Us vs them?

When you get right down to it, it has been quite a journey from the so-called evils of capitalism to being enriched by the culture of others. It's always a journey. It's always an adventure. It's what we call life. You can believe what you believe and you can advocate any system you want, but in the end -- and this is fate to which capitalism itself must submit -- is whether life, the world is ready to accept it. In the case of capitalism, it is obvious, the verdict has already fallen. The only ones unaware of this are, unfortunately, the capitalists themselves. Sure, they still have the power to destroy the world, to put an end to reality as we know it, but that won't be the end of everything; it will only be the end of capitalism and us.

As I have never tired of saying, there are alternatives. All of these, of course, are based on one simply premise (assumption, if you will), namely that "the other" (whoever and whatever that may be) is every bit as important as ourselves. We have to ask ourselves who these "others" are, but even a moment's reflection shows us that they are simply whoever is not us. I agree, that sounds rather simplistic. Of course the others are who are whoever I'm not, but it goes just a bit deeper than that. We assume, quite incorrectly I might add, that everybody is just like ourselves. Nobody is like ourselves. Our fate is that we -- each and every one of us -- is an individual and therefore unlike anybody else.

The paradox is that while we are are all individually unique, we share a number of ideas and beliefs, regardless of what our cultures have told us. For example, a modicum of food, clothing, and shelter are ideals that every one of us has. Add to this, a bit of security, to be reasonably healthy, to know that it's worth getting up for tomorrow. What all of this entails will vary of course: to some a warm bowl of porridge suffices, though for others it must be a multicourse meal. Though different in detail, both simply desire not to be hungry.

This is what I find so difficult to get my head around. Even is we are multicourse-meal types, why do we begrudge the other her porridge? I just don't know. It's an age-old problem, but it simply needn't be. Only the begrudger can make the difference, but only if he wants to. When we look out into the world today, it becomes pretty obvious very fast that too many multicoursers don't want to. That's bad, to be sure, but even worst, it is sad.

My sadness comes from the fact that I can see the day coming with our poor porridge-eater will have to go hungry because our I-have-to-have-more-for-me guy has found a way to get the porridge, too. At some point, it will all just blow up, most likely from the bottom. At the same time, as we have seen over the last few posts, from the top, the system is killing itself ... and it's taking every single one of us with it.

It's time to stop.

Those "others" that we so often despise and look down upon are really not trying to take anything away from us who falsely believe that we've worked hard and deserve all that we have. They, like the rest of us, just want to live something resembling a decent life. If we can't help make that happen, then we don't deserve what we have. It's very simple.

And when we consider how fast the world is getting small, it won't take long for many more to realize, it's not a matter of Us vs Them. It's only us.