Protection agencies…6 pictures

We have the EPA (environmental Protection Agency), animal protection agencies, safe houses, child protection agencies and a million other PROTECTION GROUPS.  We have sanctuaries, and grassroots groups trying to save this or that.  We have laws to protect beings and things, when the only thing everyone needs to be protected from, is US.

WE set up protection agencies to protect us from ourselves.  If that alone doesn’t tell you that something is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WRONG with us as a species, then I don’t know what will.

We are CONSTANTLY trying to fix what we ourselves constantly break.

 

We are responsible for the suffering and destruction that is all around us.  None of this has to exist.  We allow it to exist.  We have been brainwashed into believing that this IS the way the world is.  It’s doesn’t have to be this way.  We MAKE IT THIS WAY.  The world can be anyway we want it to be and violence, hunger, suffering, inequality and destruction is simply the path the rich have chosen and reinforced for their own benefit.  The path we have been led down.  I think it’s time to reevaluate our choices, before we’re the only things left…and won’t that be fun…for the few minutes we last.

Every time a man beats or rapes a woman, or child, it’s his choice.  Every time a hunter kills someone, it’s his choice.  Every time a greedy government kills the people, or let’s them starve, it’s the government’s choice.  Every time  soldier’s die, or are destroyed in war, it’s the choice of the men who sit safely in their offices.  Every time we clear-cut a forest, it’s a choice. Every time you eat an animal, it’s your choice.  Life is all about choices.  We need to make different choices, if we want a different world.

We say we love our children.  I’m not sure that’s true.  If we loved our children, wouldn’t we fight to have clean air, so they could breathe?  Wouldn’t we fight to stop the violence, so they could live and not be bullied, killed on the street, or in a war?  Wouldn’t we fight to stop men from beating women and children.  Wouldn’t we stop deforestation, the extinction of animals, the destruction of beauty…for our children?  I don’t see how we can have it both ways.  How many kids are on inhalers today?  How many kids are sickly because of the environment they live in?  How many kids are hungry and brutalized by their parents, relatives, priests, teachers, strangers, neighbors?  How many animals are tortured, killed for food and sport?  Do we love our children enough to change the way the world is run?  We need to ask ourselves that question.  We don’t teach kindness, we teach them violence.

Having said all of that. I don’t think anything will change.  We’re like a rock rolling downhill, picking up speed, and nothing can stop it.  We have become desensitized to the violence around us.  Our kids are surrounded by violence in games, on television, and in film.  They don’t even see it, so they aren’t shocked when it becomes real in their lives.  Kids are on drugs and killing themselves.  They are depressed and lost.  We’re living in our heads and on line.  Nature is something out there and no longer part of our true environment, at least for many.   It’s no longer quiet.  Kids are on their phones constantly, Relationships are on line.  The world is becoming less real. Regular people are no longer in the loop.  Decisions about our lives are made by others.  Legalized drugs, work for our masters.  It’s easier to manipulate people who are eating boxes of cereal and don’t care what happens next.

And yet, if you look closely, acts of kindness are taking place.  It’s just that those acts, while helpful to those involved, can’t stop the onslaught of all the things that are happening around us.

It used to be that employers were lucky to have good employees.  Now people are lucky to have jobs, so they can be abused by their employers because they are unappreciated and being fired is always a threat.  Dissatisfaction is normal because people have less and less control/power over their own lives.  You’re LUCKY if you have this or that, in a world of ABUNDANCE, because we are being fed a lie of scarcity.  People are lined up to take your job, so there’s no sense of security or appreciation for many workers, who are asked to do more and more all the time because they are LUCKY TO HAVE ANY JOB AT ALL.  Threats don’t make for happy workers.  People can’t live on minimum wage, voted on by wealthy people who vote their own raises.  Everything is out of balance.  More and more people are becoming powerless over their own lives.

They don’t ever teach you how to bring about change, in school.  They teach you how to obey and if you aren’t good at that, you’re in detention, or kicked out and labeled.  They only want good kids who follow the status quo and don’t bother the rich white guys who are brain washing and conditioning them.    But that’s a story, for another day.

Meanwhile, we can be lulled into a false sense of happiness because it’s spring and maybe the sun will come out.  Seeing the sun is a special treat, for people who live in Chicago.  But body counts also go up, as violence escalates in the heat and longer days.  Still, we all look forward to a short break from winter.  Living here is also a choice.