Last night we talked about the "Great American Stew Pot" and why that's awesome.
Tonight, we need to break down reality a bit. Because, let's face it, despite the shiny happy story we all want to believe, every religion agrees on one central point: we are mortal, which means we have limits. The cost of limitation is suffering. Therefore, to be mortal is to suffer.
I leave whatever coping mechanisms you've developed over the years to deal with that realization, but what has specific implications for us as a nation is this: if everybody suffers, then no suffering by any group can be said to be more important than that of any individual. In this manner, the law that protects us all under this social contract recognizes the rights of the individual as the accepted unit of measure. Thus, we've arrived at an agreement with each other that "I will live my life and defend my liberty and property in such a manner that it will not interfere with you doing the same thing."
It really is that easy.
What complicates it ties in a little bit with what I was saying last night. We're not a "melting pot", we're a "stew pot". You bring into the equation your identity, with all of the oppression and suffering from your line, and I bring all of mine, and we stand and bitch at each other about whose ancestors got the shittier end of the stick. The basis of suffering as the primary condition of mortality would seem to negate the basis for that conflict. Let me explain.
My family is Scots-Irish. A quick summation of my tribe: Two thousand years ago, the Romans slaughtered 1/3 of the Celts, enslaved another 1/3, and taxed the shit out of those remaining who were lucky enough to survive, farm, and reproduce. After the Saxons conquered Britain and intermarried with the Angles enough, many Scots moved to Ireland. The Anglo-Saxons then bought up a lot of the land and eventually started forcing Scots-Irish into debtors' colonies in the New World, which was great until Sherman burned it down. So a bunch moved to Texas and lived up on the plains, fighting with Comanche with no expectation that the government could protect them. It was rough, but enough of my ancestors reproduced and here I am.
None of that matters now. Every single race or creed can trace a similar path of woe and oppression. The woe and the oppression is the default position of the human race. It's not the "Man" or the "System" that's kicking my ass, it's the limitations of mortality. As near as I can tell, there are two possible reactions to this realization: 1) Become bitter and cynical of the reality in which I find myself, and accept a nihilistic representation of the world around me and just make it worse; 2) Accept reality on its own terms and seek to conduct myself in a manner where the suffering is justified by challenging myself to become better. Voluntarily accept responsibility for as much as I can and try to follow Christ's example to make the world around me a better place.
By a miracle, I've been blessed to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. One where my natural rights are protected by law and I have the latitude to make these choices. The fact that this latitude exists for every single individual citizen should overshadow all of the ancestral baggage that we're dragging around. The potential that lies within the individual, when added to the chaotic potential that exists within a free society is enough of a challenge for each of us to master without kicking each other in the shins about the fact that you are of Italian or Belgian or English or Yankee or Comanche descent and our grandfathers fought once upon a time. -Unclean
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