Why we will never be united...

 Greetings,

There are different reasons that we cannot be divided. I have used "never" in the title, but this a strong word. It is possible, but humans will have to get over things in their nature; that thing in their nature which inflames them, that encourages them to contend with their neighbour. The problem is that we are often told how we are different and these differences are emphasised as important, we are never told how we are similar, how we are alike. These divisions separate us and encourage us to build walls between us and divide ourselves even more. There are those who encourage these divisions, who live on the conflict between one another, and it is not just our governments. Maybe there is hope for us, but it will take something, acknowledging our similarities along with our differences.

Humans like to fight...

Human beings claim that we want peace, that we want to get along with one another, but in our essence it is doubtful a truth. Our politics are about contests one political party competes against another for votes, then they spend their entire time arguing about the best way to run the nation. Even in nations where there is a single party, the party spends a large portion eliminating opposition, defending itself against detractors. We enjoy contests against one another this is evident by the prolific presence of sport and the amount of money people are paid to play against one another. We watch these games where one team competes against another, willing one team to win over the other. Other leisure activities also contain conflict within them, usually adversarial, usually against another group of human beings. This fighting nature makes it difficult for us to be united. 

Every time the fighting nature is focused outwardly, at least relatively, there are still conflicts within. The invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was condemned around the world. A multi-national force was gathered to stop Saddam Hussein and prevent him from possibly invading Saudi Arabia. Even with evidence of the horrors that Hussein was committing it took months for the force to be assembled. Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, it was not until January 1991, that the multi-national force actually began to push the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. While this was happening, there were still demonstrations against the action; even after all the negotiations by the United Nations had failed, all the diplomatic solutions had failed. Those same demonstrations continued throughout the war, not that it lasted all that long.

We had a chance to unite when the COVID pandemic struck. Still there were arguments between nations about access to vaccines, who was going to do the research, who was going to fund the research, who was going to take the credit, who was going to receive the vaccines. This is not to mention all of the anti-vaccine, pandemic-deniers, and "freedom" seekers who were against the public health measures. Another chance for humanity to unite behind a cause, squandered by people's pet politics and personal biases and ignorance. The same which is still continuing even as I write.

Why are we divided? 

We must look at how we have been divided before we can look at why we are divided, for the how will tell us something of the why. First and foremost, when examining the human being, the first thing that divides us is sexuality, generally this is male and female, but there are also other labels which exist, transgender, for example is another label by which people are known. People are divided by the sexual organs which they possess, but the question of sexuality does not stop there.

In the question of sexuality there is also the question of attraction, to whom the individual is attracted which provides another point by which a person is divided and by which specific communities, and thus divisions are built. There is the emphasis in "normal" society of heteronormality in much of society which supposedly pushes other sexual orientations to the edge. Then other sexual orientations be they bisexual, homosexual, asexual or some other form of sexuality, form communities of their own where they believe their sexuality may be expressed freely. The building of such communities divides us.

We are supposedly divided by race. From one view, there is really one "race", the human race. This is a useful perspective as it unifies rather than divides, however the common approach to the concept is not so unifying a concept. The term race has weight politically and socially, and people will use this as a weapon to divide people to show how they are different. This word is most often tied into the word "racism" a weapon used from both sides. The word ethnicity, is a better description. Again, however, it is dividing people into groups, labelling them as different.

Tied in with ethnicity and race is history, a battleground to say the least especially when one examines the relationships between one some ethnicities and others. These histories are spot-highlighted not to identify those points where they worked together, but where they were divisive. The most often piece of history that will come up is colonialism and how indigenous peoples were treated. This is most often tied in with ethnicity or race.

Politics. Politics is can always be tied to history and ethnicity and it depends on which part of politics that a person wants to examine. Even within an ethnicity politics can divide a people. There are those who go for the right, there are those who go for the left, of politics; most often they do not find much middle ground in between. It only gets worse when it is the extreme of one or the other. Politics is often used by politicians to divide people so they can be controlled, and most people will let them.

Finally, on this list there is religion. This has been a point of division for as long as it has existed. It has been the cause of wars and acts of violence around the world, and still is today. The reason you don't hear about them is that they don't make a big enough impact in the media. Just because you are not looking doesn't mean it is not happening.

Our society is divided by these things and remains divided by these things even at the most important times. Black Lives Matter emphasised the division by race in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and the problems of the division by race, among other things; there were issues within issues. We remain divided by issues of sexuality because there is an element of wanting to know what other people are doing, rather than allowing others privacy, and leaving other people to their way. Why does it matter what someone else is doing in their bedroom if you're not there, and not involved? The problem is that these divisions are perpetuated. 

Divisions perpetuated...

