You have to choose a side
The war begun by Putin against Ukraine is going into horrible, bloody years now. There is a fresher war in Gaza, as Israel takes on Palestine. There are lesser publicized wars, such as in Sudan and elsewhere. We also have drug wars, civil war rebellions, terrorist strikes, ethnic conflicts, and insurgencies.
We could easily enough, have had an insurgency in the USA that led to a greater conflagration. Maybe, we still will. For now, that one is just keeping warriors enraged online and selling ads as people take sides and fire their twitter fingers. (I am still going to call them Twitter fingers because speech wars just drag out into more turmoil and confusion than they are worth.) People easily buy into the polarity of taking “sides.”
You are told you have to choose a side. Let’s deconstruct that idea.
In all of our stupid wars, the biggest war of all simmers on the back burner.
And it’s getting hotter every day.
We, humanity, are in a war against nature. Fighting ourselves, heating the planet, and finding useful targets to aim at, each and every day. Meanwhile biodiversity is dwindling, tipping points are being reached, people, animals, and much of life is being destroyed.
We face a world without penguins, and of course, without a very great deal of all beauty and diversity that makes Earth magnificent.
What is going on, here?
I read recently that the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, made the case that because he has two sons, one Black the other not, that he can now see the importance of things like racism — specifically the murder of George Floyd — as a terrible thing.
That does not bode well for those of us who do not have a Black son, or for those who do not even care to know the names and faces of people murdered in Sudan. Or Gaza. Or Ukraine. Or anywhere. We are eight billion, we rightfully must learn to care about those we don’t know, not to mention the living systems and beings that make life happen.
We have to make that connection, even if we don’t have a personal relationship to a particular person or place. Because in all honesty, we do have those relationships, even if we don’t realize it.
Why are we so intent upon bombing, fighting, and obliterating each other when for the good of all living people and planet, we could rise up and fight the forces of evil that cause this?
In short, we have seen the enemy, and it is us.
There is more than one reason. But, at its core, we do not see one another or the world as worth preserving. In fact, we justify killing — even other human beings — by denoting them from their humanity. In a real sense, we do not even prize them as natural beings.
We all would rather eliminate, or at least think we could do without, those beings that don’t seem to enhance our daily lives. If we live online, this becomes almost all supportive beings. When we connect to an actual world, we find it’s full of possibility.
If we did not see others as disposable, or see the world as disposable, we would defend and protect it.
When workers are replaceable, goods are easily obtainable, exclusive faith is defensible, the mega wealthy and powerful are laudable, and constructs such as money, borders, nations, are imaginable, we will likely continue with such drives.
What about crusades, holy wars, drug wars, and more?
The war you should support is for life on Earth.
It is the greatest challenge we have ever faced, much bigger than even the greatest war, greatest generation, or greatest moon shot.
We are in the fight of our lives.
It’s not just racism, sexism, classism, or even speciesism. We can see value that is before our faces, but we can’t see ourselves as our own worst enemies unless we learn that we are capable of setting aside beliefs that once appeared to serve us.
“Us versus Them” served us well when the world was abundant and felt limitless. Through commerce and conquering, our bias against the other served a purpose and kept the rich, powerful, and influential, as representative of the tribe, region, country, or empire.
But that world is gone, and our ways haven’t changed with it.
We can change, though. And, in the past, we have.
There are movements and crusades that are worth our attention and effort. We can be against rich drug lords, whether they are legal big pharma or terrorizing gangs. We can be against authoritarians, or bigots. We can be for laws that restrict pollution or that eliminate deplorable work conditions.
Or, we can be FOR things. We can be for a truly free media that isn’t out to sell anything. We can be for laws that lift up voices. We can be for positive leaders that act and inspire. We can be for natural landscapes, clean water, natural splendor, and more.
We can identify our loved ones, maybe even our neighbors, as worthy of caring for, but over time we have forgotten our connections to all living beings that create the biosphere.
Like Mike Johnson and his Black son, we have to connect to one another in meaningful ways that we can sense are real.
We are in a highly hazardous world, then. Yet, there are still many people who can actually see there is value in both human diversity and biodiversity. In fact, in the right circumstance, every person can see it. This usually happens when one feels a sense of solidarity and oneness with the world.
It happens on a small scale when people are at a concert or festival that moves them. It happens when a movement for social or climate justice hits a harmonic of belonging. It happens when you set aside what you fear losing and embrace what you can gain.
So join the fight, the only truly holy war that is worth fighting for, our humanity, and our belonging.
What we have to gain, is after all, the whole world.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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