Our Human Nature
A little more than three weeks ago, I was browsing on iTunes, and I came upon an album called "Deep Buddha", which is actually a re-released version of an album called, "Tibet" by Waterbone. I bought some songs from both version: it's really good music and if you like electronic and world, I recommend it. Anyway, the last track really touched me in a way. It's titled, "A Child's Prayer" and even though I'm not good in the linguistic department, I believe that the voices are children singing in the native language of Tibet. Tibet. A country that we scarcely hear about in today's headlines. Remember? The little country that was and continues to be oppressed by its domineering, communist neighbor China? The country that some ignorant people believe was "helped" by China, by which it meant killing over 1 million Tibetans, destroying thousands of Buddhist monestaries, brainwashing the children in forgetting their Tibetan heritage, making the Tibetans a minority in their own country, and building dozens of nuclear weapons sites around the tiny country. Yeah, that one. Of course, I wouldn't blame the lot of you for forgetting poor Tibet (though you shouldn't), concidering that this exact thing has been, is, and, unfortunately, will be going on for a very long time (Need an example? Look up, "The United States of America".).
Okay, people are unjust to other people all the time. Everyday in the news, we all hear stories in our own countries - hell - communities, of children getting kidnapped and sexually abused, the latest victim of a serial killing spree, people getting ripped off financially for life, some poor schmuck who was the victim of racial profiling... All sorts of unfair and unjust shit like that. And every decade, it seems that the media (Which may I remind is the cause of about 22% of America's problems. The other percentage you ask? Thirty-nine percent going to the Republicans and the other thirty-nine to the Democrats. But that's another essay waiting to be ranted upon...) has some headline genocide that saps all of the attention from the other war, impoverished, and diseased stricken commonwealths. It's as if the media puts all of these nations on a fashion runline, picking which ones seems pitiful enough to gain the most attention from first world citizens like us, in order for THEM (a.k.a. the media companies) to get more ratings. Well, okay. Pity involves feeling so sorry for something or somebody that you give some sort of aid to them, so that applies in this case no doubt. So that's it: You're suppose to help them until the job is done, meaning, HELP THESE PEOPLE SO THEY WON'T BE OPPRESSED ANYMORE. Don't just promote some ongoing charity for five years or so via CNN and then go onto another "project". This isn't some tool shed that your dad started two summers ago and never got around to finishing. The longer you -no - WE take to help these people, the more of them DIE. People do not deserve to be put in the maintenance closet.
But what can I expect from the media? You know they don't care shit about the victims, or the viewers as a whole. In America, for instance, if the media really cared about every person who got kidnapped every five minutes, they wouldn't just headline the pretty white chicks, now would they (And I WILL talk about the problems with the media concerning "Missing White Women Syndrome" in the future.)?
Getting back on subject, enough about the media. We all know they're jerks, and the only real solution toward jerks is either killing them or- well, that's the only plausible solution. But what kind of person would be I if I say that? To the Chinese, the Tibetans were probably "jerks", so I would be no better than them.
So what I'm really trying to say is that I really don't understand why civilizations are jerks to other civilizations, people to other people, etc. We say that as humans, we do one action, learn from the consequences, and try to never make that mistake again. But it seems - war wise anyway - that the only reason why people choose to learn about other people is to not learn from their mistakes to never repeat the bloodshed that they caused, but to learn from their mistakes so that THEY won't fail miserably like the previous group did (Like Wan Shi Tan from Avatar basically said, "People use knowledge to get the edge on other people." Seriously. You people who proclaim all animations as kiddie shows are 1)censorship Nazis and 2)don't know what your missing on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Trust me. The conflict with the four nations of the Avatar world have A LOT to do with this subject.). It seems that people don't ever take into concideration that it IS a cycle: yes, a strong country will dominates over a weaker country for a couple centuries, only to fall victim to another, stronger country. The lesson: No matter how much they desire it, no civilization will stay dominate forever.
