Bryan W. Alaspa 1When the world comes together
January 15th 2010 14:24
For some reason it always takes a disaster. We have seen that time and again throughout history. When the Great Chicago Fire happened, aid and rescue poured in from all over the world, and that was much harder to get from place to place back then. I wrote an entire book about disasters that have taken place in and around Chicago and, in nearly every case, the disaster brought help and comfort from around the world. We saw it again after 9/11. We saw it after the tsunami in 2004.
Whenever there are times of relative peace (yes, I realize I am suddenly ignoring two very real and very “hot” wars when I write that) the human race seems to settle back into some kind of strange selfish ease. I have told, time and again, that I do not believe that people are inherently good. No, I rather cynically and firmly believe that people are inherently selfish and only care about their own self-interest. It takes a slap in the face, and shocking pictures of children covered in blood, to knock people out of that bubble of selfishness.
I know that selfishness is the natural order of things because I count myself among the selfish. I always have. I know that when something bad happens my first, initial, thought is, well, thank God it wasn’t me. Then I snap back into reality and wonder how I can help other people. This is probably hardwired into our brains because, in order to help anyone else, you have to be able to offer that help.
What still shocks me is the huge parts of the world who are so willing to dismiss other parts of the world. They seem to think that certain countries and certain races truly are inferior. To me, the more we discover about people in other parts of the world, the more we realize that we are all very much the same. We all feel the same things. We all think along similar lines. We all care about each other in similar ways. We all worry about the same things. We all bleed the same color and, in the end, we can all die in the same ways.
Maybe that’s why these disasters happen. Maybe it is the universe, or God, or some balance of nature that serves these up to remind everyone on the planet that we are all the same. Yes, we may speak different languages or worship different deities or have different skin colors, but we are all just people. We all have to share this planet that, as we have learned, is really very small.
Fighting against our inherent selfish nature is a good thing. We should do it as much as possible. Every time someone conquers their selfishness and does something great for the rest of the world, the world should rejoice and celebrate that person as a hero. Far too often, our petty jealousies and self-interest causes us to want to knock that person down.
The disasters and the images of disasters are heartbreaking. The good news is that, once again, people are responding and we can now respond faster than ever thanks to technology. Millions of dollars have been raised through text messaging. That’s a good thing. That means maybe we are slowly evolving and putting that selfish nature behind us. Then, maybe, the human race will finally, and truly, be able to shine for all the universe to see.
Whenever there are times of relative peace (yes, I realize I am suddenly ignoring two very real and very “hot” wars when I write that) the human race seems to settle back into some kind of strange selfish ease. I have told, time and again, that I do not believe that people are inherently good. No, I rather cynically and firmly believe that people are inherently selfish and only care about their own self-interest. It takes a slap in the face, and shocking pictures of children covered in blood, to knock people out of that bubble of selfishness.
I know that selfishness is the natural order of things because I count myself among the selfish. I always have. I know that when something bad happens my first, initial, thought is, well, thank God it wasn’t me. Then I snap back into reality and wonder how I can help other people. This is probably hardwired into our brains because, in order to help anyone else, you have to be able to offer that help.
What still shocks me is the huge parts of the world who are so willing to dismiss other parts of the world. They seem to think that certain countries and certain races truly are inferior. To me, the more we discover about people in other parts of the world, the more we realize that we are all very much the same. We all feel the same things. We all think along similar lines. We all care about each other in similar ways. We all worry about the same things. We all bleed the same color and, in the end, we can all die in the same ways.
Maybe that’s why these disasters happen. Maybe it is the universe, or God, or some balance of nature that serves these up to remind everyone on the planet that we are all the same. Yes, we may speak different languages or worship different deities or have different skin colors, but we are all just people. We all have to share this planet that, as we have learned, is really very small.
Fighting against our inherent selfish nature is a good thing. We should do it as much as possible. Every time someone conquers their selfishness and does something great for the rest of the world, the world should rejoice and celebrate that person as a hero. Far too often, our petty jealousies and self-interest causes us to want to knock that person down.
The disasters and the images of disasters are heartbreaking. The good news is that, once again, people are responding and we can now respond faster than ever thanks to technology. Millions of dollars have been raised through text messaging. That’s a good thing. That means maybe we are slowly evolving and putting that selfish nature behind us. Then, maybe, the human race will finally, and truly, be able to shine for all the universe to see.
| 11 |
| Vote |
