A Deeper Problem

With all of the crap we are dealing with in this country, it's easy to not think about other parts of the world. But we aren't the only ones with an oligarchy issue. Or a fascism issue. Or a racism issue. Or a wealth gap issue.

On a broader scale, here are some headlines, just from today: Zambia withdraws four NWSL players from matches in China over United States ‘travel measures’; Hungary welcomes Netanyahu and announces it’s quitting top war crimes court; Hundreds of thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza 'security zone'; South Africa's white Afrikaner separatists want Trump's help to become state; Russia bans Elton John AIDS Foundation to defend 'spiritual and moral values'.

So, black women who play soccer/football for a living won't be heading to China for an international tournament because they fear not being able to get back into the US to play for their professional teams; an international pariah and leader of a genocide travels to the land of another international pariah/dictator, who tells the rest of the world to fuck off with your international criminal court; that same genocidal leader continues to push that same genocide even while travelling because you wouldn't want to miss a day of killing innocent people; if there's anyone in the world who could help us be superior white assholes, it's gotta be FOTUS and President Elmo, right? Besides, one of them was born here, he should come home now; an independent foundation dedicated to saving lives (and supporting the LBGTQ+ community worldwide) is told to fuck off, we would prefer that all the gays die.

Look, these problems have been around for millennia, and they can't be solved in a single day. But we also never had access to so much information, timely information, before. What this does is give us a perspective on the world as a whole and how interconnected we are and how deep-seated are so many peoples' fears. Those fears are often projected onto others, be it in a small bar when one loudmouthed asshole tells another patron that they don't like the way they look, or dress, or speak, because they fear that they might also have some gender-identity issues and dad told them to never, ever acknowledge fluid genders via a belt, because their dad did the same thing to them, or via the state media wing to an entire populace for all of the same reasons and the media is the belt. (Run-on sentence there. Phew.)

As humans we seem to have a deep-seated fear of the unknown and we often project that fear onto others, either as individuals or as a group. When we find another person who harbors those same fears we latch onto them, and then we try to find some more people who feel the same way. This group mentality then allows us (in our own heads, not societally) the freedom to believe "everybody" really feels this way and they just need to let it out and join us. And we'll beat them into submission for their own good if they tend to not agree with us. The problem here is that at no point was there any internal reflection as to why they feel this way. Communal therapy actually works - just look at AA.

Over here we have Benjamin Netanyahu and Victor Orban yucking it up together, thumbing their noses at the rest of the world and its so-called humanity. You know, the parts where we don't go in for killing an entire society because they aren't of the same religion (that shit again), and the parts where we generally believe that other people should have the dignity to live the way they want because IT DOESN"T AFFECT ME. Think, for a moment, what "hundreds of thousands flee(ing)" means. There are only 124 cities in the entire US with total populations above 200,000. Imagine a completely empty Little Rock or Richmond. The sheer magnitude is astounding.

Afrikaners looking for a separate state? Who knew this might occur again? Way, way back in the 80's I was on a committee to analyze corporate investments in South Africa and then to implore those same entities to divest of same. Nelson Mandela was a monumental figurehead in the fight for desegregation, not just in that country, but for the whole world. History is replete with conquering people, tribes, nations, but man, the white ones are some of the worst. It may be that the reach of the white man (and I stress the word man here, because generally women aren't the instigators) coincided with the Industrial Age's rapid increase in weapons capabilities, but jesus christ white men sure can be assholes. I have never understood what seems to be an inherent belief that they are superior to anyone else. But yeah, subjugation didn't last in South Africa, so let's make our own state with no fucking blacks and we'll have that asshole in America lead the way. (Shout out to Corey Booker here for the pure poetry of breaking a segregationist's record!)

And then there is the "gay" problem. It's not, but it sure does seem like it is. Again, I'm pretty sure we're dealing with projection here. What the hell is wrong with ambiguity? One of the absolute joys of being a human is you are who you are, and I am who I am, and we connect, or we don't. It simply isn't necessary to connect, other than for propagation of the species, so why does the way another person lives their life affect you? It doesn't, in any way. Another person being queer doesn't mean you can't get gas for your car, or take your kids to a t-ball game, or climb a corporate ladder, or go to a movie. The only way another person being queer can affect you is IF YOU LET IT. This is not a societal problem, it is a personal problem - not mine, yours. And to project that onto an entire community, one that suffers from both emotional and physical trauma, is inhuman.

In my lifetime I have been witness to so many marvelous things - the Civil Rights Act, the Summer of Love, color TV's, PC's, the Velvet Revolution - and so much horror - Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Jonestown - that it is hard to comprehend at times. So much kindness and so much evil, the yin and yang of human nature, have always been with us, and I have got to hang onto the hope that we are not utilizing technology and all of its potential to simply run other people into the ground. To what end? If no one is left with an education, or healthcare, and there are no lines of supply to make all of the things, will it be any fun to be an oligarch?