The latest fiasco in Iraq, involving Blackwater USA, serves to illustrate the downward spiral of depravity that humanity is taking. Another example is Abu Ghraib.
Those individuals involved in these two atrocious incidents validate to the world that we are a violent nation bent on destruction.
Sure, we have laws and rules against this kind of behavior but that seemingly does nothing more than merely indicates civility, because when individuals are placed in situations such as these people were, well, just look at the results. If we did not have this tendency to ‘devolve’ into violent beings then these two situations would not have turned out as they did.
There are many other examples of mans inhumanity to man.
Another example is how easy it is for religious groups to kill other religious groups because they don’t worship God as zealously as they do.
Saddam Hussein ordered the slaughter of anyone who defied him, the Myanmar government killed monks because they stood up to their repressive regime, Hitler killed Jews just for being Jews, Pol Pot killed millions for trying to better their own lot in life.
Americans killed Indians because we wanted their lands. We enslaved people for our own financial gain. The list goes on throughout history and involves every country that has ever been touched by human rule.
Human rights are being trampled on in every nation. The blame cannot be placed only on the nations leader who is derided as a sociopath. We are all becoming sociopaths. There is a basic flaw in the human psyche that has been loosed onto humanity that needs to be identified and repressed.
You see it every time you are in your car on today’s highways. The car riding on your rear bumper sees you as nothing more than an obstacle that is blocking their path. They don’t give a second thought that you are driving the posted speed limit and have every right to. They flip you off because you are in their way. It doesn’t concern that person that you are a human and could be seriously injured or killed if they run you off the road for slowing them down.
It has become too easy for the common man, the everyday Joe who is under so much pressure to just get by, to resort to violence if he feels he has been wronged. This behavior did not use to be this common.
The easy availability of handguns is directly related to the rising murder rate and only serves to facilitate our uncivilized, downward slide into de-evolution. But the problem runs much deeper than the accessibility of handguns. There is always something that can be used as a weapon.
People kill each other out of simple greed, jealousy, or perceived disrespect. People kill each other over material things that are valueless compared to human life.
Human life is devalued every year, every month, every day by people who have no respect for themselves. Gangs live by a rule that dictates if anyone ‘looks at you wrong’ or ‘dresses wrong’ or is ‘in your hood’ then that person should die. What the hell is this all about?
It has become too easy to objectify each other. Too many people have forgotten that we are all in this together and should work together to make life more beneficial for each of us instead of only looking out for number one.
Once you objectify a person, making them seem less than human, it becomes easier to kill them, to steal from them or force them to work for you. You can, at that point, forget that they are flesh and blood, made of God’s flesh, that they have family, that they suffer pain just as you do.
Insurance companies demand their monthly payment on time to keep active a legal document that they know is meaningless when you need it the most. Look no further than the Hurricane Katrina victims to see this in practice.
Big oil companies purposefully hold back oil in order to artificially drive up prices of a commodity they know we will pay ever higher prices for.
Corporate executives raid our retirement funds for their own personal use knowing they will be long gone when it comes time for us to collect and we discover there is no money.
Politicians line their own pockets with our tax dollars knowing we can do nothing about it and if they get caught the punishment isn’t enough to prevent others from doing it.
Our president lies to us to send our husbands, sons, and brothers into harms way so his wealthy cronies can get richer from lucrative pentagon contracts.
People are becoming more and more ruthless everyday. We are becoming immune to the damage we cause others in our quest to get what we want.
What can we do about it? Each person has to find it in themselves to stop behaving like the world owes them as if they are more important than anyone else.
We have to forgive past transgressions and move on. Or we could just kill everybody for wronging us and simply start over.
Which is the best way? I’m pulling for humanity to straighten out before it is too late. We each have the power to make this world a place worth passing on to our kids. And it takes each and every one of us to make that happen. We can’t just put the responsibility off onto someone else.
Have you ever noticed that children have the ability to get along with other children without regard to race or socio-economic background? If you have ever ‘allowed’ your children to be around children from other socio-economic backgrounds then you would see that they do get along quite well. It is only once they become adults and start seeing these superficial differences that the world changes. This is where adults do a great disservice to their children and ultimately to themselves. This is a sure sign that the problem is within us, just as the solution is.
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