Humanity Can Do Better: We Devolve into Cruelty All Too Often

Humanity Can Do Better: We Devolve into Cruelty All Too Often

I started this post sometime last year as we were far into the Arab winter and other world travesties.

2016

And here we are, a third of the way through the present year; bad stuff continues.

The particularly brutal Islamic State has been going through their hard times; many Western powers and their local allies are pounding on this recent iteration of sharia and government, headquartered in western Syria.

Syria itself is a shambles, where the regime leader Bashar Al-Assad has been attacked by many sides and more vociferously called out for crimes against humanity, including the use of toxic Sarin gas against innocents, mere children.

The Russians that are present there and back home disagree. They have their troubles.

Vladimir Putin is playing by many of his own rules.

The former Cold War powers are playing their games of influence throughout the Arab world.

Former nation-states struggle to be one: Libya, Yemen, Iraq.

Somalia has not been one place since the early 1990s, perhaps earlier. I question if it ever was really under one central government, even as a colony.

South Sudan has too much infighting. Very deadly.

Yemen is threatened by severe malnutrition and hunger, besides the wars, as is much of eastern Africa.

Thousands of refugees try to cross borders, primarily destined for Europe. Some die by drowning along the way. Some get stuck in border nations, refugee camps.

Afghanistan is still wracked by problems of governance and stability. The poor and maltreated choose to leave, which is many.

Random terrorists from central Asian nations like Kirgyzstan and Uzbekistan attack targets in Sweden and Russia; Turkey suffers terrorist blows.

Chicago has had a bad year in violence, maybe it has been the last three...

Drug gangs hurt US populations, as they do in Mexico, and most likely Brazil. All over gangs have their effects of violence and counter-violence.

Venezuela sees many violent protests, there is a shortage of everything.

Chinese boats and military controlled islands and planes threaten the seas.

North Korea shoots off missiles and cries foul.

And yet, vast swathes of the world's population seem to mend their way ahead.

Without the killing. The bloodshed and brutality.

Still, our systems of justice seem strained to prevent hard realities of forced cruelty.

Is it cruel to abort unborn fetuses? Many Americans believe so unless there is proper justification. The rest of the world has its say.

Is it cruel to mine the lands and seas of fossil fuels, depleting the natural commodities of our planet and further polluting our waters and gaseous atmospheres?

Is it cruel to deprive a billion Chinese citizens of the freedoms of the Internet and the vagaries of free expression?

Is it mean or cruel to tax the majority of citizens to subsidize the health care of the most needy and forsaken?

What is mean, lacking sympathy? What is cruel? What do we deem unfair and nasty?

How can we let the people do such wicked things in so many places?

How can we be distracted? How can we go on day after day ensconced in our own little worlds of safety, peace, and abundance?

Deny the fact of extreme privations. Cruelty. Brutality. Want. Hunger. Thirst.

We are cruel.

We have to admit: we are a cruel and unfair people, truly deep down.

We don't care enough.

Some go and do.

I can name parents, brothers-in-laws, nephews, uncles and aunts. Good hearted friends. They have gone to West Africa, South Africa, India, Cambodia, Indonesia.

Trying to make a difference.

They have.

Made stabs against cruel fates of humanity.

How to kill this beast?

Keep searching for answers, beyond our comforts of home.

Keep searching and moving, thinking and reacting.

Do what it is supposed to be done. Be kind and brave, by going outside.

Outside your home. Your neighborhood. Your city. Your country.

Go beyond.

Your native language.

Go and be like the spiritual masters that have taught you.

Go and do.