Obvious is Never Obvious in an Opaque World
The world has become increasingly opaque. Maybe it is a generational change to the norms but could be just societal movement towards something not obvious to all. I’m not sure, but as much as I hate a political party trying to banish history and make history sanitized in our schools, we have a cultural change consistent with sanitizing all facets of life. I don’t blame a generation because we are all guilty of what has become a society hellbent to cleanse everything. I actually understand the catalyst and believe the motivation is honorable, but just may be an exercise in futility. If we are ever going to be people blind to seeing color, age, sexuality, etc. as non-differentiating realities, our bias towards others would have to be exacting the same change. But it seems so amusing to me that the more this world tries to neutralize bigotry towards all, the more the radical nature of people continues to get louder and louder in their resistance to that change. Milk toast diplomacy is not natural and the more a generation strives to raise a newer generation seeing all people as the same people, the more people will rise to differentiate themselves and be seen. The world seems to be so divisional on just about everything and a generation demanding the change possibly isn’t listening.
Most of my adult life I have prided myself on my personal growth and the changes I have I made. I was raised in an area where bigotry was a normal part of life. In fact, at least outwardly, even those minority groups seemed to be just as guilty in the preservation of that bigotry. I don’t think I fully understand why, but these minoritized groups accepted things because of maybe belief, but more I feel their portrayal was a preservationist reaction. The preservation to maintain working order within a society that accepted them as long as they stayed in their lane. In part it is still the same in many areas of not only this country, but throughout the world. Surely, there are countries more advanced in their war on this, but there are also countries grossly opposed and resistant to these changes. I somewhat feel these societal groups would rather advance themselves on their terms and seem unappreciative of the majorities recognition of the need to be fair to all. I listen to viewpoints often on this subject with the likes of Reverend Al Sharpton and Eddie Gloud Jr. who has written many books on the subject from an educated black man’s perspective. They often state that until the cultural change is actually accepted within the minority groups themselves, then the efforts by the majority may seem an overreach seeking to be recognized for participation in making society better instead of actually society doing so.
It seems obvious that people, like me, need to be the advancement of all, but often it isn’t accepted nor warranted as what truly might be the best action. I think what I’m trying to say is we should let the activism be handled by those that are driven by cause-and-effect motivation for change. I think it relates to living a day in someone’s shoes would be more appropriate and until we do so, we have no real personal stake in the change nor the perspective. Should it be obvious that change will not come instantly and viewing how long these factions of people have existed, it seems daunting to think that change as young white America might be calling for, will take generations, if ever, before justice and freedom for all could or would be realized. Mostly, I’m just trying to go through life without hurting others. I also feel if I police myself on my terms and understanding that my change, the only one I can be held responsible for, is mine and mine alone. The very people that try to correct others on their terms, never accepting the obvious, are just as judgmental as any bias pre-existing. They feel elevated in their actions and what is right and justified in their actions are acceptable in comparison. This is probably as a moral supremacy to the generations of valueless people responsible for all the unjust situations existing today, which all came before them. I would hope for the same obvious outcomes from society, but those obvious outcomes are never that obvious. Is it even possible to make a real change as we are all driven by our own preservation? Not everyone wins by merely participating, but all can win if they look hard enough to find those things that they are good at and then do them. The world will never be a melting pot of exactness. Individuality, whether individually derived or society driven, will always create a level of differentiation and as those differences are exploited for self-gain, then there will always be those that feel downtrodden. There probably is a kinder way of achievement, but as some achieve, there will always by those that fail. Maybe we could put it in a perspective of human nature and less towards outward bigotry, I could certainly be accepting of that, but I also think we’d have to remove the crying foul on perceived bias unless it was so pervasive that it couldn’t be ignored. Crying foul just because the outcome wasn’t what someone wanted is unacceptable.
What is happening for the last ten years and what we can expect to happen for the near future with the most publicized events around presidential races, is what seems to be the most problematic actions for our society. Apparently, the motivations for the sick society we live in are felt by most of us. We are forced to make a choice for the lessor of two non-perfect people and depending on what news source and how much info is drummed into us, we are driven to make our choice hoping that enough people feel the same way we do. If we lose as a group, we want to believe that all of society will fail in the experiment called democracy. Somehow, we justify our rightness and beg for the other side to come to their senses and see the world as we do. It would be great to have a resultant outcome that would be made up of a cabinet filled by all parties. But trust is so handcuffing that I’m sure this may never happen. We can hope for a check and balance amongst the three governing bodies, but for some reason that never happens until two years into a presidential reign. By then, often some things become irreversable.
Polls all tell us that things are neck and neck in belief. We feel confident these micro-representations of our society are reflective to reality. But for me, I believe they are for show and driven for motivation to the motivation-less members of our society. The realities are opaque and without prediction for outcome because we can hold onto the one truth about society, which is, we never really know what the underlying drive for people is in the end. We will never change the division and for some reason many feel this division is something new to our society. In fact, this angst on a national level has occurred many times prior. It somehow gets subdued for a while, but eventually we realize it never goes away, much like our feelings towards each other in our society. We never truly see the obvious, but we obviously all want something better. We want a fair and unbiased world because our human nature constantly needs to feel better about itself, and we all tend to have a savior mentality when it comes to our own self-preservation. For the sake of the younger generations, it would be great to have a world where all felt comfortable in their existence. Unfortunately, if it did exist, human nature would eventually try to benefit the like mindedness at the expense of others and through those eventual growing biases, we’d be back to square one.