From Network movie on media: “I don't know what to do about…the Russians and [Syria, Afghanistan, illegal aliens, etc.]
“All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say: 'I'm a human being…
But first, get up out of your chairs,
open the window,
stick your head out,
and yell...
AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE
THIS
ANYMORE!”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Network
For the last few years, especially in politics and religion, life has become so troubling, with even more wrong and unethical speeches, actions, and behavior by conservatives and liberals.
I’ve alternated between a sense of hopelessness and my commitment to the Good no matter what, but this last few weeks,
with the reality show of the American government getting much worse, even its defending freedom-denying Saudi Arabia's persecutions, ruthless murder and bombings, all the constant uncivilly by Republicans and Democrats, the endless falsehoods....
I feel like—without the name-calling, demeaning, bullying and lying—going to my window here on the central coast of California and YELLING, "I'm as mad as hell...
HOWEVER, while that scream might relieve some of my angst, anger against injustice and selfishness of Americans, and anger against horrific religious and non-religious beliefs, etc., it wouldn't solve any of the seemingly endless wrongs being committed.
What solutions do you have to overcome this many headed-hydra debacle of the 21st century?
HERE'S MY PLAN OF ACTION (after I rant and rave against all the WRONGS, ALL THE INJUSTICE, ALL THE ARROGANCE, SELFISHNESS...)
1. Write another email for Amnesty International for a prisoner of conscience.
2. Vote for CIVIL political leaders to replace the mess.
3. Offer LIFE-STANCE alternatives to the horrors of creedal Christianity, Islam, etc.
4. Continue to support outreach organizations such as World Vision, MCC, Habitat for Humanity, etc.
which make practical real-life differences to individual humans suffering from impoverishment, injustice,
inequality, lack of clean water, and so forth.
5. Urge more people to read Enlightenment Now by psychologist Steven Pinker, and other books supporting reason, compassion moral realism, altruism, equality, human rights, and justice.
6. Write more articles, poems, and fiction for Goodness' sake.
7. Continue to search for a local group which works for human flourishing and the wonder of God.
8. Seek new ways to live a true life.
9. Keep in mind the wise words of Howard Zinn (and others) when we continue to face immorality and injustice year after year:
"TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives…If we remember those times and places…where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
--Howard Zinn
"I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.
--Martin Luther King Jr.
"True religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart does love and reverence God the Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness...I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions, but believed that sincere, upright-hearted people, in every society, who truly love God, were accepted of him.
--John Woolman
10.
In the Light of Truth, Goodness, and Civility,
Daniel Wilcox
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