Conflicts are celebrated, or at least the victories of these conflicts are celebrated. These celebrations perpetuate the divisions between people. Battle of Adwa decisive battle of Ethiopia over Italian colonialism. Here we see a celebration of a battle between one ethnic group over another, the raising of an issue which is over a century old, celebrating the victory over colonialism. The same is seen in other parts of the world. The celebration of the Cinco de Mayo is the same, in this case it is the Mexican victory over the French, though many of the tourists who visit to celebrate the holiday have no idea what they are celebrating and are just joining in. The same can be said of many celebrations.

There is a big celebration in Australia which occurs every year, and every year it causes contention. That celebration is Australia Day, it was originally meant to celebrate the landing of the English in Australia; it has since become simply a celebration of being Australian in many Australian's eyes. For the indigenous population of Australia it is often referred to as "Invasion Day" due to the perceived celebration of the invasion of their native land. Once again, a celebration which marks a divisive element it society, though there has been ideas to change it. But there is obviously a division by ethnicity which is hard to close.

The issues in Australia are a problem, this is not to be denied. There is a process which needs to be followed and reconciliation which is required to mend the bridges, and some progress has been made. The issue is that there are elements who will perpetuate the differences, who will always claim that there is an issue, who will always claim there is more to be done. There is also the necessity of both sides to come together, to unite. If the problems are perpetuated, if there is no forgiveness in response to the apology, then there is no reconciliation and it will never end.

Poking the bear...

For some reason people enjoy provoking others to respond either to their side, or to show themselves as being against their position; this is primarily to start discussion, highlighting a particular cause. In some cases this is deliberate because they want to highlight the cause that they are passionate about, in other cases it is because they simply want to start discussion, because they enjoy discussion.

There is nothing wrong with lively discussion, even good reasoned argument, when those arguments turn nasty is when there are real problems and divisions are exposed. These divisions can be reduced by the two people agreeing to disagree, but most often they are not; both sides will pick their points and continue to argue their points until the division widens between them and there is a long way back to seeing that they have similarities as well as differences.

Issues should be raised, be they social or political, when they are appropriate, i.e. when they are relevant to the situation, but issues are often raised when a current situation has nothing to do with the  issue raised. A situation is sometimes turned to that particular person's political or social bend so they can highlight their particular social issue, to beat their drum about the social issue. This often causes more division than it does highlight the issue, especially when the issue was not of a concern to begin with; often it results in people being wary about what they speak about with that person, erecting walls, dividing once again.

These issues are often raised for one of two reasons, to make the person look important, to inject themselves into the situation and make themselves the centre of attention, or for making some political or social point. The last one is the most often case with politicians and activists, but it can also occur in normal life situations. Issues are raised just for the pure purpose of highlighting injustices done. Once again, due to the arguments that ensue such issues usually don't result in rational discussion but emotional argument dividing rather than uniting. 

All bad news?

Is it all bad news? Can we never be united? Is there never a time when we can be united, is it never possible for people to come together united? Is there no way?

What has been presented are the ways in which we are not united and the reasons that we have problems uniting. It comes down to a very simple problem; we are too busy looking for reasons that we are different to one another. These differences were presented at the beginning of this discussion. These differences do not acknowledge the things about us that are the same.

We are all human beings.

We all live on this planet.

We all breathe the same air.

We all deserve certain human rights (this one covers a lot of things).

We all have relatively short lives (in comparison to the length of history).

We all have dreams and aspirations.

We all laugh, cry, and smile.

We all have our good days, and our bad.

We all have days when we work hard, and others when we are lazy.

We all want to be well-liked.

Here are ten things that we all have in common. These are things which every human being on the planet shares with every other human being on the planet. If this is not a place to start uniting, then our future truly is bleak. Everyone feels small and helpless looking at the state of the world. You don't have to be a world leader to start the healing, start with a person you know. Talk to them, find commonality with them, acknowledge your differences, but also acknowledge where you are the same. Step outside find another person, do the same thing. Greet people on the street with a friendly smile, bring friendship to the stranger, treat the person in the shop with kindness; if everyone did these small acts all the time the world would be a much nicer place and people would realise they are more alike than they knew.

Cheers,

Henry.

P.S. You will notice a lot of Wikipedia links in my posts. This is a great resource of free information which is now reliably researched, as you will note by the references which appear at the bottom of each page. I donate to the Wikimedia Foundation monthly to keep this non-profit group operational, and I recommend that everyone do the same, you can do this HERE. Please give, and keep this free source of information alive, there are few of them these days.

Rights and Responsibilities

Introduction

This post is one that I think needs to be written as it highlights something which needs to be stated and needs to be noted by many people as many people talk about Rights but few of the same people talk about Responsibilities, the other side of those Rights that they claim. I will start very simply with this discussion and then move on to deeper and more significant matters to present arguments which must be made and highlight elements which must be brought to light for all of us to act as real humans and real adults.

