You might notice, if you read blogs or comments posted to news articles and so forth, that there is a prevailing school of psychological thought providing a panacea to the worlds problems. It is the 'Get Over It' cure.
Unhappy about the abuses committed on the bodies of loved ones - well, 'get over it'.
Upset about people stealing your culture and art? - well, 'get over it'.
WWII cemetery desecrated? - well, 'get over it'.
There are three problems with this wonderful 21st century cure-all attitude of the n-lightened oxygen-starved masses of internet wisdom.
1. Because an issue has little impact on them personally, they have no consideration for those who are suffering because of it. Put simply, they lack empathy and they lack respect - two essentially qualities for building a better world.
2. It is not possible to just 'get over' things. If any of these self-appointed experts in human mental processes actually had any real insight or knowledge, then they would know that there are no issues that we can just 'get over'. Regardless of their determination or good intentions, a phobic cannot just 'get over' their fears. A depressive cannot 'get over' their depression. A carer cannot just 'get over' caring for others. It is not a choice. It is not like deciding not to watch Neighbours. Telling anyone to just 'get over' something shows up a level of ignorance which only perpetuates the mistreatment of those who are suffering.
3. Possibly the most important problem with this attitude is the hyper-egotistic assumption that the person in question should 'get over' their current problem or dilemma. In most cases, the 'problem' that they are told to 'just get over' is actually a sign of compassion in one form or another. What they are being told is to be selfish and egocentric. 'Get over it' and be like me, says the sage advisers of internet wisdom, care about no-one but yourself and stuff the rest. Seriously, is that really the sort of world we want? A world where everyone is out just for themselves without any care or consideration for others?
This fad for telling people to 'get over' things - their health issues, their ethical issues or their religious issues - comes down to one simple statement. 'Go away because I don't want to know'.
Well, for all those people out there who don't like other people having concerns about the world....... GET OVER IT!
For everyone else - Well Done!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Mind Googles at China's 21st Century Abdication
It is the 21st century. But then, most of you knew that already right?
But there's at least one country that doesn't seem to know. They seem to think it is still 1950 in the twentieth century. In other words, they are still trying driving the same mindset that resulted in the 1950 invasion of Tibet - and the killing or imprisonment of a million people.
You, dear reader, are fortunate, because whether or not you want to read this blog, the fact is that you can read it. Part of China's abdication from the twenty-first century is the censorship of any item unfavourable to the Chinese Government.
If you testify against the Mafia you may well find bits of you cut off.
If you testify against the Mob you get a new set of shoes - concrete.
If you testify against the Triad you are likely to need new everything.
All of those groups are both criminal and violent but they at least don't pretend to be anything else.
The Chinese Government, however, pretends to be a 21st Century player who cares about its people while in truth it is a ruthless dictator that cares nothing for the individual and discards lives as we might discard we might discard an old shoe. Only there's a difference between soles and souls.
Google is not alone in its treatment by the Chinese Government. Millions of Chinese and millions of Tibetans are also given the sharp end of the pointed stick.
In the 21st Century, this is NOT the way to rule. To censor news about yourself is an abdication of the present for a past which is stained with the blood of the innocent.
But there's at least one country that doesn't seem to know. They seem to think it is still 1950 in the twentieth century. In other words, they are still trying driving the same mindset that resulted in the 1950 invasion of Tibet - and the killing or imprisonment of a million people.
You, dear reader, are fortunate, because whether or not you want to read this blog, the fact is that you can read it. Part of China's abdication from the twenty-first century is the censorship of any item unfavourable to the Chinese Government.
If you testify against the Mafia you may well find bits of you cut off.
If you testify against the Mob you get a new set of shoes - concrete.
If you testify against the Triad you are likely to need new everything.
All of those groups are both criminal and violent but they at least don't pretend to be anything else.
The Chinese Government, however, pretends to be a 21st Century player who cares about its people while in truth it is a ruthless dictator that cares nothing for the individual and discards lives as we might discard we might discard an old shoe. Only there's a difference between soles and souls.
Google is not alone in its treatment by the Chinese Government. Millions of Chinese and millions of Tibetans are also given the sharp end of the pointed stick.
In the 21st Century, this is NOT the way to rule. To censor news about yourself is an abdication of the present for a past which is stained with the blood of the innocent.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
So this is the new decade ...
So what's in the news?
Japan, home of cutsey-cutesy animation and whale-slaughtering, finds a new sport in sinking other countries vessels
Rage born of the Road kills the Unborn of a Woman
KFC, one of the worlds leaders in chicken deaths, plays chicken when it comes to racist advertising
Playboy Barbie Recycled
It's a nightmare.
The world still doesn't see the connection between it's mistreatment of animals and it's mistreatment of people.
The screams of ego and dominance yet again result in the loss of the life of the most vulnerable.
And the artificial world of beauty that 99.999% of women are excluded from - due to being normal - takes another victim.
It's 2010. And this is the end of the first week.
