I have been thinking a lot lately. And this is going to be a ramble, total word vomit. But I want to write it anyway. Because sometimes you have to let it out so it doesn’t implode within.
Watching the news lately has made me really consider the human condition. Not just that, but also my response to the human condition. I have also been thinking about what impact I have on the world and the people in it. Am I doomed to just live my little life, help a few people, and then go off into the great beyond? Or can I do more?
Can I… do more?
Do I need to do more?
Nobody said that a life is worth less if you are not a humanitarian hero, saving the lives of thousands – or at least trying your level best to. But somehow, with the world suffering so much, it feels like the only thing we should be striving for is living a life devoted to helping others.
Back to the human condition though – it has fascinated and awed and humbled and surprised me the way some people respond to tragedy, to crises, to ‘conflict’. Especially when they have no stake in the game whatsoever. What makes somebody, who has no real reason to care, care? I’m thinking of these people in the West, white people specifically, who have won the societal lottery, if we can call it that. They make up the majority of the ‘developed world’ (mostly thanks to colonialism and war crimes, but let’s put that aside for just the moment), and they could all turn a blind eye to the atrocities being committed around the world. Many do, of course. But I am spotlighting those who don’t. Those who look crises in the eye and say “I’m doing something about this”. Those who see injustice and do not stay quiet. Those who find bloodshed appalling, no matter whose blood is being shed. Their injustice is not conditional. It does not say “I only care when they look like me”.
I am, of course, aware that most POC minorities also think like this. And I am not discounting that or discrediting them – in fact, I am one of them. However, I have been amazed at the white people in the West and their response to the death of thousands of Arabs in Gaza, specifically because of the propaganda that has been targeting Arabs for – well, certainly as long as I have been alive. Seeing people who have been brought up to see the Arab world as lesser than, as evil, as wanting to destroy their freedom, come out in solidarity (and come out in their thousands) is just truly astounding and heartwarming and incredible. Something I didn’t think I’d ever see. Because I am so used to the rhetoric by now. So used to having to ‘whitewash’ myself, to smile at strangers so they don’t think I’m a threat, so they don’t think I’m what the TV says I am.
And surely it’s worse in the US. I have been watching many interviews as of late and it really hit me how much some people hate Arabs. I mean, of course I wasn’t oblivious. How can you be? But the real vitriol that exists out there is horrifying. Bassem Youssef said it in an interview with Piers Morgan the other day: “there is a deep sentiment in the Middle East and [amongst] Arabs that the West does not see us as equal”. It’s so simple. And so true. He looked so sad saying it. Because it is sad. Imagine feeling in your soul that a majority of the world does not see you as equal, does not see you as the same level of human as them, as not deserving of the same quality of life. It’s sickening, it’s heartbreaking. And it’s real.
At least when it comes to governments. Evil, power- and money- hungry governments. Because the people – even through all the propaganda that has been shoved down their throats all these years, through all the brainwashing, and the lies – have come out in support of Palestine. Overwhelming support. Every corner of the world is waving the red, green and black. Screaming to the skies, demanding freedom, justice, liberation. And what do the sick and twisted people in power do? They say it’s complex, they say they’re targeting the bad guys, they say it’s not their fault that civilians won’t leave everything they own and all they’ve ever known. They say the ones who are dying by the thousands, who have no food and water and electricity, they are the ones to be frightened of.
I have been filled with such immense hope seeing all the protests by people of all colours, creeds, religions, genders but, at the same time, that hope keeps shattering whenever I look at the politicians and the things they’re saying and the massacres they keep paying for. They use their power for nothing but destruction. When they have a chance to put an end to it they vote no – they say keep the bombs dropping. Or they don’t even give a vote, which is just as despicable. Imagine staying quiet when your voice could literally stop the deaths of thousands, of a whole civilisation.
I don’t know how to feel or what to think or what to say. What can I do – what can anyone do – against all that abused power? Protests have been going on for weeks and still the bombs keep falling. Still the politicians and the media say it’s complex. Still they call it a conflict when one ethnicity is being bombed out of existence and the other is dropping the bombs. It is exhausting and never-ending. Imagine living it. Imagine that was your reality. Sleeping at night, not knowing if you’re going to wake up, or, if you do wake up, not knowing if your loved ones did.
I mentioned before about how I was thinking about my reaction to the human condition. I say that because seeing people help others fills my heart with such intense emotion. I cannot name the emotion. I don’t know what it is. But it is overwhelming. It makes me cry, fills me with hope, is almost heartbreaking too. That last one because of all the injustice carried out in the world. The common man wants to help others yet the people who run our countries only care for their own interests. And they have the audacity to call it a democracy.
I watched a video that is completely unrelated to this – at least I thought it was. It was about a man trying to find humanity in Fortnite, of all places. It was a great video and then at the end it become exceptional. He is talking about how our natural instinct is to connect with people, to help people, to find a way to bridge the gap. There is a level of satisfaction you get from helping others that you can’t get from anything else. It is unlike anything else. It is dopamine to the nth degree – dopamine on crack.
There was nothing I wanted to get out of writing this except to get the thoughts out of my head. They’ve been festering for weeks now. I have made some sense of them by writing this. I think, what it comes down to for me is this: helping people is the only magic we have left. That is my belief statement. The truest thing I know. From this day forward, I pledge to help as many people in as many ways, big and small and maybe even infinitesimal, as I can. Every day, for as long as I shall live.
This is most likely a scream into the void but it is a scream I needed. I will continue to gain hope from amazing humans, be disgusted at politicians and their need for as much money and power they can bleed out of this world, and I will always write through my frustrations. Because that’s another thing – I watched another video about ‘what makes a story timeless‘ and the man said it was when an author wrote for a reason, a purpose, when they saw something wrong with the world and wanted to correct it. And I think I need to look further into that. What do I see out there in the world that needs correcting? And how am I going to go about trying to correct it? Sure I won’t do much alone – nobody can – but if we all start taking closer looks at the world around us and where it is lacking and what we want to uplift, then maybe, slowly, slowly, things will change. Maybe in big ways, maybe small, maybe even in infinitesimal ways. But change they will, and as long as humankind is at the centre of it, as long as we want what is best for collective humanity instead for our own personal gain, then the change will always, always, be for the better.
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Jewish Values vs. Israeli Policies: Why 5 young Jews disrupted Netanyahu
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