After a recent conversation with long-time Human Rights advocate Jack Healey, followed a 13 hour bus/train journey to Charleston, SC, I felt inspired to share some of the thoughts running through my head.
The number one threat to Human Rights is not the very small, I repeat, very small percentage of psychopaths...it's capitalism. It's the incentives behind the decisions of all those who consistently ignore the suffering of their fellow person, who write a check to some charity to calm their aching conscience, but who secretly voted for Trump because they knew he'd make their business money with his regulation cuts...the very same regulations that protect us at a minimum to even consider one another...isn't good, non-cancer-causing food a human right? Isn't access to clean water a human right? Isn't it? The psychopaths couldn't possibly have power unless the majority of the people gave it to them.
At this point, the big money capitalists destroying this planet are like that last drunk gambler at 4am taking chips out on credit knowing very well they don't have any means to pay but until WE, yes all of us, close this bank down and stop giving him what we don't even have to give, we all know how this story's gonna end!
Our parents chased the American Dream - and in direct proportion to their capacity to ignore the groans of those on whose backs they were climbing, many achieved. They negotiated with the devil, they drank champagne at his soirées and they danced on the illusion of abundance, living in the moment and making lots of decisions that would leave this generation staring straight into the eyes of the apocalypse.
Millennials aren't lazy...we're hopeless. We're angry, and rightfully so at the world yinz have left us with and we feel powerless and depressed. We saw the GDP blow up with the houses, the cars, and the people, too and yet so did suicide rates, anxiety, depression, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and overdose deaths. The pharmaceutical industry put us on ritalin at 7 years old and you were so busy working that you were just happy to have a magic pill to calm us down.
In the meantime, the agricultural industry lied to us and continues to destroy the environment and our health with it's lame excuse for food and whether or not Neil ever even made it we all have absolutely no desire to live on the desert of a moon. The economy you all created left us with student debt through the roof and when we voted for Bernie y'all voted for Hilary even though everyone knew she'd never make it. She reminds us of every upper middle class American mother who let us down so why would we choose her?
Honestly, making money can't be the point. Our parents aren't any happier. Our society is more and more divided by class and let's be honest, race, and we didn't get any great qualities from all your presents...we just got addictions and the only gift, if we were lucky enough, is the gift of desperation that motivates us to do something different.
So rather than criticize us for being lazy, why don't you learn from us and put the dollar bill down so you can start to recover. The disease of capitalism is cunning, baffling, and insidious, but lucky for you we've already faced the consequences and we're here for you as soon as you're ready for something different.
Why don't people in the developed world react more strongly to human rights tragedies in developing countries or in still developing areas of their own country? It's simple: they are addicted to their lifestyle and not ready to give up what would need to be given up in order to assure a humane world for all.
The first step to recovery is admitting that there's a problem. There is. Now let's talk about how to fix it.
