To See Human Beings Liberated From Their Alienation...

Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote that if you want to torture someone, really destroy them psychologically, make them dig a hole only to have them fill it back in again. Over and over, day after day. Dig a hole, fill it in. Dig a hole, fill it in. An endless menial task with no point. One which it is impossible to impart meaning to, or find joy in.

Thus is modern life.

An exchange of the limitless potential of the individual for... what? Nothing is a fair replacement, nothing quite so valuable as what a person could be were they not given blinders from birth and pointed the wrong direction. The trade is so lopsided that all must blunt their emotions as they grow in order to follow through. So pitiful is the return on the most valuable resource that millions must die in poverty for a few to have too much. Of course, it's not a trade as much as a robbery.

In a better world love would unite us all. We would be lifted up by a society that embraces all as its children. We are 12 long parsecs from a better world. Instead, we are joined in our sorrow. We are weighed down by a society that alienates us from our own natural expressions of self. Furthermore, we are joined in sorrow, yet shamed for expressing that particular sorrow which is common to all, and thereby alienated from not only ourselves but the surest means of connecting with others.

We don't belong here because the here is all wrong. Not one baby born into a broken world can be held responsible for breaking too. No one is to blame for the ways in which they adapted to the sorrow before they could even understand what was happening. But... here we are. Able to choose a new direction, for who we are at least, but also for how we open up and how we come together. 

There is no shame in breaking. Shame those who would shame the broken, they are the ones who made here a place where no one belongs. This place we can't belong, is supposed to belong to the meek. It's supposed to be the place where they find room to bloom. Instead... it's a place where they build prisons to house children, which rich men in turn use for profit. And that shame is on us all. 

Every generation has failed its children. That's something we must come to terms with. Every generation is failed by their parents, and every generation reaches a point where it is now on them to choose to continue or begin the process of something new. The truth of what is happening right now is every time the wealth gap grows they build more prisons to house children. What monster would continue such a course? Every time the wealth gap grows the police get more military hardware, more of what resources are left go to protecting the rich from those they rob. 

Encourage the young and unafraid. Embrace those with the courage to burn it all down and try another way. This should be a place where they belong. Those who came before were supposed to make this a home for them. Instead they built literal and figurative prisons for children, to try and contain how badly they ruined everything, so they can ignore it, and continue ruining everything. Embrace those with the courage to burn it all down and try another way. 

It is past time older generations acknowledged the weight they were born under, and take responsibility for how much more we as a group have added to that as we pass it down to the young. What came before is not on us, but how we chose to move forward is. We can pretend we're not aware of the damage and make things worse. Or we can be the ones to begin the process of liberation, set an example and the path forward at least a little less burdensome for those who come after. 

Clutching on to the way things are, holding on to a society that distorts what a human being is capable of, that turns man into monster, can no longer be an option on the table. The long and difficult process of birthing a new world, a society that heals instead of mutilates, has been delayed too long. The work is too important. Every individual child born into the way things are, into a place that they can not belong, each one is too important to allow things to continue as they are. 

The truth is there is not a person alive that doesn't know for certain deep within themselves that society as it stands is an illness that infects every individual. Everybody knows things must change. Everyone feels the weight increasing. We are all well aware that human beings are capable of more. That our ability to express ourselves is severely limited. Our imaginations stagnant. Anyone who says otherwise is lying and should be shunned. Their choice makes them unfit to have a chance to affect children. They have no place among us until they come to terms with what they know to be true.

I would rather speak only of unity. But the sad truth is there must be a clear unmistakable line between those who admit to the need for and actively work towards a society that exists to meet the needs of every individual, and everyone else. Change will not happen through debates with people who chose not to admit the truth. Change will happen when we cease to engage, and refocus on what matters. When compassion overcomes their fears and egos, they can be welcomed. But all their arguments are founded in their choice to deny reality, and so must never be treated as if they have any basis in reality.

While not a Christian, I have grown up with an appreciation for the teachings of Jesus. For a long time I struggled with understanding what Jesus said about not coming to unite but to divide, and that children must abandon their parents, and even parents must turn against their children. On its face it sounds like a horrific teaching, but now I see. When you understand that society as a whole can only be healed by healing each individual, that everyone must be fed without regard to anything but their hunger, that nothing can replace the value of any individual... then you understand the monstrous nature of those who would stand in the way of healing society. The absolute failure of those who know, yet stand by and do nothing because they want the way of life the monstrous promote, and profit from. When you embrace decency, those who have abandoned decency have already left you on their own accord. Holding on to them leaves you also holding on the the decayed things they cling to.

Whatever your thoughts about Jesus, you must admit he was absolutely right on that. The weight that those who uphold society carry, it's not ours to bear. Their judgements, their regrets, their fears... not for us. Ours is without question the greater and more difficult burden, but one with clear meaning. That of liberation. Liberation from feeling alienated by our own world. Liberation from being numb, and all the ways we've denied our own selves. Leave them to their toils, their self torment, as we create a better path they can choose to leave their burdens and come along later. Or not. But someone has to stop digging holes just to fill them back in for the benefit of a few, and start laying a foundation that can actually be built upon for the betterment of everyone.