We Americans, majority and minority alike, as well as the whole world, like to rip on Europeans/Caucasians all the time, since in this universe, they caused most of the worlds problems and started off numerous grudges that would last centuries. With this, I believe - since everybody was born with sin and has a darkside to their hearts - has at one point in their life, be it 50 years or 50 seconds, thought that their race/ethnicity was superior to another, or has just plain hated one race. It's wrong. But it is human nature. But I also believe that - "siding" with the Europeans per se- if the Europeans hadn't done all of the shit that they had done to the world, another civilization would have. We often overshadow the fact that some civilizations that were controlled by the Europeans were in fact warring states themselves. In fact, a lot of African tribes that were enslaved and Native American tribes that were pushed off their ancestral lands by the exact same people, were indeed warlike people who domineered over weaker tribes. After all, it's human nature.
It's human nature to think ourselves superior to another group.
It's human nature to control other people.
It's human nature to kill anybody and anything that gets in our way to glory and false immortality.
It's human nature to gain knowledge in order to destroy our enemies.
But can't it be in our human nature to instead gain knowledge in order to help other people, and to not commit the same atrocities that our ancestors carried out centuries ago?
Or, at the very least, just tolerate people and keep our opinions to ourselves, and if we must express them, it wil be toward the well being of both and all parties involved, instead of at the expense of innoncence?
Some cycles - like the water cycle - should be ongoing. Cycles such as war and hatred should not be.
People who know me may think that if I were to ever become president of the United States, that I would become a Girl Hitler and oppress the stupidity of the nations. Yeah, a world without stupid people would be bliss. After all, I consider the people who start genocide and war stupid. But I do not want the words "war" and "peace" to have the same meaning or outcome.
Again, as Wan Shi Tan stated, every group thinks that their campaign is justified, that what they are doing will benefit the people. But whatever reason lies behind it, I don't believe that justifies killing millions of innoncent people, just as China did to Tibet, and what Hitler did to the Jews and other minorites, and what is happening in Dafur and the Congo right now. And suffering does not always have to be linked to war and genocide. If I remember correctly, a nifty amount of people residing in China are pretty miserable themselves, so what does that tell you? And some of these countries that were or still are under European occupations, well, some of them are better off without their European overlords sucking their natural resources dry, and when the time comes for the natives to take back what is theirs, the occupants say to themselves, "we got what we wanted already, so you can have your worthless 'independence' for all we care." Sounds a little bit like what happened to India, doesn't it?
It's an enigma that China would do such horrible things to country that has become one of the paramount locations of a religion that teaches peace a love among anything else.
Of course, once again, this isn't the first case where followers of a religion completety contradict the teachings, or take some passages too literally [on purpose] to justify their personal agenda. I don't think I need an example for this.
So, you may be thinking that this is a rant were I pin the blame on all of you. No. It isn't. It's a message that is pinning the responsiblity of the world's state on all of us. Yes, US. All of us have, at one time or another, been guilty of oppressing somebody or something. And this isn't just bullying that goes on in our work and school places. Every time we pass a Santa during the holiday season that is collecting to raise money so that unfortunate families have a more joyful holiday and neglect to drop a mere quarter, we are responsible for that one kid who doesn't get a gift. Each time we flip through the informercials on Sunday mornings and pass a humanitarian aid where if we donate a couple bucks a month we feed a kid who is starving in Haiti, we are responsible for not feeding that kid. Each time our lazy asses neglect to pick up a discarded plastic bag four yards away from a trash can, or if we drive a car to go directly and literally around the corner instead of walking, we are responsible for polluting the planet. Each time we (or in this case, you) buy a fur coat, we are responsible for killing one more species that may be on the brink of an extinction too soon. Each time we clear a forest in order to build a new plant or community or what not, we are responsible for depleting our planet of more oxygen and of another ecosystem. Each time you buy a rug or some imported good from a third world country that was not gaurenteed to have not been produced in a sweat shop, we are responsible for making young children to work in hazardous abusive conditions in order to make these goods. And each time we go into war with another power or just decide to annex a smaller nation and support our government's doings, we are responsible for bringing our human nature closer to damnation.
As you see, we are all responsible for so much ongoing suffering in our world.
