United by Division

I have two eyes, two ears, a nose, skin, muscles, veins, hair, teeth, a nervous system, various organs, bones, and a highly developed brain. I have fears, joys, habits, emotions, and feelings. I have the innate ability to learn from my mistakes, but I don't have to. I can literally, physically, and directly impact the environment that I live in, though I often choose to turn a blind eye. I am a monster. I am a healer. I am a force of nature. I am fragile. I am human.

Currently, we have never been more divided as a people. Wars rage, poverty strikes, confusion and manipulation reigns supreme, and we stand on the bow of the ship staring into the perfect storm. The argument could be made that we have more divided earlier in our history, and perhaps that's true. However, we haven't ever been through as much as a species as we have today. We have seen wars and the drastic impact they have. We have seen slavery and the way it affects different groups of people for very different reasons. We have seen political manipulation, attempted government demolitions, and we have been force fed the concept that "everything is fine/everything is terrible"by the media at an increasingly rapid pace. Where has it all led us? To be united by division.

The greatest way to control a people is to divide the people.

Seeing every kind of person claim every kind of affiliation inspires hope and dread at the same time. Where it is important to be proud of who you are, and find people who you can create a community with, we have neglected to recall the one thing that unites us all. We are all human. This concept has been slowly drifting toward the basement of our society for quite some time, and things don't seem to be improving. People are now more likely to identify themselves through their skin color or sexual preference than they are to identify themselves as humans. I understand that it seems to go without saying that you're a human, but when we neglect to say it, we devalue the importance of that sentiment. Insert any group of any kind in our society, and despite their differences, they are all human.

Perhaps you believe that it's not important to be reminded that you're all the same on one level, but it's the one level that we so heavily use to distinguish ourselves from all other species. If aliens from another universe came here, would we present ourselves as the "human race", or a collection of small groups that would all have to be represented individually as to not be marginalized before our visitors? It's as though we have become so bored and numb to the idea that we're human that we have created subspecies to try and establish some sort of unique angle on being human. There are close to 8 billion of us today, and we are all largely the same. We are driven by the same things. We want to be seen, heard, understood, and respected. Whoever you are, and whatever group you claim (if any), run your ideals and hopes through that list and see if I missed anything, because I doubt that I did. If you think of something, be honest with yourself in asking if what you need isn't covered by my list. For those of you who simply live to agitate and rock the boat, fuck you.

Uh oh. I've said a naughty word to a stranger! I'll say it again for the people in the cheap seats. FUCK YOU. Why though? Because I want to and my opinion matters. You really have two choices here: 1) take this personal and curse me and my family and my offspring. or 2) shrug it off because my opinion matters so little that it's not worth getting huffy over. As we all know, there is a pandemic that is affecting the entire world and most of the people sharing the planet. No, not Covid. It's what I refer to as the "Sense of Importance" plague. In 1951, if you asked 10 Americans how many of them thought they were important, 1 out of 10 would have claimed to be important. In 2022, that number has shot up to 7 out of 10 people. What did we do in the past 70 years that has made us so much more arrogant? What have we accomplished? We hate everything. We hate everyone. Everything is the worst, and it's all someone else's fault. If you're white, its the blacks. If you're black, it's the whites. If you're a woman, it's men. If you're a man, it's women. If you're christian, it's non christians. If you're an atheist, it's the christians. Where do we get this sense of entitlement that our opinions, views, groups, likes, dislikes, etc. have become of such heavy importance that we need to make an issue out of anything that doesn't instantly jive with us? We compensate for our glaringly obvious insecurities by lying our way into believing our own bullshit. "I am important!". No, you're not. You're human, and if every one of us is important, than none of us are important. Let's circle back to the one thing that actually unites us, being human, and now recognize that it is HUMANS that are the problem. Take a deep look in the mirror and have a tall glass of shut the fuck up. You are not important. You are the problem. You are the monster under the bed. You are the one responsible for the feeling of hate and fear.

We live in a time of extremely clever marketing. Black Lives Matter. Make America Gay Again. Be The Change You Want To See. The list is essentially endless. The problem with all of this clever rhetoric is that it is empty. Any clever saying or hashtag that you've ever read or will ever read is about as useful as shit flavored tooth paste. The irony is that we also live in a time where words seem to have so much power that they now have been classified as "assault", "micro aggression", and "hate speech". We can't have it both ways. Either words are powerful, or words are useless. In reality, they're just shaped sounds that we make at each other, but they are unique in their ability to mean everything and nothing at the exact same time. In the swelling confusion of these times, and despite how important we think we are, we don't truly listen to anything anyone says. Everything is taken with adamant offense and personal persecution. We can't possibly handle hearing something we don't agree with and we can't possibly be asked to make peace with someone if they don't agree with our point of view. Everything is an attack on our ego, our group, our identity. Well, actually, no the fuck it isn't. Pull your head out of your own ass you over-valued, under-delivering fuck. Your self image is yours to tend to, and if you let every single thing anyone says that offends you be the end of your life, you will live in fear and anger. I'm not dismissing the people who are actually impacting change, but I'm also failing to create a list of those people.

One of my favorite human traits is the innate ability to live in complete ignorant and blind irony. It's part of our incredibly capacity to lie to ourselves. I'll provide a for instance for your entertainment. Before I do, it's important to not that I don't give a shit about what side of this issue that you're on. I have my opinion and you can't damage me if you don't agree. I live a half a block away from a Planned Parenthood, yes conservatives, clutch your pearls. Every Saturday, there are two distinct groups standing in front of PP. One, the almighty christians with their horrible signs complete with depictions of post abortion bloody fetuses. They take with them the righteousness of thinking they're better than you. The opposition is the Pro Choice lobby, complete with facial piercings, blue hair, and the belief that they are making a difference. I live in California, we are an abortion safe haven, so you can recognize their folly. One the christian side, standing 5'6, weighing just enough to think he might live in a hunger strike, is a man clad in what appears to be a repurposed potato sack and holding a bull horn. "You are all sinners" he bellows. "God hates abortions". What a quip. In the blue corner, also standing 5'6 and weighing in at "my weight and I don't conform to modern beauty standards", comes aggressive blue-haired hate monger. Her go to catch phrases are things like "get your religion off my body", "you're an asshole", and (my favorite) "no, I will not be quiet". Pick a side, I don't care, they're both wrong and they're both right. The christian side claims God created everything (including abortion) and that he loves you, but not you because he hates you for supporting abortion. The pro choice side claims to want to support and protect the women inside, but must be as loud and irritating as possible during medical procedures that are already nerve wracking as is. I've asked both sides to turn down the volume, and both sides have refused in very different ways. The christians ignored me completely and continued spouting off bible verses, and the pro choice side accused me of being a nuttless, cis gendered, straight, white misogynist. So, I've come to the conclusion that both of these people are full of shit and high on their own agendas (ego). Do I let it get me down? No. No one at this gathering has any affect on anything, specifically me. Enter yet another clever saying. "Words are Weapons". Yeah, they're weapons like cotton balls are weapons. Never will we ever be presented with the news headline "12 Killed in Mass Proclamation". Words are keys. Keys that can both lock and unlock critical thinking, and that's something we're sorely in need of. So, I challenge you to use your words for what they are to unite us as a species, and not to divide us as a scattering of various groups.