Is all Equality equitable ?

Something struck me today while reading a newspaper.  It wasn't that I was so old to still read a newspaper, but I did enjoy that irony a little.

It was a reference to someone's religious rights conflicting with another's gender rights, and it struck me that perhaps some needs for equitable treatment are more equal, or more important than others.  Is the requirement to create an equitable environment on something I don't control - my gender, my race for example that I'm created with, more important ultimately than something I may choose, such as my religion.

This very very quickly moves into grey areas - sexual orientation and sexual identity for example that are arguably not chosen either, rather some claim that people are born this way.  Importantly, I'm not suggesting we determine the answers here, but I want to pose the question for you to consider.

Many communities are struggling to achieve equality in various areas.  Some of these struggles have been going on for a very very long time.  I think few would argue the merits of equitable treatment in itself, though many have varying lists of who should be equitably treated.  I guess I had never thought through that if all were given equality, then some circumstances would need to be more fairly treated than others when they came into conflict.

Our Planet Isn't in Jeoprady

I've been thinking about this a little - the arguments for and against our environmental actions and how they're destroying our planet.  From the continuing global warming debates, to fracking to electric cars, it's an issue never far from being top of mind.  One thing I take exception to however is something I think we've all heard over and over again - we're destroying the planet. This is just patently false.

Our planet has been here for billions of years and will be here for billions more, until it's barbecued in a natural process when our Sun expands and absorbs it on a molecular level.  We on the other hand are a small blip on that timeline of billions of years, and I'd hasten to predict we won't be here in 7 billion years when the Sun does grow old.  Is it true to say that we've had a far greater effect on the planet than just about any other life form...probably yes if we discount the planets that have shaped the entire atmosphere we currently enjoy.  But our impacts have been faster.  Yay us - take that plants that have been here a couple billion years.

Our planet isn't at risk - we are.  We are changing the environment to make it inhospitable to us at worst, and highly problematic at best for our style of life form.  We'll also take out most of the current animal and flora life with our effects...but then the planet will do what it does - take a few million years and reboot.  It's going to recreate itself, with a new dominant species - perhaps going as far back as simple, complex or multicellular life or maybe it'll be the cockroaches turn.  This isn't new or novel - the Earth has had at least three extinction events we know of.

Where are we in this ?  We're dead.  We killed ourselves.

Our planet ? It will be fine.   Don't believe me ?  Listen to Julia Roberts tell it.

Waking up from the American Dream

Some of you may not like this.  But I'm a believer in the idea that somebody needs to talk about the way things actually are, and not 'spinning' or being 'politically correct'.  There is too much of that in our society and it flies in the face of common sense. That's another post I think.

The issues in America, from domestic terrorism, to gun violence and hate groups and racism, all share a common thread of cause to some degree - the fact that the American dream is dead, and yet no one has admitted this.  To be clear - I'm saying this is contributing factor, not the sole cause.  All of these issues are multifaceted, and some go back hundreds of years, but their continuing prevalence on the front pages in a seemingly healthy, prosperous society baffles unless you look a little deeper.

America is about three things fundamentally - freedom, democracy and capitalism.  These are worn as badges of honor at home and abroad.  Think of the justifications for any foreign policy moves in the last 50 years, and some mix of these three is at the core.  Americans are justifiably proud of the good that has been done in the name of these values.  But the challenge of the American Dream is that there are huge barriers to achieving it, and these barrier and higher and stronger than ever, and most have been erected and are enforced by the very people that overcame them.

1. The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.

It's not simply about hard work and being bright - brighter even.  It's about the root theme that it's possible to accomplish this.  Any child born in the US can grow up to be President, anyone can be smart enough to seize opportunity and achieve wealth and power.  The beautiful thing about the American Dream is that it weaves together freedom, democracy and capitalism in a nationalistic apple pie, a wholesome vision of a personal manifest destiny.  But it doesn't acknowledge  that there groups in place that are very keen on you not realizing it.  They want to keep in place the symbols and structures to keep you down, and make sure you're a cog in the wheel and not the hub.  Those people control the institutions (South Carolina state house; CEO's with unearthly pay; the Koch brothers) and aren't keen on giving up the power that they have.  On the other end are those people that have been fed the American Dream since birth and are so frustrated and angry that it's not real, that they lose it.  There are your anti-government, NRA devout who want 'their America back', and they'll fight to get it.  The destruction of a black church, the killing sprees in public places and the Boston Marathon bombers amongst others were betrayed by their expectations of the American Dream.  Look at the homeless on the inner city streets, or in the heartland of America being fed the soylent green of 'the dream' while their jobs, futures and lives are economically decimated.

I'm not remotely suggesting anyone resorting to violence is correct in their actions, but I will go as far as suggesting that until there is widespread understanding that there has been a significant shift in the United States towards an established, old world style embedded power structure - at the cost of the reality and achievability of the American Dream - then we shall continue to see unease, unrest and violence from those that conclude that there has to be another course of actions to 'fix' America their own way.

Exit Strategy

Perhaps the most oft-forgotten words in the language, this idea, this reality - it comes back to bite almost every time.

We are generally pretty good at beginnings, at births.  We can plan for it, and then even if the planning is done poorly, we can 'deal' with the outcomes.  But the end ?  My gosh (insert suitable word here), no one ever seems to anticipate that things will end.

We all die
There will be a big crunch after the big bang
Businesses fail
Relationships collapse

And life goes on.  We generally (perhaps death and the big crunch excluded) live to fight on another day in a  new way, one that perhaps wasn't foreseen but it still manageable.  It's the ugly face of change.  It amazes me that we still build ideas and institutions with complex and involved joining rituals, and yet very little attention is paid to the exit - the other end where things are bound to go.

I look at Europe today, and the whole economic tragedy that is Greece and wonder how so many people can toil for long periods without imagining that at some point, nations with fewer resources (and perhaps a sense of entitlement) wouldn't be able to pay their bills, and so will need to be gently, and lovingly evicted.  It's ok - some things weren't meant to continue forever.

Whatever we each do in the future, plan for an end.  Because the guy walking with the sign board - he was right -  the end is coming, and the question really isn't if, it's when.