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An Inevitable Effect
By joseexist in Musings On Muses
October 5, 2009

An inevitable effect of being human is that at some point in your life you will be pulled in more than one direction at the same time. As a species we form groups in which all members feel they identify with one another on some level. Be it politics or religion, arts or the metaphysical, these hoards are the armies we align ourselves with. We “sign up” and raise the flag, draw our sword and stand proudly.

Many years ago, one man saw the opportunity to create an army. He took it and made history. His soapbox swelled to epic proportions and his silvery tongue hypnotized the masses. Although many of the world’s nations stood against him, millions lost their lives. His snares of words are still in use today and the ideals he stood for and initiated are still carrying out predation. It’s easy for some to be blinded by words and back then many were. The human race came together to defeat him but, we never defeated his ideologies. Is it our right or our duty to remove such cancers from existence?

We are all created equal. But then, ego steps in and delusions of grandeur soon make us abrasive to one another. Intellect can sometimes have the nasty little side effect of distancing people from one another through incomprehension. The better individuals among us stave this off by being patient. Those who cannot understand have to be tolerated with true honesty and diligent attention. Simply shunting them aside in pursuit of a goal is one of the lowest forms of ignorance there is. This journey we call life is more bridge-spans than roadways. The burning of even one bridge can easily become the burning of too many. Let others do the burning, save what you can and learn from the experience.

A young child finds himself at a huge theme park. A small town youth organization has taken a handful of him and his friends there. It’s a wonderful day and the kids are left to wander the rides and attractions at will with a specified time to regroup at the entrance. This child has a wonderful day and circumnavigates the park many times. At one point he is alone and making his way to where a few of his friends said they would meet him. The crowds are not too heavy and he is happy. Then, just ahead, three older teens in cowboy hats walk by. They have mischievous grins on their faces. One leans to and shouts a racial epithet. The “N” word hits him like a fist out of nowhere. The three teens march away and the child looks after them for a few confused moments. The frown that has creased his face so deeply slowly cuts into his awareness. The incident will live on sharply in his memory for all his life. As he matures he will ask himself such things as; “why did they do that?”, “what kind of parents raise such children?”, “what did I do to deserve that?”. And all along he will have great questions without any words to them forming in his mind. Most will never be “filled in”. The truth he will come to understand, is that people form groups and those groups sometimes develop the hive mentalities that cause social abrasion.

The web is full of groups. Where do you belong? Are you a facebooker, myspacer, twitter-er, (tweeter?), or do you have a site name after yourself that has a large loyal following of friends, fans, or family? It’s possible to belong to any one, or more, of what are probably millions, if not more, sites populating the World Wide Web. There are good sites that promote the entire human race, and there are sites devoted to culling our species down to a single “race”. All aspects of the human condition are represented and everything is pretty much “on the table”. All religions can be found as well as all none religions. Those three boys in the previous paragraph are people I often wonder about. What have they become today? Who else might they have “hurt”? If the world is in any luck, they never got educated enough to become truly dangerous to anyone but themselves. On the other hand, if they became web-savvy, and maintained their ideological course,,, the point is moot.

Hatred for any reason is a muse with brass knuckles. Artist may or may not find it hard to express themselves in the aftermath of it. But the end product will almost always be ripe with darkness and brooding. It’s almost impossible to keep from reflecting at least some of the hatred back at society. A conscious effort has to be made, and it’s the artists’ dubious obligation to rein it in as much as possible. Just look at what hatred has done to us already. It sickens us. It kills us. It laughs in our faces and we laugh back at it. It hits us. We might strike back but, all too often we only hurt innocent bystanders. Hatred blinds us all, too easily. It is a capacity that, sadly, we are all born with.

Hatred makes us scream and smashes dreams. Hatred furrows our brow and melts our plow. Hatred burns our hearts and tears us apart. Hatred knots our souls and turns us cold. Hatred steals our smarts and clouds our art. I hate “Hatred”!

And so, the human race is splintered into many diversified groups. Some coexist in peace and respect while others exist only to rip existence apart until it fits their utopian nightmare. They all want “you” in some way. They may want you to join them. They may want to keep you out. They may not even care if you’re in or out but rest assured, they want “something”. Hatred has bred a conflict that will easily see this species to its last days on Earth. The crowds are thick today and the kindling is very dry. It’s snowing a light gunpowder of words and everybody has a match.