{"id":991,"date":"2016-05-28T03:20:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T08:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=991"},"modified":"2016-05-28T03:20:20","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T08:20:20","slug":"it-all-depends-on-what-you-consider-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=991","title":{"rendered":"It all depends on what you consider “The World”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ran with the guys this morning<\/a>. Not too many of those left, which is good and bad. It’s not even 11am and it’s already getting hot here again today. Third day in a row mopping my floors, and the bottom of my feet are still dirty. I’ve also decided today, I have one class, it’s hot, I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Only a couple more weeks.
\nSo I’m running today, and apart from thinking about some logistical stumbling blocks I’m hitting for my Summer right now, I was thinking about a meme I’ve seen shared around the bookfaces and it’s really bothering me. It’s about the “World” not owing you anything. This is correct and wrong depending on how you look at it.
\nIf you mean the Universe itself, and by extension all natural things on the Earth, as “the World”, then yes, nature owes you nothing. Strip away buildings, clothes, all the trappings of humanity, put us out in the woods, building temporary shelters, or living in caves. Finding ways to make fire, make us prey\/scavengers again, instead of predators and yes “the World” owes each and every one of us nothing! It’s true, nature is a uncaring, sometimes downright cruel place, and we are ill-equipped to handle it without most of the devices created throughout the years by our ancestors. So if you mean the “Natural World”, which we are absolutely no longer a part of, then yes. That meme is fine. We go out in the wild, gather our own food, make fire, tools, maybe get eaten by a panther or bear or something, yep, World owes you nothing, you have to work for every last little scrap of everything.
\nHowever, if you mean our “World”, the one which humanity has created for itself, I’m going to tell you why you can take your opinion, write it down, roll that piece of paper up really super-tight, and shove it right up your ass. Stay with me here. In the world of humans, we have created a system whereby to have the things all human beings need to live; food, shelter, water, hygiene, artificial skin covering (clothes), you must take part in a system in which you must pay fees and swear fealty to a lord (or parliament as the case may be, or more rightly a corporation, or conglomeration more properly at this point), and even with your submission, and no matter how hard you work you may not have everything required to live, simply because the system is designed that way. Then throw into the same system the fact that depending on the circumstances of your birth, gender, location, socio-economic caste, skin color, eye color, religion, propensity for conformity to that society’s sexual “norms” (heterosexuality, homosexuality, transgender, et. al.), etc. your ability to earn the script of the realm, in order to pay for these things may be further hindered. All this is more than enough to say, yes, “the World” as humans have set up a system, does owe it to everyone to make sure their basic survival needs are met, because we intentionally hinder people from meeting their basic needs, as a required part of the system we live under!
\nNow, let’s throw into the mix the fact that even if you earn enough script to provide for your existence, or if you simply want to completely divorce yourself from society, you’re still not allowed to do everything on your own. There are laws, rules, and regulations set in place, even if you have all the knowledge, ability, and drive to do everything needed to survive and thrive to prohibit you from doing so. First, you must “own” land, that idea, dividing up “land” into parcels for sale is manifestly idiotic at its face, when you remove it from the context of the system we have created. Even if you do “own” enough land, there are regulations on what you can do with that land. In the United States and many of the more “civilized” nations, you are prohibited from growing much else apart from useless weeds. We’re then told to put chemicals and waste water on these weeds to keep it green and pleasing to the eye. Then we are forced to pollute the air with more fossil fuel emissions to keep the weeds from growing too long, or else we will be fined for it! So we can’t grow food on our owned “property” unless it’s “zoned” for it. You are prohibited from building your shelter in certain ways, out of certain materials. Usually, you can’t build your shelter out of cheap and easy to use materials for anybody, and are forced to use materials that must be industrially produced and commercially procured.
\nI can keep going, but I hope by this point you get the fact that no matter what, we are not part of the natural world, and our system is set up in such a way that we must do things a certain way. Some people may not be good at doing them that way. Others are even stopped from doing them simply based on the circumstances of their birth. The system is set in a way that if everyone worked hard, went to a university, got straight A’s, dressed the same, even looked the same, there would STILL be people in need. There would still be people without jobs, there would still be children starving in the streets, in every single corner of this world, because of the system humanity has set up for itself. In the context of the world of humans that leads us to only one conclusion. Ergo, YES “THE WORLD” OWES YOU SOMETHING. Anyone who tells you any different is either not thinking of the implications, is willfully ignorant, or evil.
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