elected them, we cannot afford to be as selfish as we are. And for our own selfishness, and therefore for the state of the world today, we have only ourselves to blame.
Nobody cares that much.
Seriously. I am hard pressed these days to find anyone that cares more about, say, child soldiers than they do about the price of their ceramic hair straighteners, or whether they will get a pay rise next month. And I'm guilty of this a lot of the time myself. I'm not saying we should all be martyrs to a cause, but it says something when the contestants on Miss World are more likely to get press coverage for uttering the words 'world peace' then political activists are, and that's only because they're wearing bikinis while saying it (the Miss World girls, not the activists).
Historically, men (not sexism, just fact) became leaders because they were considered to be more noble and more righteous than normal men. Leaders were supposed to stand up for the poor, the opressed, and the weak, and ensure that their voices were heard. This is the basis on which democracy was established. And, most importantly, these leaders gave the citizens of a country the right to be selfish. Damn, if you've got someone in power looking out for you, making the best decisions for you and everyone else, keeping you safe and secure, then you can toddle off and worry about your hair straighteners all you like, because you don't need to worry about the wider issues.
But in these days where the most powerful countries in the world are ruled by self-serving egomaniacs who are more concerned with maintaining and promoting their own power than they are in serving the people who elected them, we cannot afford to be as selfish as we are. And for our own selfishness, and therefore for the state of the world today, we have only ourselves to blame.
posted by Mookmoo at 12:58 pm
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