a not novel way of surviving an increasingly mad world
As the news comes on, eyes are glued to the screen, there is no emotion on people’s faces though, food keeps being shoved into mouths as the plagues of the apocalypse one by one make an appearance in the faces of suffering people across the world on the screen. But that’s ok because there’s dinner here, it is greasy, warm and plentiful but for how long?
There is no time to grieve or mourn or talk about anything instead the sports section comes on and some light-heartened distraction just enough to quickly forget about the suffering elsewhere, take a glass of sickly sugary drink to wash it all down with.
Then come the trash programs and soon we are off to bed not the slightest of worry or even any cursory thought about the suffering, the apocalypse or anything in between.
There are spiritual beliefs and religions that have been crafted for this same reason that claim that suffering is a choice, that is it a road to enlightenment and eternal glory - how convenient wow.
For hundreds of years humans have adapted using all kinds of strategies in order not to confront the painful reality that for all our claims to be above all creatures of the universe with our consciousness and intellect we are able to a. inflict on others incredible amounts of suffering b. we are able to continue eating our dinner and sleeping soundly at night even when faced the most inhumane suffering possible.
If you are still reading you might be thinking surely I cannot worry about every dying child on the hunger map, I am not responsible for the wars in the world… losing appetite over it will not fix it.
No, you’re right it will not fix it, instead we need to start taking responsibility about our contribution to the state of affairs we find ourselves in.
The Global North is responsible for the extraction and exploitation rampant in the Global South. Our local government policies enable and encourage such corporate behavior and by not speaking up we are complicit in it.
Poverty all over the world is the result of these exploitative practices and we must start to hold our governments and corporations accountable for it, including paying the…
