Growing Pains

This is one weird world. There were so many possible ways that humanity could have developed their society I suppose all of them would have been weird, but sometimes when you just sit back and think about it everything from the sounds of words, the structure of communities, everything is just so strange. The underlying paradoxes of this life are often painful and baffling, and yet while sometimes they scare the living daylights out of me, I understand that it could not be any other way. The only way to really truly progress and change as a person is to go outside one's comfort zone. The only way to improve is to walk through gut wrenching flames. Yet, at the same time, if we constantly dwell on the frightening methods of change, we can never get on with our lives; we have to distract ourselves and settle into a more acquainted funk once action is taken. A person can't live their entire life in such a heightened state of nerves. Like I said, I know it has to be this way, but it just makes doing anything right so darned difficult.

That said, there is one thing that bothers me a great deal about our imbedded societal structure that can be changed, but as discussed, only through great tribulation. The way it's set up is way too focused on mere self improvement and independence, not enough on working together and improving as a whole or helping out others in need especially in a nation as materially wealthy as ours. I don't want to get into the politics or pros and cons of economic systems, but maybe this is a flaw in capitalism? I guess at least in theoretical terms communism has friendlier intentions (Survival of all vs. survival of the fittest). Concerning ourselves with self interests is what attained us such wealth in the first place, but maybe now that we've achieved such a position we should begin to shift our sights, to restructure into a more generous frame of mind. In fact, in this day and age, with the impending threat of war, climate, and energy crises looming, it may be a necessity. Perhaps it would make us less economically efficient, but when it's coming down to survival, we shouldn't care, and don't you think when fortunes turn some time down the road, the beneficiaries will remember who helped them? As I said, I understand how difficult it is to alter a way of life; the only way we can settle down and gain some semblance of peace is to rely and depend on something, but every so often it's inevitable that something is going to need change. For heavens sake the men of the revolutionary war era knew the horrors of slavery, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson openly expounded upon their abhorrence of the slave trade and yet, they perpetuated the practice, owning slaves themselves, because to work without slaves would mean self ruin. It's the same thing in Africa where warlords, oppression, disease, and famine, have created a horrific nearly unbreakable cycle. The embers are stoked for a transformation, it's time we all stepped up and crossed the fire.

You see, I feel mired in the bog of our culture in the same way as Henry. I would love to devote great deals of my time to volunteering towards a great deal of causes and promoting and lobbying for specific issues. Unfortunately, I too have to play by the rules. If I did do something like that, I would almost certainly end up giving up on or slacking in college, and I would quickly become consumed by the very cycle of poverty that I would be trying to heal the repercussions of. In college I am made to learn and study and build important contacts and get good grades or be faced with failure. I simply don't have the time or energy to make much of a real impact, to do something tangible, in the wake of everything else. When we hear about some troubling affair, more often than not we are forced to just say, "Oh that's too bad," then move on before we grow some "harmful" attachment to the issue. But it must be asked, is it not more important to solve the world's problems before it is too late than to simply learn about the world?