'The
brightest light is invisible. It shines through your deeds, and
warms the universe.' – Chronicles of Courage and Conviction,
by Captain Dylan Hunt Ret. (Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda)
This
world is one of messages – where at every corner a new cause
awaits, and in each of us there is a wealth of knowledge we never
knew we possessed. We are surrounded by the new and unknown with ever
greater frequency. And we have become numb, uncaring...
If
it were easy to allocate blame, I would have done that already. My
problem stems from the fact that we all seem
to be wrong – as a society, as a species even. The problem, I
think, comes from the way we have chosen to position ourselves in
relation to... well, everything. There is no other way than to shut
our eyes and our hearts to the pain of others – in this place we
have chosen, morality is not welcome.
The
crisis of ethics and morals, at least, may be easily speculated upon.
Is our inability to distinguish between what we feel as right and
that set forth by a fundamentally flawed system a sign of something
more significant? Does it, perhaps, pertain to the models of 'correct
behaviour' established by the artificial construct we inhabit? We are
encouraged towards individualisation and selfishness, rather than any
higher motive – we are not supposed to be better than we are,
apparently. We are not supposed to overcome our limitations and rise
above our selves. Not in a way that would help anyone else, that is:
becoming 'better' at the expense of others is a core aspect of our
definition of 'success', after all.
I
must apologise, my dear, vociferous readers, for this hopelessly
disorganised rant. This was not meant as a lecture on morality, but
rather as a question – a question that has been bothering me for
far too long... Why keep doing this, if we can choose to
be different?
Surely, we can be better than we are, can't we?
Perhaps
one day these questions will receive an answer. If we intend to rise
to the challenges that lie ahead, we must be better than we are... We
must better than we can.
