Friday 1 September 2017

Social Justice Made Easy

Do you wince, feel queasy if you see someone getting hurt, or worse, beaten up? Not in TV programs or movies but in real life.

Do you feel for another being if they are publicly shamed and you can see the pain their eyes?

Do you get angry when you hear  a loved one retell an incident that caused them suffering because of someone else?

Are you filled with rage after listening to endless headlines about accidents, wars, flood and fires, with thousand to millions dying because of the ambitions of a few?

If you answered yes to more than one of these - remember this is empathy. This is a part of your human nature that implodes in your mind and heart.

You were born with compassion. It is your birthright and the reason you have lived long enough to read this - because those who cared for you mostly had compassion and empathy, and because those who cared for you were cared for by others.

Social justice is a complex and complicated subject, and unlike car mechanics, changes as we become more aware.  Also it is not easy to get other people to agree on all its parts. There are different reasons why we can't agree on everything, but one thing I believe is, in societies that treat some members like gods and others like trash we all suffer.

Unless we are psychopathic narcissists, our relationship to neighbours, leaders, and relatives, is a primary factor in our happiness. We need to live among healthy happy people most of the time in order to be happy ourselves.

So when sponsored sources claim that the market is the universal measure of success and there is no such thing as society, it is a lie and it will make you miserable - unless you're a narcissist of course.

And when slogans say over and over again, that you have a duty to yourself to win, to rise to the top, to be the best looking most sought after woman or man in the world, and you barely notice the refrain because you have heard it ever since you were a toddler - please ask yourself who benefits?

So to get back to the task of creating a world that allows you to be happy, a world you want your children to live in, think about all the things you have done in your life that made you or someone else happy. That's social justice in the making and you don't have to be a sociologist to do it.

However a world built on social justice will take the majority of our species to understand its value and work towards that, and not get side-tracked by money and status.

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