But what people fail to realize is that even though we cannot change the past, and that we often to do not learn from it's mistakes, we can still change the future for a greater good. Scientists and philosophers always predict the worse for the human race's future. Have we given up hope so quickly?
All we really have to do to make this world a better place is to put our selfish intents aside, listen, and learn.
In reality, we are all not as different as the entire world makes us out to be.
For once, let diversity be the thing that brings us together instead of breaking us apart.
-----
There you have it folks. A message of peace. Hopefully, one day, kids such as those growing up in Tibet and other oppressed states can sing happily without living in fear and famine, like the ones in that song.
Okay, people are unjust to other people all the time. Everyday in the news, we all hear stories in our own countries - hell - communities, of children getting kidnapped and sexually abused, the latest victim of a serial killing spree, people getting ripped off financially for life, some poor schmuck who was the victim of racial profiling... All sorts of unfair and unjust shit like that. And every decade, it seems that the media (Which may I remind is the cause of about 22% of America's problems. The other percentage you ask? Thirty-nine percent going to the Republicans and the other thirty-nine to the Democrats. But that's another essay waiting to be ranted upon...) has some headline genocide that saps all of the attention from the other war, impoverished, and diseased stricken commonwealths. It's as if the media puts all of these nations on a fashion runline, picking which ones seems pitiful enough to gain the most attention from first world citizens like us, in order for THEM (a.k.a. the media companies) to get more ratings. Well, okay. Pity involves feeling so sorry for something or somebody that you give some sort of aid to them, so that applies in this case no doubt. So that's it: You're suppose to help them until the job is done, meaning, HELP THESE PEOPLE SO THEY WON'T BE OPPRESSED ANYMORE. Don't just promote some ongoing charity for five years or so via CNN and then go onto another "project". This isn't some tool shed that your dad started two summers ago and never got around to finishing. The longer you -no - WE take to help these people, the more of them DIE. People do not deserve to be put in the maintenance closet.
But what can I expect from the media? You know they don't care shit about the victims, or the viewers as a whole. In America, for instance, if the media really cared about every person who got kidnapped every five minutes, they wouldn't just headline the pretty white chicks, now would they (And I WILL talk about the problems with the media concerning "Missing White Women Syndrome" in the future.)?
Getting back on subject, enough about the media. We all know they're jerks, and the only real solution toward jerks is either killing them or- well, that's the only plausible solution. But what kind of person would be I if I say that? To the Chinese, the Tibetans were probably "jerks", so I would be no better than them.
So what I'm really trying to say is that I really don't understand why civilizations are jerks to other civilizations, people to other people, etc. We say that as humans, we do one action, learn from the consequences, and try to never make that mistake again. But it seems - war wise anyway - that the only reason why people choose to learn about other people is to not learn from their mistakes to never repeat the bloodshed that they caused, but to learn from their mistakes so that THEY won't fail miserably like the previous group did (Like Wan Shi Tan from Avatar basically said, "People use knowledge to get the edge on other people." Seriously. You people who proclaim all animations as kiddie shows are 1)censorship Nazis and 2)don't know what your missing on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Trust me. The conflict with the four nations of the Avatar world have A LOT to do with this subject.). It seems that people don't ever take into concideration that it IS a cycle: yes, a strong country will dominates over a weaker country for a couple centuries, only to fall victim to another, stronger country. The lesson: No matter how much they desire it, no civilization will stay dominate forever.
We Americans, majority and minority alike, as well as the whole world, like to rip on Europeans/Caucasians all the time, since in this universe, they caused most of the worlds problems and started off numerous grudges that would last centuries. With this, I believe - since everybody was born with sin and has a darkside to their hearts - has at one point in their life, be it 50 years or 50 seconds, thought that their race/ethnicity was superior to another, or has just plain hated one race. It's wrong. But it is human nature. But I also believe that - "siding" with the Europeans per se- if the Europeans hadn't done all of the shit that they had done to the world, another civilization would have. We often overshadow the fact that some civilizations that were controlled by the Europeans were in fact warring states themselves. In fact, a lot of African tribes that were enslaved and Native American tribes that were pushed off their ancestral lands by the exact same people, were indeed warlike people who domineered over weaker tribes. After all, it's human nature.
