« Colors, Pictures | Main | Who chose this man? »
May 28, 2004
Reclaiming Our Sanity
After I wrote phrase "the better [the site] will become" in the previous post, I started wondering what I meant by "better." Better written, better known, more widely read? Well, sure, but something else.
It's a world where an insidious form of immorality is pretty much the reigning norm, it’s hard not to feel insane of sorts. To effect change in such a world thus requires a double-bootstrapping: one has to regain one’s sense of self and one has to find ways to come together with others.
On the one hand, I think we have to start with individual moral agency -- if for nothing else, as humans, we are individuals in separate minds and bodies. I'm not a transnational entity, neither are you. On the other hand, no matter what one does, as long as the "I" in the "what can I do" isn't pooled into something larger than each of us, there is no good answer -- if for no reason other than the simple fact that forces arrayed against us are so large. Not that there is a nice, easy answer in collectivity but there is a distinction between choosing the most moral path open to an individual and achieving effectiveness. And effectiveness does require some form of collectivity. And morality without effectiveness can, and often does, induce despair, hopelessness and inaction.
So, where do we go from there? Faced with massive forces, seemingly impossible odds and made to doubt our sanity, our basic moral truths?
First and foremost, I think that we have to believe in our understanding of the world. In spite of all this massive ideological onslaught, we have to accept that, in this world, under these conditions, these are the sane positions, these are the moral considerations. It is sane and moral to be centered in this way. The greatest success of the ideology disseminated by the current power structures is in the way they make us feel uncentered, weird, a little loony, corny, pretentious or well-meaning but stupid for feeling this way.
I’m not saying we have a monopoly on immutable and transcendent truths. But not all moral beliefs are equally thorny and complicated. One can start somewhere while conceding a lack of full and comprehensive answers to everything.
Here's a few. It is simply wrong, wrong, wrong to have almost a billion malnourished people while a part of the world is drowning in almost obscene levels of cornucopia. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong to have millions die of easily curable or controllable diseases when the global luxury retail market alone is upwards of $100 billion. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong to be the five percent of the planet’s population while consuming from 25 to 40 percent of its resources -- and going to war under these set of circumstances in the heart of the region producing the most strategic resource in the world.
That's all wrong and I think we all know it. And most everything in the modern, affluent lifestyle and cultural climate that surrounds us is designed anesthetize us to that knowledge. We have to take back our own hearts and minds before worrying about who else’s we’re losing or winning.
What to do about it all may not be simple but it has to start with reclaiming what we do know as that which what we do know. (And, no, I don’t mean that as a tautological statement. It might be one for a machine but it’s not one for us humans who often hold multiple levels of beliefs filtered through inconsistent ideologies.)
As a friend of mine once put it, it's like there is this evil person/machine throwing kids to a raging river. Do you go try to save one? What about all the others? If you decide it's more important to stop him for once and for all, what about all those kids who drown while we gnaw at his ankle, relatively unnoticed? And why not just give up rather than take responsibility, confront difficult choices -- and pretend not to have noticed?
And, yes, there are many thorny issues beyond that. But how does one even start thinking, start doing something about it all before being able to stand on some ground that feels like it’s there -- rather than in our loony heads?
I think the way out is the way we know anything else in this world: we reference our minds with other people’s minds. That’s almost how one can define insanity: it’s that state when your reality is so distinct, so incommunicable to others that you become trapped in your own mind. In the same way, being able to share the reality reflected in your mind with kindred souls is how people achieve that state of mind called sanity.
So, in many ways, that what the effort in this site is about; it’s not just about writing and it’s not just about being read. It’s about reclaiming both a sense sanity and a knowledge of that moral center -- mine, yours and ours. The more we get there, the better it is.
Posted by zeynep at May 28, 2004 01:03 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.underthesamesun.org/mt-tb.cgi/31
Comments
We have to go on doing what we can - of course I know we are right and the others are insane, but it helps to have it confirmed.
Posted by: Barbara Stiner at May 28, 2004 03:45 PM
Ah, at last! Another sane person. I cannot agree strongly enough with your list of 'wrong, wrong, wrong' statements. Why do so few people care, or take the trouble to find out about the world in which we live and how utterly unfair it is? How can we change anything? It feels impossible. As you said we need numbers, groups of people coming together, but so few people care... What can we do? We can't force people to stop being so damn lazy and selfish. A seemingly impossible endeavour.
Posted by: Trep at May 29, 2004 10:31 PM
What an inspirational article. I identified very strongly with many of these ideas. In answer to the question 'What can we do?' I think Zeynep has shown that the Internet is a very powerful resource for bringing people together and sharing ideas. Take personal responsibility. Hold the politicians and media to account. Educate people. But don't forget to look after yourself and stay sane.
Posted by: Colin at June 3, 2004 06:44 AM
You may find it interesting to visit the sites about online poker online poker http://www.mcdortaklar.com/ phentermine phentermine http://www.reservedining.net/ viagra viagra http://www.paramountseedfarms.net/ credit cards credit cards http://www.rethyassociates.net/ casino casino http://www.ingyensms.net/ poker poker http://www.bigyonet.com/ online casino online casino http://www.zalaszentgrot.com/ texas holdem texas holdem http://www.darkangelclan.com/ texas hold em texas hold em http://www.middlecay.net/ texas holdem poker texas holdem poker http://www.hasslerenterprises.net/ pacific poker pacific poker http://www.hdic.net/ party poker party poker http://www.hometeaminspection.net/ empire poker empire poker http://www.mor-lite.net/ poker games poker games http://www.parkviewsoccer.net/ generic viagra generic viagra http://www.targetindustries.net/ cialis cialis http://www.tclighting.net/ levitra levitra http://www.neweighweb.net/ tramadol tramadol http://www.jfcadvocacy.net/ online pharmacy online pharmacy http://www.psychexams.net/ soma soma http://www.stories-on-cd.net/ diet pills diet pills http://www.lvcpa.net/ phendimetrazine phendimetrazine http://www.suttonjames.net/ credit card credit card http://www.mp-forum.com/ payday loans payday loans http://www.devilofnights.net/ loans loans http://www.gargzdai.net/ personal loans personal loans http://www.zone-b51.com/ student loans student loans http://www.jmsimonr.com/ private mortgages private mortgages http://www.1a1merchantaccounts.com/ low interest credit cards low interest credit cards http://www.at-capstone.com/ - Tons of interesdting stuff!!!
Posted by: viagra at January 16, 2005 10:17 AM