There Is Rot At The Core Of The Human Heart
Why We Need To Wake Up – Get Involved – And Take Back Our Planet
There Is Rot At The Core Of The Human Heart. I know that many people are wonderful and if you put ten people in a room – I’m betting that at least eight of them are fine, upstanding citizens. Of the eight – maybe one or two are really engaged with the world. The rest are just going along day by day not wanting to rock the proverbial boat. So it seems that we have about two bad guys and a couple of really good guys out of every ten people.
You do realize that I am just making this up as I go along – but – I bet I’m not straying too far from the truth. Ten human beings – a couple of really bad apples – two people who are fully engaged and trying to make a difference in the world and six people who probably fit into one of more of these categories.
A) People who are completely selfish and totally entitled and only think of themselves.
B) People who are too overwhelmed with life to have any extra fuel in the tank at the end of the day.
C) People who care and will do wonderful things in the future but can’t right now.
D) People who are just too stupid to know that there are global problems.
E) People who just do NOT care.
F) People who expect others to fix the problems. The tired old – “I’m just one person” excuse.
G) People who are just plain lazy – the “if it’s not in my back yard” types.
H) People who live in countries where they are oppressed and to protest would mean death or imprisonment.
I) People living in abject poverty – who can neither read nor write. Many are still really good people with solid values.
J) People who are really, really ugly, corrupt and evil.
I think this gives us a fair re-cap of the current human condition. In spite of all obstacles I personally think anyone who cares can do something. How is a house built – one brick at a time and each brick has its job. Every action for good – not matter how big or small is important.
People who don’t give a damn will never be responsible for their actions unless they are held to account in the judicial system or in the court of public opinion. Whether they are rich or poor – powerful or not – they believe that they march to a different drum. Of the more than seven billion people in the world – if we use our 2 out of 10 people are reprobates principle guessed at above – I am assuming that most people are decent. Why does this relatively small group of horrible people get away with generating the ills of the world. It is because we let them. Try getting people to protest – not when Duck Dynasty is on TV or a sporting event is about to start. Not when Jenny has to go to soccer or Johnny is late for the orthodontist.
We spend billions of dollars on the “orgy of self-congratulations” that is modern sports – we want to send people to Mars and we have the military resources – at a global cost of trillions of dollars – to bomb each other to hell and back – but we can’t find the money to fix our own planet. How did we become so incredibly fucked up?
Who are these perpetrators of the ills of the world. It’s not difficult to come up with a list – corrupt world leaders – rich and amoral corporations and their CEO’s and boards of directors – drug dealers – crooked politicians – organized crime – thugs and criminals – sexual predators – animal poachers and trophy killers – child abusers – animal abusers – corrupt big banks and stock brokers – and every self-absorbed individual who feels that he/she is on this earth to take without giving back. I recently watched a documentary about The Pope And The Mafia. Really? I guess if there is money to be made for The Vatican Bank!
People like this are vacant inside. They may have a pretty or handsome exterior and a pedigree from Downton Abbey, be middle of the road individuals with a chip on their shoulders and angst to burn or poor people, twisted by hate, anger and envy – but they are wholly without conscious. Religious dogma masquerading as righteousness is another excuse used by leaders and psychopaths to justify their killing and ethnic cleansing – this is what “our” God wants us to do in his name.
Self-loathing is one of the root causes of a person’s need to control, demean, harm or destroy another person or creature. I feel like a big, important person when I behave this way. I have never met a hunter who can explain his/her need to kill. They rattle off the usual drivel about managing herds, sustainable hunting and conservation etcetera – but they can’t answer the question honestly without the use of their tired and outdated “hunter’s rhetoric”. They won’t talk about the sexual titillation or the thrill of taking a life. I bet a lot of them would hunt and kill other humans if they could get away with it.
Why does the NRA in the USA have so much power? Even after dozens of student murders – the gun lobby continues to control the American population of about 360 million people with their lame “my right to bear arms – it’s in our constitution” nonsense. Why are there guns everywhere around the world? There is money to be made – that’s why! Why do we not look for answers to problems? Why won’t we talk to one another? Why do we use killing as a solution? The ugliness of history repeats itself over the centuries – again and again. We are hamsters on a wheel. This small group of people takes – controls – abuses and kills. Like lambs to the slaughter or lemmings to the sea – we follow. We do not speak up! We do not say NO! We have the world that we have – because we allow it and it will not change until we confront the rot in humanity.
There are also cultural dictates and traditions used as excuses to support abhorrent behaviour by humans. My recent posts – featuring photos by Lek Chailert of Elephant Nature Park in Thailand – showing the appalling torture of Asian elephant for the tourism trade are clear examples of what twisted people will do to sentient beings over whom they have total control. Elephants are smart creatures. You can train them without violence – but it takes longer than simply torturing them to break their spirits and then force them to obey out of fear.
“One time I took my knife – it’s sharp enough – and I sliced off the end of a hog’s nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt in my hand – I was wearing a rubber glove – and I stuck the salt right up the hog’s ass. The poor hog didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.” ~ Slaughterhouse Worker. (Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz).
The above comment that I saw on Facebook – supposedly quoted by a slaughterhouse employee is indicative of the kind of rot that I am speaking about. If we are willing to tolerate this type of behavior we have no long term hope as a species. We will continue to destroy animals by the billions – plunder the planet – slaughter species to extinction and murder one another with impunity. We will deplete our natural resources which are finite – continue to procreate as if the planet is limitless and eventually obliterate all that we have accomplished. Instead of celebrating the best in the human spirit – we will allow the worst attributes of a small percentage of people to define our destiny.
Until we wake up and get involved with our beautiful Earth and confront the rot at the core of the human heart (in those 2 out of every 10 people) – nothing will change. So want are you going to do? How will you explain to your kids and grandkids that you were too busy or tuned out to care? Do you really think they will accept your feeble excuses about extra work at the office, hockey scores or your newest I-Phone. They will not.
This Is Our Stunningly Beautiful World – We All Have A Responsibility For Its Survival
When I re-read a post that I have just written – I always edit for typos, grammar and content. When I re-read this article I thought “maybe I’m being too judgemental – perhaps people really are fine and there are just a few bad ones. Maybe I should re-think this and post it later or not at all”.
Then I watched a video on Facebook of a young guy in Argentina murdering a little dog for no reason. The pup had what looked like a rag tied around his head and eyes and he was cowering in a pile of rubble.
The “fucktard” (with no apologies for my language) took a bottle and beat the dog to death. The animal was trying to get away but could not. At one point during the killing the pup was wagging his tail – perhaps hoping for a reprieve. I wanted to leap into that video and rip the arms off this gutless piece of human crap and then set him on fire. Is my bias showing? Do I sound extreme?
I rest my case. Humans have strayed so far from any decent, moral centre that I’m not sure that we can recover. The bottom line is that we are so used to killing other creatures for our own ends – that to then kill other humans in endless wars is an easy transition. The UN has just asked member countries for 80 billion dollars to help clean up the current “mess” in the world. Can you imagine if that money was available to be used for good?
We are ALL culpable because if we are not doing the killing – we are paying others to do it for us – or standing idly by as it continues. Unless we are involved in some form of activism or protest – we are doing nothing to change the current trajectory of humanity.
Whatever Mother Nature eventually does to the human species – we deserve it.
