“To believe in this world, in this life, has become my most
difficult task.”
We closed the twentieth century with some optimistic
prospects for the future, well…once we looked past the stupidity that we were all
going to die when the computers had to count from 1999 to 2000. We had in front
of us a world of freedom and democracy. Maybe at the time I was just too young
(perhaps naïve) and didn’t see all the garbage, because now, several years
later I am peering into a world where particular ethnicities can’t walk the
street without getting looks of fear.
We have rapes and tortures, and I don’t
refer to the ones by the men and women walking the street, but by the people we
have sent to ‘defend our countries’. The western world is full of
contradictions and unspeakable double standards.
We’re created a world in which when 43 000 Iraqi civilians
are killed, there isn’t as much as a head turn from the majority of the public.
to spread democracy through foreign interventions is simply a drive to boost
their economy.
This world is sitting on the end at just over six billion
people and growing… a number that we know is not sustainable. Yet the west is
allowed to live in their completely consumer driven society, without any
consideration for the next generation of people. If not my children, my
grandchildren will be living in a totally different world, which could be
better, but could also be much much worse.
While people in other countries starve, and wear rags we are
living in a world where obesity is becoming a huge health concern, and is often
referred to as an epidemic. We don’t even have to walk out of our oil burning
cars to feed our 5 kids anymore, drive-bys have sped it all up, and made it
that much easier. It’s no wonder we need a million different pills to try and
make us all happy. Our happiness is fake. We get joy out of our oil burning
cars, consumer driven economy and the false hope that we’re actually helping
other countries.
…Where is the actual gratification in that? We see no
positive outcomes anymore. Bush’s war of ‘good versus evil’ has taken a turn
for the worse. Suicide rates among soldiers in
per 100 000. But where do you find the will to live when you simply can’t deny
anymore that you’re not fighting for freedom and democracy – but for oil and
politicians. We’re living in the ‘culture of death’.
“There is an anti-culture demonstrated by the flight to
drug, by the flight from reality, by illusions, by false happiness…in our
times, we need to say ‘no’ to the largely dominant culture of death.” Pope Benedict XVI
