September is here!
First miles of the month done! I felt stiff, sore, and slow. But I kept a decent pace. Kept in mind the whole time, tomorrow is an off-day! I really should plan out a long run for Saturday or Sunday. I haven’t figured it out yet. It is time for another long run though. And with that, I just checked in on the Puglia Marathon site to see what the deal was. Looks like December 18th! Come January I’ll start planning out and budgeting out Summer marathons. I need to get Asia done at least.
So running today, a song came on the walkman mp3 player. Yes, I use Sony, always counterculture with me. You buy an iPod, I buy a walkman. Anyway, I started thinking. I’m not any better, or any worse than the very best or the very worst human beings on the planet. That’s where all this comes from. It dawned on me. Even many of my friends who are very good, well-meaning people, still at some level think they are better or worse than others.
Think of the very worst person in the history of humanity. Maybe it’s a famous person, maybe it’s someone from your past. No matter what horrible thing they did, no matter how heinous it may have been, or they may continue to be, they are still a human being. They are capable (but they haven’t been) just as good and decent as you are. Now think of the very best person you can think of (assuming the best and worst people you can think of aren’t you). Yep, no matter how awesome that person is, you have the same ability to be that great!
That’s the thing, no matter how we’re raised, what our ability level in the sense of the common, modern system is, we are all equal, and equally capable of being as great, or as terrible as any human has ever been. When I think about the historical bad people, when I think about the current bad people, when I think about the people in jail for horrible crimes, I honestly sit and think, “I am capable of that too, but I don’t do it.” Because I have empathy, because I have good ethics, because I’ve decided doing those things are wrong. Pretty much, I have this voice inside my head that says some things are wrong. Some people don’t, and some people’s voices are stronger than mine. But we’re all equal, in that we are all capable of the same.
I think we need to find a way to bring out the best in everyone. I think staying positive is the only way the world gets “solved”. And I put that in quotes because I don’t think there is anything to solve. We’ve created systems over the millenia that create these conditions we’re in. I’m sure that some people will never understand empathy and having a conscience. I think those people are truly rare and could be dealt with if we weren’t making so many sick with this twisted way we have of looking at things. The whole system has to change though and it has to start inside us, and we can’t hold anything sacred as we look for the answers. But before we act, we must examine, we must find the truths. Science can help us greatly with that. We have learned, rather recently, that we are wired to learn through empathy when we are young, that many creatures do this. There is so much more inside ourselves that science will unlock. I truly believe when it comes down to it, they will find that the old Enlightenment way of thinking about Human nature is absolutely wrong.
We still use that way to think about Humans. Are you aware of that? Everything we have, all the modern systems, all the modern thoughts on education, socio-economic issues, relationships, love, families, every aspect of human interaction is modeled to fit into a structure that was created around philosophies from 300 years ago! Even the most modern of ideas, still are forced into these systems that were set up. And they were wrong! We’re not these beasts only concerned with what is mine. Not even the supposed “animals” are like that. Don’t get me wrong, nature is a dick. The natural world is a completely uncaring place, a leopard will rip your fucking face off and shit down your neck (quiet literally if it feels it needs to to protect its kill, because you would be a meal to it). But we’re not much part of the natural world anymore, now are we? But even when we were, our survival was dependent upon working together, collectively. It’s possible we had hierarchies for mating and such, like other primates, but we still had to work together. We had to learn from each other, and gather food for each other. Were people dicks? Yeah, but from the best we can see in antiquity, it seems like if you were too much of a dick, you got kicked the hell out.
Yeah, we have some feelings we have to deal with, but I think in a healthy society, these things are not nearly as problematic as they are now. Being so focused on the self, being so focused on winning, being “Alpha”, whatever it may be, we take everything so seriously. This causes a major over-reaction whenever we feel we’ve “lost”. As you think more collectively, when you start to see that you are just as good or bad as everyone else, you start to realize that you can’t take things so seriously. Where does this train of thought get me?
In the end, when a cop beats a guy, kills a guy, when a criminal robs, or whatever. When a soldier kills someone, when a “terrorist” kills, whatever it is, I realize that it’s me. It’s my buying into this sick system, that’s allowing this. The more I buy in, the more culpable I am. Because no matter how much I’m looking for a solution, by participating, I am lending to the problem. I am supporting this behavior, and by judging these people so harshly and dismissing them as somehow “less-than” I am falling back into that Enlightenment thinking that “some folks are just no good”. It’s counter-productive. Do some people need to be removed from society until we can sort our shit out? Absolutely, we have to keep a certain amount of safety, but we also have to figure out how to rehabilitate people. How to heal them. It’s not that they are “bad”, it’s that they are ill. We have to figure this out before it’s gone too far.
But we are all equal, we are all brothers and sisters, and we need to start acting like it. Hope this one made sense, I jumped around a little at the end. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired, if anyone needs help with what I’m saying, just ask.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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