Society's Doom

    The problem with having a personal philosophy  is that you start seeing everything through the lens of that philosophy. So when you see half your country working towards a fascist dictatorship and the other half refusing to do anything about it, you see it based on what you feel about the world. The way I see it is that our world is dying, nobody knows what to do, and we very specifically didn't prepare for this situation.

   One thing the United States is exceptional at is crowing on about how exceptional we are. True, we had the stats to back that up at one point, but eventually it morphed into, "We're the greatest country in the world, because we are." This is not to say that the United States is the worst country in the world. There's a lot of competition for that title. It's to say that we aren't nearly as good as we pretend we are. 

   At some point, people started to figure that out. Maybe it was the moment they realized how expensive college was going to be. Maybe it was the moment they got out of college and realized they couldn't get a job. Maybe it was when they lost their job due to chronic illness and then lost the insurance they were using to pay for medical expenses. Maybe it was when their children were diagnosed with a learning disability and they got firsthand experience with how little the school system is willing to help those who need it the most. Maybe they or somebody they knew got shot by police and they had to watch the cop walk away scot free. Maybe they got denied a job for their sexuality, race, gender, or disability status. Maybe they escaped all of that, but kept seeing stories of how people can be screwed just for being who they are, and they realized that was wrong. One way or another, they learned the truth about America; it's only beautiful to those who are allowed to live freely, and that's the smallest minority in the entire country. 

   Here's the thing about society; it only exists as long as those who participate believe that it's real and meaningful. This means that everyone who's a member of any given society needs to believe that society is perfect, or that it has only minor flaws, or that any major, glaring flaws will be fixed soon. You can't have a society filled with people who feel they'd be better off if they didn't play by the rules. The issue is that society doesn't belong to those who live in it, not most of them anyways. It belongs to the rich. They're the people who make the laws, enforce the laws, and decide if somebody was punished unfairly. Now, the rich aren't all powerful. They appear that way, because they make the rules of the world we have to live in, but they only have power because we the people say they're allowed to have power and do whatever they want with it. If they misuse it, or don't use it enough, then it can be taken. Ideally those in charge are aware of this fact. They know that even in a system where people don't elect their leaders, their reign only lasts as long as the people are willing to let them keep power (or until they die). But leaders aren't kept separate from the false reality of society. They're at the center of it, so they're often the last to realize things aren't going well. After all, they aren't safe from the need we all have to avoid knowledge of the Infinite. They may know it exists, but their minds don't dare acknowledge it. 

    Sometimes we get lucky, and a leader strong enough to acknowledge society's flaws comes along. But such a leader hasn't come along in the United States, and I think that it's mostly our fault. See, the more we learn about science, the more we push away the idea that the unreal, the imagined, the falsified, could have meaning and purpose for people. I know that not everybody thinks this, but I've heard it said more then a few times the art and music were just a byproduct of our advanced senses. I don't believe that. Stories and art are the backbone of culture. Just as society belongs to the rich, culture belongs to the poor, and culture is how those without power make their will known and their influence palpable. It bothers me that so many people seem to think that if you want to change the world, you have to change society. I've heard people say that, as they got older, they were expected to stop imagining fantastical worlds. Is it really that important to have everyone living in the same reality?

    I know the big issue is that those at the top think that the rules don't apply to them. But as somebody who's needed accommodations her entire academic career, I'm keenly aware that forcing everybody to live by the same rules can be just as exclusionary as saying that some people get to live by easier rules then everybody else. Double standards aren't the issue. It's standards that everyone knows are wrong and cruel.