01-24-2013, 08:11 AM
Things are addictive. TV, Computer, whatever. We get attached to them like people we love.
It's about people though. Rather than systems. Most people are never put in a position to question things, it just doesn't come up. It doesn't occur to them.
And while there are consciously "bad" or "evil" people; most of it is unconscious forces, or unconscious agents working through people in groups... that lead to serious problems. Large numbers of people adding to problems in ways that they're not aware of.
People treat horrible things like a comedy. "Yes, we know bad things are being done to people. But it's not our fault, and we can't do anything about it." So we make jokes about the government, and about criminals, and we just accept things as they are. Or people figure that they'll just wait until they feel better fit and more capable of doing something: but most likely they'll never feel that way. You have to do unnatural, uncomfortable things with little or no preparation; because the longer you cling to your comfortable life, the harder it'll be to break the habits.
One of the biggest problems is that the way society is set up, you can't function without supporting some things that you don't agree with. In the 1960s, people tried to boycott everything in corporate society, and it didn't work. It's too hard. And to give another obvious example: Christ and his followers were all killed except for the ones that compromised. Because you know if Jesus wandered into most churches, that dirty, homeless look would make a lot of the well-to-do uncomfortable.
It's about people though. Rather than systems. Most people are never put in a position to question things, it just doesn't come up. It doesn't occur to them.
And while there are consciously "bad" or "evil" people; most of it is unconscious forces, or unconscious agents working through people in groups... that lead to serious problems. Large numbers of people adding to problems in ways that they're not aware of.
People treat horrible things like a comedy. "Yes, we know bad things are being done to people. But it's not our fault, and we can't do anything about it." So we make jokes about the government, and about criminals, and we just accept things as they are. Or people figure that they'll just wait until they feel better fit and more capable of doing something: but most likely they'll never feel that way. You have to do unnatural, uncomfortable things with little or no preparation; because the longer you cling to your comfortable life, the harder it'll be to break the habits.
One of the biggest problems is that the way society is set up, you can't function without supporting some things that you don't agree with. In the 1960s, people tried to boycott everything in corporate society, and it didn't work. It's too hard. And to give another obvious example: Christ and his followers were all killed except for the ones that compromised. Because you know if Jesus wandered into most churches, that dirty, homeless look would make a lot of the well-to-do uncomfortable.