this is from jt.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "j t" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 11:05 PM Subject: DO YOU GIVE A DAMN ?
> If you care that someone somewhere is suffering needlessly, then how can > you live in peace? How can there be peace when the very system of society > we live under is at war against so many human needs? What brutalities have > to be committed under our noses before we pause to think, "Why should > these brutalities not be stopped?" What brutalities must be committed > against our own human consciousness for us not to even care? > > How damaged are they who hear the screams of starving children and watch > the self-torment of the mother with too little money in her purse and see > the old couple hobbling for miles because they can't afford transport and > say, "This is nothing to do with me - I don't care." > > Christians like to think they have the monopoly upon caring. They weep and > they pray for you and then they go on supporting the very system which > creates all this mess. They leave big things like systems to god. They > pray into the sky and they prey on the hopelessness of millions who fall > into their arms, exhausted, confused, uncared for. And then the millions > are told they are sinners. > > You get a better night's sleep if you try not to care. Being brutalised is > good for the quest for rest. (Others use hard drugs.) Watching that > documentary about the prison camp for young offenders in Khazakstan - > you'll know the one if you saw it, because it will have kept you awake too > - was a cue for several nights of anguish. > > Not the hand-wringing of the "nice" politician whose caring sincerity is > painted on each morning with cosmetics provided by Avon, but the > unstoppable caring of being a human and seeing what is being done to other > humans. A baby slowly dying of hunger or thirst is enough to bring a > sickness to the pit of your stomach. No wonder the apologists for the > profit system sometimes say that those of us who are against it are sick. > In a way, we are. > > But we should turn our sickness into something more than the despair of > empty care. Because however much we care or collect coins or campaigns or > hold rock concerts to complain against iniquities, the cause of the > trouble remains untouched. It remains and seems to laugh out loud at our > futile caring. Care as much as you want, it sneers, and see how much > feeling sorry for each other does for you. > > Caring isn't enough. But not caring is enough to dehumanise us. Those who > don't care have lost a big piece of their humanity. It is the piece which > resides in everyone else. > > So, it really is true that those poor wretches in Khazakstan need our > care, not least because the system which can so easily treat them like > dirt can next treat us like dirt. Just as it treats prisoners everywhere > like varying degrees of dirt. Remember the British prison governor who > resigned calling these places "penal dustbins"? > > And it can treat people on the dole like dirt. And it can treat like dirt > wage-slaves who are forced to sell themselves for whatever lousy job comes > along. And it can teach children in its schools how to prepare themselves > to be treated like dirt. And these may be your children, or you may be > those children who have grown up to be treated like dirt. And even if you > don't care that they treat you like dirt, I do because the dirt rubs off > on everyone. > > So, the starting point for doing what needs to be done is to care that the > world is how it is and that we are part of it. There will be no escape > through prayer. Lifetimes spent reforming little bits will at best remove > this or that speck of dirt from the system. But the system will still be > laughing - or, at least, the very few who profit from it will. > > Because profit will continue to come before need. That is the golden law > of the profit system. There is no avoiding it unless you care enough to > take on the system itself: to say quite simply that profit should not come > before need - that we don't need production for profit. > > One of the few signs of hope in a relatively hopeless age is that many, > many people are angry. Their anger all too frequently takes very > anti-social forms. But the anger indicates something about how they feel: > it indicates that they feel anything at all, and that discontent is in the > air. Even the kids who smash up public amenities because they hate the > world have not lost the urge to care about what the world is doing to > them. > > Acting upon this care and consciously organising this mass of discontent > is an urgent task. It's not an ideal or daydream about a bright new > future. These humans are being trapped in Khazakstan now. And they are the > tip of an iceberg of human wretchedness which, if we don't care enough to > do something soon, will eventually, and in one way or another, make > wretches of us all. > > Jt > > www.worldsocialism.org > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Everything you'll ever need on one web page > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts > http://uk.my.yahoo.com
