What the world needs, for the New World

I think we can agree, we live in a society that glorifies courage. Although at times the status quo is so adverse to change that the incentive is towards cowardice, few legacies are built on caution in the face of adversity. Those concerned with honor in any way at all can't get enough of the legacy building. It's one thing that drives my personal approaches from time to time, though there's few things about myself which I hate that much. I guess that's a mindset you generally develop.

We teach our youths the virtue of integrity. Stand by who and what you are, and fight to the very end for those things which drive you. But in most cases, those who stand by this approach are made out as quixotic. Standing aside and accepting things is the preferred way to go. But is this really the right thing to do? Do we use our freedom just to chase personal glory? Sure, I'm a romantic who adores a lovely mood when I can get it. However, there's so much misery happening concurrent to whatever romantic thought we can have, it's almost blinding.

To the mistrained eye, this world can seem to just pour out misery from everywhere. And if there isn't enough peace there to make up for the abundance of misery, problems must boil to the surface and make themselves clear. Some people are mistrained to ignore the signs. Nature has made them near-socially unconscious, though they are still capable of talking things over like a normal human being. The thing most conducive to their well-being, out of the available options, has been to shut themselves off to those things which most resemble evils.

While I'd love to be perfectly blind and ignorant, I don't have such a choice. I've got so many lifetimes ahead of me, but people hark from the hillsides that I'm hella wise. Pandora's box has been open for a very long time. This prospect barely ever keeps me up anymore. As much as I look critically into the stablest arrangements of the past, I realize that humans are very keen to disorder. As much as the periodic adversity to change flows through our veins, so does the ability to make the most of it. We humans can build structures which look impossible to topple - but nothing lasts forever.

We need to see the reality ahead of us. Life's not a foregone conclusion. This world can change at the bat of an eye. Common sense and conventional wisdom can be turned on their heads and made insignificant. We don't need to settle on anything less than the ideal. In fact, we shoot ourselves in the foot to suggest that a world is livable in which anyone, let alone half of the planet, must go with dreams unfulfilled. The dreams and wills of people are the most beautiful contribution we have to the spectacle of life. Our ability to even care with such intensity is integral to the symphony that takes place wherever we go. When these things are restricted, and so-called utopias are killed in their crib, we truly suffer.

On a world scale, our capitalist system is holding people down, forcing them to live miserable lives which were never meant for them. We're committing a silent genocide against countless animals every year. But even on a minute scale, this dynamic is at play. It's true whether you're yelling at people at Firehouse Subs, or not stopping for the ambulance. Cold ignorance is closing doors to us all, every day. Freedom is suffering, and we are suffering in silent ways we can't always recognize.

John Lockers