On a day where Barack Obama is meeting Gordon Brown for the first time, I spent the afternoon at the British Commonwealth & Empire museum, and I realised just how far the world has come in such a short space of time. In the 200 years since slave trading was first abolished in Britain we now have an established multi-cultural society & the US is hopefully about to elect the first black president. I'll admit racism is not purely a problem of the past (for anyone kidding themselves it is, trying accompanying a black person or muslim to Devon for instance, seriously) but to think how far we've come in that time is awesome.
One of my big problems is I'm impatient & idealistic, I want all social injustices to be corrected instantly, but inherent ignorance, like racism, takes time to change. I think the key is educating our future generations of the stupidity of this ignorance, and informing them of the terrible atrocities of the past to help them avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
It also made me wonder, as a passionate supporter of animal rights, whether in another few hundred years, we'll have museums educating our citizens about the atrocities we're currently committing on our fellow sentient beings in the name of 'cheap' food & people will be wondering how it was ever allowed to happen, like we do about the slave trade now. I realise the slave trade still exists, but at least not on the vast scale it once did (remember the Morecombe bay cockle pickers?)
I first saw this proverb in Melbourne last year & it really resonated with me, about how money-orientated our society is:
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
- Cree Indian Proverb
The changes that have taken place in the last few hundred years made me think, all the pessimists out there that think the world cannot save itself, I have hope that they could be wrong. Sure, James Redfield in his Celestine Prophecy books paints a very idealistic view of the direction we're all taking, but I think we just need to educate people & drag them kicking & screaming out of their apathy. Life is the important thing. Not money. Not possessions. People need to look beyond their picket fence to the BIGGER PICTURE
I think we really could all be heading towards critical mass after all.
I'll get down off my high horse now, thanks for listening :)
One of my big problems is I'm impatient & idealistic, I want all social injustices to be corrected instantly, but inherent ignorance, like racism, takes time to change. I think the key is educating our future generations of the stupidity of this ignorance, and informing them of the terrible atrocities of the past to help them avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
It also made me wonder, as a passionate supporter of animal rights, whether in another few hundred years, we'll have museums educating our citizens about the atrocities we're currently committing on our fellow sentient beings in the name of 'cheap' food & people will be wondering how it was ever allowed to happen, like we do about the slave trade now. I realise the slave trade still exists, but at least not on the vast scale it once did (remember the Morecombe bay cockle pickers?)
I first saw this proverb in Melbourne last year & it really resonated with me, about how money-orientated our society is:
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
- Cree Indian Proverb
The changes that have taken place in the last few hundred years made me think, all the pessimists out there that think the world cannot save itself, I have hope that they could be wrong. Sure, James Redfield in his Celestine Prophecy books paints a very idealistic view of the direction we're all taking, but I think we just need to educate people & drag them kicking & screaming out of their apathy. Life is the important thing. Not money. Not possessions. People need to look beyond their picket fence to the BIGGER PICTURE
I think we really could all be heading towards critical mass after all.
I'll get down off my high horse now, thanks for listening :)
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