Dealing with Global Responsibility - What I've Observed

[charmsb]

Growing up means your eyes look past your house, your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country, even your entire continent. The evils of the world begin to reveal themselves. Now with the internet at our disposal, it's harder and harder to be confident in the state of the planet when you get berated by evil at every corner you turn. Slavery, warfare, ecocide, discrimination, genocide even, are all still real problems that the earth faces today. When all of this overwhelming information is given to someone, I feel that I have, and maybe many others, have reacted similarly to how we react to death. The five stages of grief.

For those who need a refresher, the 5 stages are:

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. It is believed we experience these stages, more or less in that order and quantity, when we grieve the passing of someone or even the loss of something else important to us.

Going forward, I want to discuss my views on the human reaction to worldwide evil and how knowing this reaction may help us to reach the end - Acceptance. I admit this is really based on anecdotal information and what I experienced as a bit of a 'preacher' to a certain issue that I'll eventually discuss. So if you disagree, it's probably a valid argument, and I'd like to hear it. As I write this, I realize I start to sound a bit superior, and I really want to clarify that I don't think of myself as such. I am not, and I am far from immune to these upcoming vices.

Denial

Never underestimate Denial. Humans want to be comfortable. They want to know their routine, and they want to see the world in a simple, easy to digest way. We want to see our world as a Utopia. In modern times, we judge celebrities and other powerful and popular figures on a black and white scale. Whether that is effective and deserved is another argument all together, but it does show that we just want things to be simple, and we don't want to think too much. So when something comes to make us question whether we were correct or acting morally or doing what was best, a common knee-jerk reaction is denial. I'll stop speaking so esoteric and generally here and use an example, which was the catalyst for me thinking about all this in the first place.

So, over a year ago now, something was happening to one of my favorite video game franchises and I felt the need to speak about it. Look at the site we're on, can you guess?

That's right! The franchise I'm talking about is Don't Starve. I'm sure you got that correct on your first try. So Don't Starve was one of my favorite games, and it's Multiplayer sequel Don't Starve Together became the driving force for a ton of change and maturation in my life.It was definitely something I needed in High school as a young lad without a purpose yet - something I can credit as a 'core', if that makes sense. But it wouldn't last so long. Don't Starve would be coming out with a problematic (at least, to me...) new mobile release - Don't Starve, New Home.

Don't worry, I'm not about to start preaching about how MOBIL GAMES NOT TRU GAMZ.... but about the questionable publisher, Tencent. That name should need little introduction for many of you, but long story short, its a huge Chinese mega corp that does just about everything in the entertainment industry. I could go on and on about how this company not only produces pretty horrible products but also is morally corrupt, but I'll save some time and just tell you that they made a mobile game called Clap for Xi where the goal is to clap as much as possible for Xi Jinping, current leader of the Chinese Communist Party. That should clue you in that this company is highly suspected of having strong ties to the Chinese government. If you don't know why the Chinese government is bad, well, I don't have all day, but they are pretty horrible, so do some research if you want.

I took it upon myself to preach about the horrors of this company on my Don't Starve centered youtube channel. Looking back, I can see how my strategy was probably not the best. I attempted to shock the public by directly correlating the company to the CCP without much introduction. I thought going right to the shock factor would help people make a better decision, but...

Never underestimate Denial. Denial is a way to return to the comfort zone, and humans love the comfort zone.

I try not to hold too much contempt for those who denied it all, but it was hard as someone who had figuratively 'left the cave' to not quickly become frustrated with these people. Common arguments against my call for a boycott were things like 'This other mega corp is also bad, so yeah', 'No one can do everything correct, so why bother?' 'No ethical consumption under capitalism', 'I can't make a change on my own!' etc. None of them directly countered the obvious problem of Tencent being a shitty company, and none of them succeeded in justifying the download and consuming of a passing time-waster of a mobile game. They were creating excuses in order to not make an informed consumer decision, which I've seen many, MANY people do, including myself, in the past. The truth is, as I will claim, is that the system is not going to change by a skillful assassination of a billionaire or the lucky company collapse. It has to change from the people in the system - if the system will ever even change at all. And that has to start with a handful of people going against the grain.

Anger

Anger blinds us. In a fit of fury and rage, our eyes open and then close again upon seeing injustice. Yeah, I'm a bit of a poet, ever heard of it?

When I started to, as many people say, 'wake up', I only remember anger. I was a pretty close-minded kid. Getting into politics, I argued with idioms and sayings regurgitated by 'politicians', which I and many others treated like prophets. After all, it's easy to think of yourself as infallible and believing in 'the right thing' all the time rather than keeping an open mind and having our world view constantly challenged. But when you do break through this Denial, Anger follows.

There's shock, sadness, and then anger when you see the world corrupted by evil. You want to challenge it, to change it for the better, and make sure that everyone responsible pays. In truth, I don't think we ever leave this stage, and I for SURE have not. I was rooting for that dick-shaped rocket with Jeff Bezos in it to blow up like the rest of us. But does that even solve anything? Is our quest for Utopia truly earned through power and dominance?