"Out on the Town"

So, a group of friends decide to go out and have a night on the town, have a few drinks and generally have a good time. This is their Right as adults. Unless they all decide that they will travel home by public transport this means that one of them will have to be the "designated driver". This is a Responsibility which goes hand in had with the Right which everyone is enjoying. Likewise if they decide to go home by public transport there is planning that needs to be done, that is also a Responsibility that one or all of the members must be involved in. Thus Rights and Responsibilities are interwoven here.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

So now we will go to the other end of the scale of things and have a look at a very important document which states what Rights every person on the planet should have. This document can be found here: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. This is a most interesting document as within some of the Rights which are stated there are also Responsibilities also present.

The Responsibilities within this document actually start within the Preamble, "that human rights should be protected by the rule of law". Thus within the beginnings of the document it requires as a Responsibility of signatory nations that these Rights are protected by the rule of law. This Responsibility to uphold this document goes even further than that in that it states,

"Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,"

Thus the Preamble reminds the Member States of the United Nations that they have pledged themselves, i.e. promised, to co-operate with the UN to promote these human rights, thus again Responsible for doing so.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Article 1, unedited. everyone is Responsible to act toward everyon else in a spirit of brotherhood. It would seem that this Responsibility has gone by the way-side in many situations. This is the first one, admittedly the Responsibility is only implied, but it is present.

Several of the following Articles within the document place a heavy Responsibility upon Member States within the UN with regard to laws made and upholding these laws to ensure that their people are treated fairly. No doubt their are violations which could be cited in several places in several countries. Even several "respectable" nations could be creeping a little close due to Article 9, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." when considering the current detainment conditions under various terror laws, but this is not the aim of this exercise.

Needless to say, it is a very involved document, where, if looked at closely there are all sorts of Rights detailed, and lots of State Responsibilities implied. However, there are few individual Responsibilities implied or stated within this document, which is a little cause of concern as there must be a balance. It is the lack of this balance, which causes issues

Rights Without Responsibilities

When people are given Rights but not Responsibilities there is an issue as they are given things but not expected to do anything in return for it. This can be seen in many different places. Many of our youths these days are given Rights but not Responsibilities and this leads them to flout their Rights all over the place and cause issues. This can be seen where adults have no power to discipline children or youths in any real fashion.

We often see that an individual will do something wrong but is never expected to take Responsibility for their actions as their are loop-holes through which they can slip. In many instances this is not just children and youths, but adults as well. Taking Responsibility for ones actions is how we grow and learn from our mistakes so that we do not make the same mistake over again.

There are issues which need to be tackled. There are real mental and social issues which impair groups and place them in a position where they will cause problems, but placing them back in the same situation cannot be the way out. Blanket legislation of "youths" or "criminal activity" is also not the way as it places vulnerable individuals in situations where they will not learn, or will only learn how to be more effective at doing the wrong thing. Here, again, is a failure of the teaching of Rights and Responsibilities.

One of the Responsibilities that most needs to be taught is Responsibilities for choices made and the consequences of those choices which go along with them. So often we hear complaints about situations where a person is in a situation where if they had made a different choice they would be in a better situation. More to the point the same person is blaming everyone else for their problems. This is a person cannot take Responsibility for their own choices. It needs to be taught and taught well, along with this is planning ahead to deal with the consequences of the choices made.

Trickle Down Effects

Legislation is devised by politicians to supposedly solve an issue when examined from their position. It is placed into law and then it does not work, no surprise. It is because they do not understand what is happening at the level where their legislation effects. They have the Right to make legislation which affects which ever part of the nation they govern, but they also have the Responsibility to make sure that it is the right legislation so that it will be for the advantage of their constituents.

The budget is too far in deficit, so the politicians use their Right to legislate a cut in spending. Where do they cut the spending? At the top? No, at the bottom. Social welfare programs get attacked. Pensions get attacked. Hospital funding gets attacked. Schools get attacked. Then they wonder why unemployment and crime increases. They also wonder why they all of a sudden become unpopular. It is because they have not been Responsible to all the people who they govern.

Conclusion

The whole thing may sound like the ramblings of some cranky old guy who dreams of a "better past when I was a lad", but there must be some balance between the Rights we give and the Responsibilities we expect of people otherwise things will simply be out of kilter. Responsibilities need to be taught just as the Rights do, and with the same emphasis. Both are important.

I have given a simple example of Rights and Responsibilites with the group going out on the town for a night, and I have given a much more complex example in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What needs to be noted here is that both elements are present in both. What followed are examples of what happens when people forget about their Responsibilities, both to themselves and to others. The effects can be devastating. More to the point, not taking into account to consequences of a choice is also an effect which needs to be noted. Remember, you are Responsible for your choices and the consequences which come with them.

Cheers,

Henry.