Don't Blame The Ignorant

I have been thinking about this one quite hard recently, as in, I have been thinking about it for a few days now... not so much actively, but rather ticking the boxes whenever it occurred to me.

Once you are aware, that is it... you are fully aware of everything, always. It has to be a concentrated effort to completely ignore something you think is hinky or wrong, within your own scope of principle.

It's hard to explain, but like one day during my late adolescence, I suddenly realised that I was actively aware of my own existence. It was like I was born again, but this time with a conscience and presence. I was freaked out and used to get frequent panic attacks for a year or two. POV used to give me a right old scare all together. I honestly don't understand it fully. But eventually, I became very sensitive to the world around me. I realised all these feelings and things that were somewhat unimportant before.

Roll it forward a few years. I'm still trying to understand them from a very basic perspective. The world s interesting and strange and very very limited, well, at least thought and understanding is. People are poor and sick, people are rich and selfish and sometimes, people just want to harm or kill other people for no reason that seems justifiable.

It could be said that there are few folks out there who recognise these patterns. Often, it is the disadvantaged or spiritual types who notice the imbalance between the fortunate and the impoverished. Usually the common person does not recognise illness or crime until it happens to someone close to them. How many times have you seen a celebrity back a disease foundation just because their own family has been stricken by it? That is not to say this is a bad thing... it's great when someone who is wealthy gives to a noble cause that could benefit millions. Unfortunately that is the problem... no one allows themselves the awareness it takes to realise that there is always a fragile thread between doing OK and fringing on circumstance that can directly harm your being or someone whom you care about. I honestly do not believe that it's only few who recognise misfortune, I believe everyone does. It's not easy to ignore those collecting for concern on street corners, is it? Hell, I'm guilty of that one myself. Sometimes a little ignorance goes a long way.

And this is what I am driving at. I mean, years ago, I just became aware... I dunno, of feelings and thoughts and genuinely thought there was something wrong with me for being sensitive. But after a two years or something and secretly trying to fish for similarities between myself and others, found out that in fact, everyone was the same.... some with just a different threshold for ignoring things than others.

For a while, I thought that this was the downfall of humanity... that there was a lack of awareness for those in less fortunate circumstances than others. Hell, I never thought of wanting to help the asthma society until I lost a fiend to asthma. Let me tell you, there is nothing that raises your awareness more to a cause than losing someone you care about to it.

But perhaps the ignorant are just trying to lead a peaceful or enjoyable existence? This is what I've been thinking lately. You cannot walk down the road without breathing someone's secondary cigarette smoke, You cannot cross the street without breathing exhaust fumes and you probably will not get through the next weekend without sampling some alcohol. Who can blame someone for talking to you and blowing smoke in your face? They assume that you want to live a guilt free life too! And why not? I chose my poison this weekend willingly. So that means I'm a player in the game of ignorance too.

 And you know, some people really work hard for their money. They work every damn day. They cut throats just like their peers and colleagues, they walk the road of the last heartless CEO in order to put bread on the table (albeit a very expensive loaf) and because they ignored the needs of their rivals in securing their high end job, because ignorance is tough, do they not deserve to hoard the spoils of their success? It's only fair to completely ignore those in lesser circumstances when you've used so much emotional energy to climb onto your throne. Leave them alone! Stop victimising the ignorant!

Because you see, in order to survive as a species, we must not help those who need it... we must become ignorant of certain things too in order to succeed. We must trample on the weak to become strong ourselves. We must take all we can get and leave nothing behind, so that our children and their children can survive on our amassed wealth and not really learn how hard it was to acquire.

It's hard work being aware of the many pitfalls that humanity has. I don't blame the ignorant for flouting them all to get where they are. Why not get paid for hard work and worry about nobody? It will surely guarantee the survival of your genes, that's for true. Later, you can teach your kids that simply attending church absolves you of any real responsibility to actually try to help to those who need it. Maybe that is why evolution and religion don't mix well. It's too close to home. Maybe the religious recognise that using religion to ignore suffering is just the same as the phasing out the genes of those who don't do the exact same as they do. Eventually the false morality of putting your hands together rather than actually using them to benefit others will catch on and only the strong will survive. It's ironic really.

Of course that is not to say that it's only the religious who are ignorant. There are plenty who just don't give a f**k in general. We are all guilty in some way, shape, or form  of ignoring the needs of others or ignore our own contribution to matters that affect humanity in a negative way. I mean there are things like Global warming, refugee programmes, jobs that we feel we're too important to do but blame "the foreigners" for taking anyway, we let out kids become little f**kers  by not teaching them or watching over them properly, (I edited this one out because some people are too sensitive), we read articles that rant about generally unimportant things... the list goes on really and I have barely even scratched the surface.

I want to join the ranks too. It's just so damn frustrating.




*Incidentally, I do not seek to tar all religious people with one brush. There are many millions of people who follow organised religion that actually do go forth to help their fellow man. I don't care about their reasons for believing, but I do understand and respect them nonetheless. It is my humble opinion that people do not need to have an excuse for helping others through religious organisation, but I recognise that it is a good stepping stone to doing some good for the world. My gripe is with those who typically say "yeah well I pray for the disadvantaged so my work is done. Now I'm off to Barbados on my yacht for three weeks. I'll be sure to check in with the "Big Man" to see how things are going" - yeah thanks a lot mate. Now do you actually want to physically or financially contribute? I've never seen a prayer feed a family to this day, but I've seen a couple of Euro do the job.