It's easily conceivable, acceptable, and honestly, even correct to be angry with the world. It sucks. But we sometimes get lost in this anger. And soon, as we keep fighting, the darkness takes hold and makes our life insufferable.

Once, my girlfriend told me how I see the world incredibly pessimistically. I wanted to believe I was an optimist, but she was right. Every passing image of a celebrity, every mention of injustice, every little societal imbalance could send me into a long-winded rant. I still hold my beliefs as true and my anger as justified, but I was letting my anger consume me. I was beginning not to enjoy life. There was always a problem I needed to tackle. I never let go. I always spoke out. But our brains can't take all of this. Eventually, we tucker ourselves out, and we start yearning for a better world.

Bargaining

The world sucks, and it has always sucked. But that didn't stop humans and the humans before us to start imagining Utopia. A fictional point in time or space where problems are a thing of the past. Where there would be no need for a protest or a petition - everything had been solved. Infinite energy, worldwide wealth, positive thoughts all around.

When we see all that is wrong with this world, we can't help but imagine our personal Utopia. One where the people we love are happy, where the issues that matter the most to us are a thing of the past. I do this sometimes. It's a nice escape. But it will never be reality. In time, it becomes more and more apparent that the nuance behind worldwide corruption leads to a lot of complicated moral questions with no easy solutions. There will ALWAYS be someone getting the short end of the stick.

We've seen many world leaders in the past and present (and future, eventually) try to create Utopia. If we look at their end goal, the Utopia is real - without concern for history, people would be seemingly happy and carefree. But do the ends justify the means? Don't want racism? Make one race. Don't want poverty? Make everyone 'equal'. etc. etc. etc. Hope I stayed objective there, interpret those last few words how you see fit. I want this message to speak to everyone.

But we continue to Bargain, despite the pointlessness. Maybe if we do this, or we ignore this, or try this, or this person dies, or this person gains power, everything will all be okay...

But eventually we realize that, yeah, it might be pointless.

Depression

Throughout history, we have always been fighting for what we believe to be right. We protest, petition, and campaign for our Utopias. But every time we make an accomplishment, another issue arises for society to deal with. Look no further than the history of discrimination. There is always a new group to fight for or against. So do we ever stop fighting? If Utopia isn't real, then... no. We will never stop having to fight or the world to be good.

And though we bring with us our Anger, and we Bargain every now and then, and even occasionally slip back into Denial... we are now Depressed.

The world sat on our shoulders, and we collapsed under its weight. There is an inescapable feeling of despair and desolation now. Sometimes we find Depression quickly, and sometimes we fall apart much later after finding out that the world isn't so cute and cuddly.

Some of us give up, and some of us fall apart as we keep fighting - but we all end up here one way or another. And this is where I'd say many, MANY of us are - including myself. Problems at home, and problems overseas, all add up and crush us in to submission. It doesn't matter what you believe in. The status quo will never be your utopia, and it really, really sucks when we find this out. I can't truly think of many people, if any at all, that have gotten past this stage. It's hard to even believe that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel of all of this. But I believe there can be, and I strive to get to it.

Acceptance

At the end of the grieving process is Acceptance. It's an odd, bittersweet feeling. It isn't so much 'moving on' as it is 'moving forward'. The loss you face is real, it sucks, but if we accept it, we don't let it crush us any longer. We will rarely feel depression, we never bargain, we make peace and lose our anger, and denial is gone for good. This is the true Utopia. It doesn't mean to give up or to stop fighting. It just means to learn to be happy again in a world that never wants you to feel this emotion.

The world sucks. It always will. We can keep fighting, as we should, but it will always suck. This isn't meant to undermine what we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish, but the reality is that there is always a bigger fish to fry. And that reality usually destroys our will to be happy unless we accept it.

As children, we don't seem doom and gloom. We see new possibilities, optimism, and hope. We live in an ignorant bliss. As we age and encounter corruption, a common sentiment is a want to return to the time when we felt this way. When life didn't suck, and when every new thing was exciting. We think that the answer lies in going back to those years or going forward to death. It lies in neither. The answer lies in the now, and the drive to get up everyday despite the overwhelming odds.

To truly beat the system is to accept the system and be happy. We gain an uncrushable determination to fight and a serene calm. While simultaneously fixing it for the better, we find peace in it. The people in control don't want this hope and happiness. You become uncontrollable if you have hope. You become uncrushable if you have acceptance. If you aren't frustrated, you cannot be manipulated.

I think this video helps to sum up my feelings on acceptance:

It's moreso about how we view success and the journey to it rather than our drive to campaign and create a better world, but the message of acceptance still stands.

 

I hope one day we can reach this new childhood, a new stage of bliss. It doesn't come at the cost of our will to right the wrong, but it helps us to be happy in a world that hates us. So at the end of the day, my message is to appreciate what you can about our world. We still have flowers to smell and people to love. It may not be perfect, but it's our world, and it's the only one we're gonna get, so we might as well try to enjoy what we can.