Will we never learn?
Japan, home of cutsey-cutesy animation and whale-slaughtering, finds a new sport in sinking other countries vessels
Rage born of the Road kills the Unborn of a Woman
KFC, one of the worlds leaders in chicken deaths, plays chicken when it comes to racist advertising
Playboy Barbie Recycled
It's a nightmare.
The world still doesn't see the connection between it's mistreatment of animals and it's mistreatment of people.
The screams of ego and dominance yet again result in the loss of the life of the most vulnerable.
And the artificial world of beauty that 99.999% of women are excluded from - due to being normal - takes another victim.
It's 2010. And this is the end of the first week.
Will we never learn?
Friday, January 1, 2010
2010
And so, a new decade starts.
Still people war with each other.
Still stupidity rules as government.
Still children go hungry.
Still, 1500 children die every hour.
What glorious futures were envisaged by the great science fiction writers? Wonderful transports to alien frontiers, technological delights to clean and entertain us.
Yet every day we come closer to the sort of future offered to us by Harry Harrison in his cautionary tale, 'Make Room, Make Room'.
At the end of the book, as the 21st century is about to dawn, amidst the over population, food shortages, housing shortages and water shortages, a religious zealot called Peter claims the Armageddon.
Andy, the books main character, assures him that the new century has begun and there is no armageddon. He tells Peter to go home.
"Home?" Peter blinked dazedly as the words penetrated. "There is no home, there is no world, for it is the millennium and we shall all be judged. The thousand years are ended and Christ shall return to reign gloriously on Earth."
"Maybe you have the wrong century," Andy said, holding the man by the elbow and guiding him out of the crowd. "It's after midnight, the new century has begun and nothing has changed."
"Nothing changed?" Peter shouted. "It is Armageddon, it must be." Terrified, he pulled his arm from Andy's grip and started away, then turned back when he had only gone a pace.
"It must end," he called in a tortured voice. "Can this world go on for another thousand years, like this? LIKE THIS?"
Then people came between them and he was gone.
We have not yet reached the point depicted in 'Make Room, Make Room'. But we are well on the way. We have learnt few of the lessons that Harry Harrison has tried to teach us.
Perhaps a Messiah will come and rescue the worthy. Perhaps Jesus will stand again amongst us. But what will his words be?
Will he admonish his followers for their differences? For being Christians by a thousand names yet not once linking arms despite their differences?
Will he ask why we, the keepers of the garden but not the owners of it, have raped it, have starved it, have sucked it's very life from it to support our own boundless desire for experiences and materialism?
Will he look at the thirty-five thousand hearts that stop beating every day and ask why we let it be so?
And if Jesus doesn't come - if all those who have faith in this are wrong, what then of the world?
2010. Give or take a tick of the clock, it's here.
"Can this world go on for another thousand years, like this? LIKE THIS?"
Still people war with each other.
Still stupidity rules as government.
Still children go hungry.
Still, 1500 children die every hour.
What glorious futures were envisaged by the great science fiction writers? Wonderful transports to alien frontiers, technological delights to clean and entertain us.
Yet every day we come closer to the sort of future offered to us by Harry Harrison in his cautionary tale, 'Make Room, Make Room'.
At the end of the book, as the 21st century is about to dawn, amidst the over population, food shortages, housing shortages and water shortages, a religious zealot called Peter claims the Armageddon.
Andy, the books main character, assures him that the new century has begun and there is no armageddon. He tells Peter to go home.
"Home?" Peter blinked dazedly as the words penetrated. "There is no home, there is no world, for it is the millennium and we shall all be judged. The thousand years are ended and Christ shall return to reign gloriously on Earth."
"Maybe you have the wrong century," Andy said, holding the man by the elbow and guiding him out of the crowd. "It's after midnight, the new century has begun and nothing has changed."
"Nothing changed?" Peter shouted. "It is Armageddon, it must be." Terrified, he pulled his arm from Andy's grip and started away, then turned back when he had only gone a pace.
"It must end," he called in a tortured voice. "Can this world go on for another thousand years, like this? LIKE THIS?"
Then people came between them and he was gone.
We have not yet reached the point depicted in 'Make Room, Make Room'. But we are well on the way. We have learnt few of the lessons that Harry Harrison has tried to teach us.
Perhaps a Messiah will come and rescue the worthy. Perhaps Jesus will stand again amongst us. But what will his words be?
Will he admonish his followers for their differences? For being Christians by a thousand names yet not once linking arms despite their differences?
Will he ask why we, the keepers of the garden but not the owners of it, have raped it, have starved it, have sucked it's very life from it to support our own boundless desire for experiences and materialism?
Will he look at the thirty-five thousand hearts that stop beating every day and ask why we let it be so?
And if Jesus doesn't come - if all those who have faith in this are wrong, what then of the world?
2010. Give or take a tick of the clock, it's here.
"Can this world go on for another thousand years, like this? LIKE THIS?"
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