Our society really values winning.
We create and play games to experience "winning" even though playing means there will be losers. We put our children into all sorts of competitions, create pyramids of hierarchy within the structure of religion, corporations, schools, oh, everywhere, carry a concept of "better than" and sometimes don't even notice our own scorn towards those beneath.
And we've extended this concept to life itself. We imagine ourselves to be the top species on the planet, and if the other life forms can't hold their own against us, too bad. Eat them, kill them, destroy their homes, poison every part of the planet.
Humans are intelligent creatures who shape their environments to match their preferences so bam, lo and behold, a society where people who have not "won" at the game of physical acquisition are considered "lower class." Those who don't match the description of the "winners" are treated as "less than." If you play into the game, you seek to work your way up. And someone still has to lose.
When we look at the position we are in, if we aren't fond of it, it makes sense to dig for the roots that created it instead of stopping at the fruit it has produced. Whatever leadership we have is fruit we grew. We created the conditions that naturally brought someone who could be the kind of leader we were asking for into office. We have someone who seeks "winning." That is our representation.
We decide our leadership on contests yet the majority of us can't describe the platform our political candidates stand upon because it's the "winning/losing" part that's important to us. Winning, winning, winning. Stack the odds. Rewrite the rules, even. Whatever works. Oh, is that "unfair"? Boo hoo. Sounds like something a loser would say. Losers don't matter to winners. They're in their rightful place, after all. Survival of the fittest! That's the way the world works! It's human nature!
Yet we are not so small that such impulses are our only drives. We contain the capability of infinite expressions, so it is also human nature to embrace the weeping, to volunteer after a disaster or during crisis, to give to those who need, to stand in solidarity with our fellow humans. To protect each other. To serve. It is human nature to love much more powerfully than it is to fear. We learn to erect the walls of fear.
We are so civilized that we have advanced technology and infrastructure, yet we still don't treat others with equal consideration because of a difference in skin color, religion, gender, orientation, nationality. Hell, some of us blatantly murder those whose existence doesn't fit with what we prefer. Yes. We give ourselves the authority to perform atrocities on other beings based on our preferences, and sometimes our preference is to hope someone else will do something because we don't believe we have the power to do anything ourselves. We're still letting banks put people out of their homes, letting insurance companies refuse treatment to the ill, and very, very commonly put people struggling to survive so far into debt, they exist in a state of indentured servitude they may work all their lives to pay it off. There are people who pour their life's energy into work that breaks down their bodies while it benefits someone else, people who keep themselves going for those two days off, or work other jobs so they have no days off. If that's someone's preference, sure. But if giving so much of one's self has become necessary just to live, goodness, can't we do "better" for each other?
Who wants to live in an unhappy, unfulfilled society of half-hearted, unequal, unfree souls? What sort of world is that? It's one we perpetuate by buying in, by playing the game of division, by believing there is any difference between "us" and "them." No one has any shadowy unseen authority over you unless you believe they do. Society is just people. It doesn't exist without us; it has no structure to hold us in place. Society is a fabric of relationships between individuals. This means we are the only ones who can make our choices for ourselves.
So why not choose a game where everyone wins? Why not make a game out of making life wonderful for each other? Can you imagine an economy where everyone has money instead of just a few? Can you imagine a nation/world of clever intelligent humans operating at a level where the basics for survival are taken care of so we can develop our beingness, our creations, our consciousness further? Imagine the capability of a population that can learn whatever it pleases to without limitation? Imagine a society that cares enough in their people to invest in THEM and their future?
"Who will work the shite jobs?" Which jobs are those and more importantly, why are they considered shite? If they're jobs you wouldn't want to do, isn't it fair to pay someone willing to do them for you? Aren't you glad you don't have to do them yourself? Doesn't a grocery clerk deserve to live with the same dignity as their manager? Doesn't a sanitation worker deserve as much basic human respect as a teacher, a politician, a brother, a sister, a mother, a father? Oh, how quickly boundaries dissolve with a little "walk in their shoes."
If a structure doesn't work for everyone, it doesn't work. We have so many more options than the presented visible ones. I can't say what choice will bring us to the brightest possible reality, because it's up to each of us how we choose to use what we experience, and in darkness we see our own light. We have had an intensely polarizing year with much darkness coming to light, but are we polarized enough yet to make the ever-important conscious choice between power, fear, or love?
In this moment, what do we choose? What do you choose?
