What if you didn’t even own your body?

In a world increasingly forgetful of our surroundings, we as humans sometimes overlook that we are also creatures of the Earth. The air we breathe was also the air our ancestors inhaled hundreds of thousands of years ago. The composition of elements making up our bodies are permanent to the Earth itself, not even ourselves, for we exist in only short bit of time. Money is like time, unless well spent it is useless.

That’s another point I’d like to hash out too I suppose. What drives us to consume so much money? Surely, there are many factors to this question that all act in various proportions to varying degrees of input, but at the bottom there must be an answer. Is it our quest for power? Our quest for ‘happiness’? There is so much money out there but so little distribution, and those with it seem to abuse their 'power’ and perpetuate the inequality.

On my Facebook profile I write under my religious beliefs I am a humanist, believing in the ultimate emancipation of humanity. To me, that represents a transition out of the current world order to an order of direct democracy, self-sustainability, and peace. These all democratic institutions I have been informing myself of are fascinating to say the least. And to speak to my last statement, I contend they could be highly valuable in serving as future models to renewing a societal order based upon principles of fairness and equality. At our current disposition of time, there seems to be no greater inequality of income in history. Compounding the problem, those with the power to keep the status quo permanently locked seem to be doing just that.

When we are little children we dream of changing the world. We dream of peace and harmony. But then as we get older, those  beautiful fixations are yanked from our minds as we are told that they could never happen, solving problems are impossible to fix. But how can one know this for oneself if one has never bothered to try? What floods out these fires, which burn to see change. What damns these ideas that we once held so near and dear?

On the news tonight, the headline spoke of a “influenza pandemic” that has killed some people in the country recently. What is not told are the stories of the lives of innocent people who die everyday in the hospital due to illness obtained while in the hospital. Innocent people die everyday there, and far more do.

192,000 people died last year like that alone. Here is my contention. Why are these lost voices not worth remembering? Perhaps in part because these deaths are a fact of the status quo, the way we do things. But look at what underlies the status quo: huge corporations, enormously profitable drug manufacturers, and hospitals with multiple tiers of management. If hospitals were run democratically, wouldn’t one believe people might be more concerned about the dying people they see everyday then uplifting profits, overmedicating, and most generally overhospitalizing?

Take another issue, at my school so many people gripe and complain about the school. 50,000 price tag and they can’t help but moan about the President’s salary, or the crappy food at GnT’s or the 3rd floor of Rossin. But are these people stupid? No, I contend they do not see themselves as entering into a community where they can stimulate change. In these democratic schools I doubt that is the case. What is the difference?

Look, to answer my original question, and to tie all these points together. If Mother Nature owns our bodies and has given us a lease on life, why not make our best effort to change the status quo, to demand a better sense of equality, and to ensure there is even a planet Earth our great ancestors might be able to see years and years from now.

Right now a ship is scraping the ocean floor damning the ecosystem that had been untouched by anything foreign. Right now, a person is being fired at their job because the corporation sees them as liquidity (easily releasable). Right now, a student is learning Calculus but their sincerest interest is to be learning about the history of China because they love that culture.

I must always remind myself never to stay comfortable. One must stay positive, up-beat, and proactive in seeking out the problems of the world in need of fixing.

In the words of Horace Mann, “Until you have done something for humanity you should be ashamed to die.” - Horace Mann

#change #goals #thoughts #world #corporations #schools #democracy #freedom #lovelife