The State of our World

Tonight Sophie brought to my attention a news story from the states.  Watching this youtube video all I could think was, what the fuck?  Eight teenagers are in trouble for beating a sixteen year old girl.  They called the girl to the house, knocked her out, and when she woke up persisted to beat on her.  All the while they were recording the event, and police believe had intention of posting the video to the internet.  Now six girls involved in the violence, two boys who were “look out” are facing possible conviction for the sake of beating up one girl.  The authorities are looking to charge the attackers as adults, for which they would receive jail time for the premeditated crime.  This is the State of our World.

The world we live in today has become desensitized.  This isn’t a new idea, but i don’t think the problem is ultimately that we are desensitized to violence.  I believe we have become desensitized to ethics and morals.  Violence can be used as a metaphor in media, to make a statement or to provide entertainment.  The problem only arises when nothing is done to educate people on acceptable ethical behavior.  Violence permeates every facet of life, from books, tv, music, movies, news and video games.  But where is there any program to teach ethical thought process and reasoning?  We have left it to religion to teach ethics.  This is terribly wrong.  Religion is not a basin of morality and ethics.  To see this we do not need to look any further than the church sex scandal of a few years ago, the US current involvement in Iraq, or any other war within the course of human history.  The biased thoughts and behavior of various religious sects are at the core of all of them, feuding with each other.  The crusades, the treatment of aboriginals by settlers, Nazi Germany’s attempt to rid Jews from Europe, Israel and Palestine, the US and EVERYBODY (because the US believes, as Christians, they have the right to decide other countries fates because they are holiest of thou as well as have the right to any and everything in the world….that’s a separate blog post lol).
Morality and Ethics is best handled by philosophy and yet at this point in time basic philosophy on morals and ethics is not taught in any form until university.  At that point it is something the student has to have discovered at their own leisure.  Far beyond the need for understanding and knowledge at an early age to start off adult or even teen life with a set of boundaries and guidelines for acceptable behavior.

It is hard for anyone to be able to see the problem with standards when the leaders of the country (US) and the “free world” are so morally bankrupt.  Lead by example.  But the leaders are so lost in their greed of money and power that any decision which is of personal benefit is seen as a good decision.  Weather it destroys millions of peoples lives, causes catastrophic disasters, or could ultimately end to the destruction of a livable environment.  As long as the paper is green its all good.  It is widely accepted by the public that they went to war for oil, religious beliefs, MONEY, every reason except to look for terrorists.  But what has been done?  When all your leaders, the people you look to for proper governing, proper treatment and upholding of values are so devoid of empathy for human suffering how can you expect people as a collective under these people to act any better.  The under lying message being delievered is Violence is OK if you get what you want or if you feel you have been wronged.  No body takes the time to consider rationally what has REALLY been done to them or what their actions in a fit of rage could really do to somebody else.
It has become so acceptable that random violence is becoming a past time for bored people.  Without  a proper education system with creative endeavors, peoples minds are becoming distorted.  Minds are not focused or enlightened and no creative input has left a void to be filled when emotions arise.  Given current cultural climate the outlet for emotions without creativity is violence and hate.  It is the easiest and most widely acknowledged form of emotional expression, and without sound reasoning and ethical state of mind to back it our society seems to be on a perpetual decline towards a state of emergency.

The attack on the young girl was fueled by emotion, poor tolerance and unimaginative hate, but it is not uncommon.  Some time ago, but still in recent history of the past 3-6 months, a part of my own family was the victim of senseless violence.  My cousin was taken by people he believed were his friends behind a shopping plaza and gang-beaten.  They took from him more than their friendship, and inflicted more than just physical pain.  This is not acceptable behavior in any type of society and we should all see it as a cry for the need of a revolutionary approach to how we teach ethical behavior and moral thought.