Back in the day when people had no access to instant information, it was understandable to see a nation - or even an entire world - in disbelief whenever their lives were destructively affected at scale.
However, nowadays when even 4-year olds have an Internet-enabled smarter and smarter device, humanity no longer has the "I didn't know" excuse. It has become a clear "I don't want to know" or even worse, an "I don't care to know" reality.
Both, not wanting to care or not caring to know reflect a dangerous decay of civic engagement and responsibility, a systemic process of disconnection between members of society at large and even between members of a family at individual level.
These are big words. In "smaller" words, what it means is that society has fallen into a sufficient comfort zone and locked itself there via a sense of entitlement.
In even the smallest of words, it means we are all taking for granted our progress through history - much of it at the expense of our ancestors' sacrifice - and believe to simply deserve it, with no work involved.
However, history doesn't really work that way at all. In real life, history is written by two invisible hands and ranges between extremes and subtlety. One hand, pushes humanity into a state of obedience and productivity. Another, strives for a better quality of life and independence.
In more developed countries, a pretence balance is maintained. In lesser developed countries, the divide between the two historical tendencies becomes more extreme.
The more affluent a country becomes, the more blurred the line between these two invisible "hands" becomes and the more sophisticated that balance pretence becomes.
The less affluent a country becomes, the closer it gets to violence and a complete breakdown of that pretence of balance.
But in the end, it is all a more or less comfortable pretence because as affluent a country it may become or as socially harmonious its society may learn to function, the history of our civilization is not a sum of entities functioning in their own vacuum, but rather a conglomerate of interconnected and often interdependent systems that have no borders.
Eventually, the checks and balances of history, as written by those two invisible hands, take precedence and almost invariably the price for the affluence and balance of one country is being paid by another country of lesser affluence...and power.
Knowingly or not, affluent nations exploit those in less privileged positions. While the people themselves might be relatively oblivious to this process, the governing forces never are.
And this is where we all turn a blind eye. This is where we fall into complacency. This is where we become accomplices to global crises and even genocide.
This is where humanity as a whole falls.
What we call being "civilized" is a mere hypocritical state of privilege derived from a history of exploitation.
There are plenty of geo-political examples of this exploitative routine, but eventually we must figure out a way to redefine what civilization means, and then begin creating the necessary building blocks of a truly ethical world where each human can develop loyal to their unique and beautiful national culture and identity, while at the same time, pledging their allegiance to a global citizenship where humanity as a whole develops and evolves through its powerful creative potential.
Is it possible? Absolutely YES.
I believe that I'm personally an example of it, and through my parenting choices my children are as well.
We have all the tools and knowledge to ascend towards a global citizenship culture within a single generation, two at the most. It just takes work, like everything else.
"The most intellectual creature to ever walk Earth is destroying its only home." ~ Jane Goodall
Ironically, "HOME" includes ourselves as well, the very beings giving sense and purpose to the notion of "home."
The solution is really obvious - a cultural shift from global egocentrism to civic altruism, from selfish isolationism to cross-cultural community outreach, from a passive indifference towards anything and anyone outside our personal or national borders to an active empathic connection and inclusion beyond all borders.
In even simpler words, we need to guide ourselves with a genuine curiosity about other cultures and their lives, then act in nurturing each other's values towards a cooperating coexistence on this planet called Earth, OUR HOME.
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