Robert
Downey Jr.
Thanks to movies and TV, we are all
familiar with the zombie apocalypse to the point where we have fantasized about
how we would handle ourselves within that improbable eventuality. There is some
morbid attractiveness to the idea of being able to handle hordes of mindless
monsters without owing them even the slightest pity or consideration as even
the most heinous acts are viewed as heroism in support of the greater good.
Such have been our fantasies that even the Pentagon has developed a national
contingency plan in case Zombies try to take over.
The sad part of this fantasy is how
we’ve embraced this mentality within our society, not against zombies, but
rather against each other. We grouped together into little cliques of survivors
as we set off to fight our own “zombie hordes.” We stopped looking at each
other as humans with the capability of having different points of views and
different perspectives within the same topic, as we embraced an “Us vs. Them”
attitude where “Us” are right and “Them” deserve whatever we can throw at them.
People fashioned themselves as
activists, posting their protest about one issue or another, were online media
sites desperately scurried to fine the new offensive material to condemn or the
new scandal to criticize. Everyone desperately seeks to became a victim or a
champion of victims, as we unfriended, trolled, or attacked anyone who thought
differently from us. And we all rejoiced at what great people we became as we
dove head first into justifiable assholism. If we stop and looked at what
happened, we would realize just how horrible of a society we are creating in
our need to find enemies to fight or victims to defend.
There is an advantage of having
enemies or of being a victim that we refuse to admit. As we define an enemy and
refuse to view them as equal to us, we can assign all the evil and badness of
the world to these people while viewing ourselves as having ownership of all
the goodness and moral high ground. This allows us to wallow in our own anger
and resentment, as we are given free rein to abuse people. We feel that we
can’t be held accountable for our own actions as the label of victimhood
absolves us from doing any evil, no matter what we are doing, as our actions
are justifiable. We keep telling ourselves how we would be good natured and
caring if it wasn’t for those “enemies” who deserve our attacks.
And that feels good. Real good. Just
as with the zombie apocalypse, we can now be as drastic as we want while being
a hero working for the greater good. To justify this mentality and fanatism, we
post up memes calling out the evils of indifference or even the virtues of
having enemies, as we troll, harass, lie, stretch the truth, threaten, and even
physically assault anyone who disagrees with us. And we do this all while
calling out those same actions from our counterparts.
We see this in both Conservatives
and Liberals. We see this in both Feminists and Men’s Rights Activists. We see
this in both #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter. We see this within the
religious and even in those fighting class warfare. In reality, we see this in
any groups who fashion themselves as fighting for a “cause.” Ironically, if you
sit down and have an open minded conversation with anyone within these
different groups, you realize that each hold some shard of truth and from each
you could learn. Believe it or not, you can actually find some knowledge, or at
the very least some understanding and empathy, even within the bigot, the
racist, the sexist, and even the homophobe.
Keep in mind that in no way I’m
promoting any kind of discrimination or abuse, but rather calling out the
socially acceptable discrimination and abuse disguised as social justice. The
problem with calling out this kind of oppression is that we refuse to
acknowledge when we do it, as we find it justified as we have turned the world
into black and white ideologies, were you are either with me or an enemy.
We have polished this mentality so cleverly
that we even created a concept to condemn anyone who criticizes our actions or
exposing our hypocrisy. To avoid the possibility discussion brought up by
others that we are doing something wrong, we call out their “privilege,” as we
try to silence them through shame or guilt. We’ve gone so far with the
“privilege” guilt trip discourse that some are made to feel that the only way
to remove the shame of their gender, race, social class or any other personal
situation is through the purgatory of combating their own. It’s amazing how we
see nothing wrong with condemning someone over the personal situation, often
one that they can’t control, as we use guilt and shame as little more than a
tool for oppression.
So what can you do?
You can win by refusing to play this
game. You have to realize that these hypocrites find their position validated
with every share of online posts. You have to understand that social media sites
profit from every controversial article as their hit counters pile up. All you
have to do is sit back and stop playing their game as you realize the only
power something has over you is the one you give it. Understand that the
protest du jeur will be forgotten within a couple of weeks, as the moralist
vultures move on to the next cause.
Work on yourself and on bettering
yourself, and stop measuring your worth based on what group you belong. You can
believe in gender equality without putting down anyone else. You can be a
conservative on some topics, while being a liberal on others. You can be a
traditionalist and a modernist at the same time. One ideology doesn’t trump the
other. Disagreeing with someone doesn’t make you better than them. How you
treat them in spite of disagreeing with them does.
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