25 June 2010

Scenes from the Apocolypse (Day 4 at the US Social Forum in Detroit)

My friend just drove through East Detroit. I'm told that it looks like a scene from the Apocolypse. The houses still standing in disrepair, and only a few sparse houses still standing, with giant trees standing like sentinels, and some blocks are entirely razed to the ground every house collapsed. There are giant multi-story factories crumbling, with upper stories caving in...

What a story. What an indictment of our amoral/immoral boom and bust economy. I am thinking about a transition to a life-serving society, rather than one that presumes the possibility of enlightened and altruistic self-interest.

I believe progress is toward service, toward caring, toward a society that ensures the mutual uplift of all people, a society that is non-discriminatory.

I believe that the highest purpose for humanity on Earth is stewardship and care-taking, because I believe that the Earth does not belong to any one of us, nor to all of us collectively—rather it's the other way around, in that we belong to the Earth, and we are part of the Earth.

It's so sad to see the poverty that exists in the midst of so much abundance. So sad to see the racism that goes on to this day.

I had a conversation with a friend earlier about their parents opinion that poor people are to blame for their plight because they're lazy.

I am concerned that this type of thinking is all too prevalent in the mainstream, and is the result of ignorance and a misguided and incomplete understanding of systematic privilege and oppression, and the effects of violence and abuse on individuals and communities.

People suffer mistreatment and it causes impairment. It is incorrect to blame people with impairment for their subsequent disability. People who suffer with impairment ought to be supported and cared for, ought to be nurtured and accepted for their condition—as they are—and not subjected to pity, nor to discouragement based on their condition.

It's about unconditional love. And understanding that all people are good. And while some people behave in ways that aren't good (probably all of us do to some extent in this society (because society is not designed to serve life/our best interests of health and mutual prosperity) it makes sense to strive for understanding and for a world that works for all people, regardless of age, gender, religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, ability, and etc..

"Another world is possible. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing." —Arundhati Roy

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