The small us is alive and well…
and wreaking havoc upon people and planet.
The proof?
Well, who can only but notice the change in the weather.
Yea, sure there have been storms forever…
but like this?
OK, I’ll admit there’s no hard evidence that global warming is causing an increase in the frequency of these massive F-4 and F-5 killer tornadoes…
but what if it is?
There’s certainly compelling evidence that it’s causing other anomalies, like floods, droughts and hurricanes.
And what does that have to do with the small us…you ask?
Well, I believe small us thinking, primarily by big oil and auto, among others, or those that benefit economically from the continued insatiable consumption of fossil fuels, leads the way in making sure that a country bearing a disproportionate share of the earth’s CO2 emissions…
does little to nothing about it…
rather than lead the world in clean fuel technology…
as it should!
And they have the likes of Fox News to help perpetuate this dangerous nonsense.
Don’t believe it? Check this out!
The point of this post is not about weather, but the general craziness that’s going on out there.
Consider the following recent headlines…
- Owner of the L.A. Clippers, Donald Sterling, banned from the NBA for life after being caught on tape making racists remarks, basically admonishing his mixed-race mistress not to associate publicly with black people after she posed for a picture with Magic Johnson…
- Former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin telling an NRA audience that “water-boarding is how we baptize terrorists” AND getting roundly applauded for the absurdly anti-Christian remark…
- An Egyptian court issues 683 death sentences in one fell swoop against members of the Muslim Brotherhood…
- Man is arrested after throwing a banana at Barcelona’s Dani Alves during a soccer match…
Alves picked it up and took a bite before making his corner kick…
Score one big goal for Dani Alves!
Now, what do all these incidents seem to have in common?
small us thinking!
Because small us thinking always pits one group against another…
- conservatives against liberals
- Christians against Muslims
- global warming advocates against global warming deniers
- whites against blacks
- blacks against whites
- men against women
- people against nature
- capitalists against socialists
- collectivists against individualists
- nation against nation
- tribe against tribe
- people against people
It’s really kind of sad.
In the words of one of the poster-victims of the small us…
the late Rodney King…
Can’t we all just get along?
Sorry, Rodney, but it just doesn’t seem so.
I know I sound like the proverbial broken record, but, really, the answer is, in my opinion, the realization that we indeed are all…
in this planetary boat together.
Isn’t it high time to get rid of them…for good?
To adopt a mindset that there really are no enemies…
except the mentality of the small us.
We’re all made of the same flesh and blood.
We all have the same basic needs…
and desires.
In the words of the one who probably wouldn’t agree with Palin’s remarks…
love your enemies…
Because by doing that, they might indeed stop hating you…
and killing you.
Terrorism just might cease to exist.
Now, I’m not quite so naive as to really believe that we don’t have enemies…
but I do believe that thinking of them only in that way just makes things worse.
Because the truth is that they’re not solely our enemies…
they’re people too…
just like us in more ways than you might be imagining.
image credit: Mr Twister Chaser via Compfight cc