Quote of the Day...

  • "It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." Alan Cohen

Saturday, July 23, 2011

What do we really learn from the past?



Happy Saturday! Do you ever feel like you are being watched? Or do you prefer to be the watcher? I don't mean in a creepy way, just more of an observer of life.  I love people watching and am constantly amazed by the variety of people in this world. What I find even more interesting is while we are all so different, we are all basically the same. We all want the same things - love, happiness and enjoyment in life.  The end results and methods to achieve the goals may be different, but perhaps that is more directly linked to culture and geography, than something larger or sinister.

Today the news is dominated by the tragedy in Norway. While it is horrible beyond words, it is not the first time something like this has happened, nor will it be the last.  Some argue that it has been happening more because we see it more, but others say it is simply a matter of us knowing /hearing more because of the reach of news media.  Yet there is another part about the events and horrors we are not shown, yet are still out there, beyond our knowledge and reach. Either way, it is hard to actually understand the level of reach and influence on those who are aware.

Telling a story can bring attention to a cause or reason and be good, or can be an audience to fuel someone with other motives.  The fame game creates a much larger scope for those who are damaged among us, to operate within.  There is no way to govern this or to reduce the impact, just as there is no way to make it stop, if it received no attention.

The traditional argument of nature vs. nurture exists and will remain, for as long as humanity remains on this planet.  Right or Wrong. The reasons behind our actions are sometimes plain and other times cloaked. The one thing that is clear, is some animals kill to protect their lineage, survival of the fittest etc., but humans are the only ones to kill for sport.

When did the value of life become so casual? Is it our generation where war is a word we have grown up with? With so many conflicts happening in the world at all times, do we just accept it as normal?  Have we become oblivious and unable to understand the mechanism? Do the ends really justify the means? Do we kill so we are not killed? Perhaps in war, but not in regular daily life.  Why are video games so popular? By feeding into an agression we all have for survival purposes, does it too lose its boundaries and become something it should never have been?

I don't profess to have any solutions or even know all of the questions....but if every generation learns from the past, what exactly is it they are learning?

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