Injustice is a pretty horrible feeling. Injustice is a cousin of loniliness, the essential human antithesis. Lonliness is the worst feeling anyone can have. Beyond physical pain, beyond total anger, beyond grief is lonliness. As humans we are made for relationship with other humans, that is our essential defining characteristic. Introvert or extrovert, we need relationship. No human is fully human alone.
Why is it when people are gathered in great numbers that they can accomplish amazing feats together? Because nothing seems insurmountable when we are in relationship (or given the illusion of relationship - ie. out of control mobs).
This is why injustice is so horrible, it makes us feel alone and lonely. It makes our problems seem insurmountable. It pits the individual against the evils of the world and asks him to survive. If a man were put on an empty planet and told to survive completely alone he probably wouldn't-at least not psychologically. A feeling of injustice would be one of many problems plaguing his person. Give him a companion and things are much better. Give him children, other people, and soon things will be great. Given enough time he'll probably establish a thriving society, conquer nature, and be pretty well off. Good job Adam.
Our existence is riddled with problems. It's just that most of the time we don't seem them as problems because we work daily, as a people, to tackle them. None of us really worry too much about crashing into someone on the road because part of our society has dedicated itself to solving that problem with street lights and traffic control. We don't worry about how to raise domesticated livestock because another part of our society takes care of that. We worry about the things we are told are our "individual concerns", like income and personal health. Yes, these are individual concerns but are they inherently so? No, in many traditional societys there were no individual concerns. They had problems but I'm sure none of them thought of suicide over it.
Our problem is not injustice. It is this idea that certain things are our individual concern. Our society loves to glorify the individual. Which is fine at times, we can't ignore that. But we also forget that we are so fragile and weak as individuals. It is the false idolization of the idividual self which lead to our downfall and also, ironically, to our greatest problem since then. You would think we would have learned our lesson, but we didn't. We still try to do things on our own.
As a people we need to get our heads out of the sand and wake up. We need to realize that we have been lied to. We are not capable, we are not strong, we are not great. Has anyone else read God is NOT Great by Christopher Hitchens? (Well don't. If you want a real atheist go tackle Nitzsche, Sartre, or even Bertrand Russell-they're the real ones) But what Christopher Hitchens doesn't realize is that God is great and he is not. Moron.
Injustice has been on my mind because I feel like injustice is being done to me. Not in the epic sense but in the mundane everyday sense. It started with a budget driven decision to live in a place which is probably hazardous to my health (definitely to my psyche), then an unexpected tooth ache which lead to a $1500 bill, then my phone dying, and then a gust of wind which blew my door into another car and is now costing me another $600 in repairs (for the other car!). Oh yea, and I can't seem to find a job.
The dead phone and the $600 repair bill both happened today. Needless to say this topic was rattling around in my head and in my conversations. But I have to ask myself, why do we concern ourselves with individual concerns when God has already offered to take them up. We are stupid people who ignore our greatest ally. If I truly believe that God is watching out for me and that this path that I walk has been laid down by Him. That this path He guides me on will pass through the green pastures and the valleys of the shadow of death. I may not always have my friends, family, all of society to relieve me of my problems but I have the ultimate companion.
When God is with you, what injustice do you have to fear?
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
2 comments:
Oh man that sounds rough. Strange how bad things happen in waves sometimes.
I believe that as humans the most healthy state of mind is keeping everyone at the same level... but that's almost impossible within today's standards of people. There's always someone trying to reign down on another as an individual or as a group onto another. In the end someone gets isolated... which is among the many problems that our world has come to grasp with.
There's just so many people... not enough love to go around or so it seems.
i agree, individualism sucks
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