It's human nature to think ourselves superior to another group.
It's human nature to control other people.
It's human nature to kill anybody and anything that gets in our way to glory and false immortality.
It's human nature to gain knowledge in order to destroy our enemies.
But can't it be in our human nature to instead gain knowledge in order to help other people, and to not commit the same atrocities that our ancestors carried out centuries ago?
Or, at the very least, just tolerate people and keep our opinions to ourselves, and if we must express them, it wil be toward the well being of both and all parties involved, instead of at the expense of innoncence?
Some cycles - like the water cycle - should be ongoing. Cycles such as war and hatred should not be.
People who know me may think that if I were to ever become president of the United States, that I would become a Girl Hitler and oppress the stupidity of the nations. Yeah, a world without stupid people would be bliss. After all, I consider the people who start genocide and war stupid. But I do not want the words "war" and "peace" to have the same meaning or outcome.
Again, as Wan Shi Tan stated, every group thinks that their campaign is justified, that what they are doing will benefit the people. But whatever reason lies behind it, I don't believe that justifies killing millions of innoncent people, just as China did to Tibet, and what Hitler did to the Jews and other minorites, and what is happening in Dafur and the Congo right now. And suffering does not always have to be linked to war and genocide. If I remember correctly, a nifty amount of people residing in China are pretty miserable themselves, so what does that tell you? And some of these countries that were or still are under European occupations, well, some of them are better off without their European overlords sucking their natural resources dry, and when the time comes for the natives to take back what is theirs, the occupants say to themselves, "we got what we wanted already, so you can have your worthless 'independence' for all we care." Sounds a little bit like what happened to India, doesn't it?
It's an enigma that China would do such horrible things to country that has become one of the paramount locations of a religion that teaches peace a love among anything else.
Of course, once again, this isn't the first case where followers of a religion completety contradict the teachings, or take some passages too literally [on purpose] to justify their personal agenda. I don't think I need an example for this.
So, you may be thinking that this is a rant were I pin the blame on all of you. No. It isn't. It's a message that is pinning the responsiblity of the world's state on all of us. Yes, US. All of us have, at one time or another, been guilty of oppressing somebody or something. And this isn't just bullying that goes on in our work and school places. Every time we pass a Santa during the holiday season that is collecting to raise money so that unfortunate families have a more joyful holiday and neglect to drop a mere quarter, we are responsible for that one kid who doesn't get a gift. Each time we flip through the informercials on Sunday mornings and pass a humanitarian aid where if we donate a couple bucks a month we feed a kid who is starving in Haiti, we are responsible for not feeding that kid. Each time our lazy asses neglect to pick up a discarded plastic bag four yards away from a trash can, or if we drive a car to go directly and literally around the corner instead of walking, we are responsible for polluting the planet. Each time we (or in this case, you) buy a fur coat, we are responsible for killing one more species that may be on the brink of an extinction too soon. Each time we clear a forest in order to build a new plant or community or what not, we are responsible for depleting our planet of more oxygen and of another ecosystem. Each time you buy a rug or some imported good from a third world country that was not gaurenteed to have not been produced in a sweat shop, we are responsible for making young children to work in hazardous abusive conditions in order to make these goods. And each time we go into war with another power or just decide to annex a smaller nation and support our government's doings, we are responsible for bringing our human nature closer to damnation.
As you see, we are all responsible for so much ongoing suffering in our world.
But what people fail to realize is that even though we cannot change the past, and that we often to do not learn from it's mistakes, we can still change the future for a greater good. Scientists and philosophers always predict the worse for the human race's future. Have we given up hope so quickly?
All we really have to do to make this world a better place is to put our selfish intents aside, listen, and learn.
In reality, we are all not as different as the entire world makes us out to be.
For once, let diversity be the thing that brings us together instead of breaking us apart.
-----
There you have it folks. A message of peace. Hopefully, one day, kids such as those growing up in Tibet and other oppressed states can sing happily without living in fear and famine, like the ones in that song.