Tuesday, October 13, 2009

seeing each other as cut-outs

When did we stop seeing other people as "people"? three teens in florida lit another teen on fire, as retaliation for preventing them from stealing a bicycle. repeat, a bicycle. A six year old is about to get sent to reform school, for bringing a camping fork/spoon/knife combination to school to eat his lunch. A six year old! Certain pundits cheered when the city of chicago lost its bid for the Olympics, because Obama lobbied for chicago to win. An American city lost out on an opportunity, and people cheered the loss. WTF???

We apparently see each other as cardboard cut-outs. It's the only explanation that I can see. Maybe there are too many of us. Beyond a certain number in a given space, we just can't see anymore. I don't know.

It scares me. How do we get back to seeing each other, really seeing each other, as people? With hopes, dreams, feelings, real people. It's important.

1 comment:

radiantlisa said...

The concept of the Other is deeply wired into our being. That's our monkey brain talking. Most of us aren't enlightened enough to recognize that we're all human, much less act as if that were true. And the cultural changes of the past 8 years have just re-emphasized all the tribal monkey behavior, given it new and sparkly rewards. Kind of sucks right now.