Answer to the World's Problems

My last post focused on what I believe to be the cause of the world’s disruption. I attribute the lack of education, and a culture of apathy, greed, and idolatry of the materialistic to be the foundation of our modern troubles, or at least that is what is hindering any real change in our world’s economic political and social woes. At the request of my wonderful and eloquent girlfriend I am going to attempt to explain my solution to the identified problem. She may very well be the only person that reads this, which is fine for now.

I look at the world through a harsh critical lens. I examine the perfidy in our world affairs and I see the feckless public too drugged to care. Yet, I am truly an optimist and I believe that there is a solution. That solution is not easy. If you think it is easy to change the world then you are sadly mistaken. If you think you can sporadically make attempts that you feel can make a difference and it will one day lead to bigger things, I’m not sure I agree with you. I believe that the greatest power human beings have is our ability to come together and organize ourselves for the good of others. Now, there is a plethora of organizations nationwide that strive for helping others and bringing necessities to those less fortunate. The West can have all of these humanitarian efforts they want, but as long as billions of dollars a year are spent to fight wars of conquest, these efforts are merely cheap band-aids for a gunshot wound to our world.

I am no messiah, and I cannot fathom the “perfect world” but what I do know is that education is the key. Education does not have to come from public funds, expensive technology, or professional teachers, it can come from parents, public forums, engaging with people, and demonstrating on the streets. My solution is this: To have those that are enlightened to the worlds troubles to engage with someone in a serious discussion, particularly someone who does not have a deep ideological stance already. Those who are set in their ways are not worth trying to change, but those who may have not thought about political, economic, and social issues can be reached. It must start small, but over time after networking, organizations can form. Organizations that should be aimed to educate, petition, whistleblow, and practice what they preach in terms of volunteering their time for the greater good. There are already organizations out there with great ideas for our future, and work to educate, like the Venus Project, but groups like that are still too ideological and are reaching too far too quickly. The website Wikileaks, that has been in the news so much for its tremendous leak of the Afghanistan War documents should be looked at as a model for those who wish to expose and challenge the status quo. This leak is a great first step, to show the public how our military carries out secret operations with zero concern for civilian lives. I might add, that this is the real war. Our military endeavors are being run by profit seeking corporations that sometimes show allegiances to other countries, and sometimes even our “enemies.” Unfortunately the mainstream media has neglected to focus on what these leaks mean in terms of how we structure our world, and instead have wondered if the leaks “put American soldiers and Afghani’s at risk.” The utter idiocy of that is beyond me, when the civilians that are dying are being killed by our secret operatives, and our soldiers are put in to harms way to make the wealthy more money.

Now, what does this mean for our solution? I hope we will see a resurgence in the anti-war movement. I for one will be working on that. A new poll showed that the wars popularity has fallen nearly 20% since the beginning of the year, so that could lead to some action. But again, this should go beyond US involvement in the middle east, Palestinian injustice, immigration, and gay rights.

All of these progressive issues are important, but without some sort of education movement they will just be scattered causes that are only focused on by those that are most deeply affected by them. I know this all still sounds vague and may be difficult to imagine in a concrete way, but as a student of history I have studied the incredible things that people have done to make change in this world. There was a time in this country when the majority of people thought the enslavement of black people would last forever. The abolitionist movement started off small, but became so relentless that it led to the unthinkable for the American economy and society. All around the world throughout history the people have stood up to the rich and powerful and ended useless wars, freed slaves, defeated colonialism, won rights for women, rights for minorities, rights for workers, ended child labor, and overcome fear. Certainly these are not ubiquitous around the world, but in many places these victories were won, and they were not granted to the people by those in charge, they were demanded and fought for by the people. So, I do not see any reason why our generation, and generations to come cannot work to end our political and economic captivity, and put an end to the culture of apathy, and the culture of greed. Of course, it begins with education. It will take teachers, and parents who dissent from the status quo, and who are unafraid of the consequences of teaching without censorship, and giving our children the gift of critical thinking in order to build a future of socially minded people capable of transforming the world for the better. What does this future world look like? I do not think I am ready to completely envision that world as of yet (believe me I do envision it, but that vision is a rampant oscillation in my mind). What I promise myself at this point in time is to engage with others, build small movements of people, and connect to larger calls for justice and peace in our world. Taking one issue at a time for now, but teaching and acknowledging the fact that there IS an underlying problem, and that all of the injustice and horror in our world is related. That is my solution right now, as I approach twenty three, and I look forward to my contributions.