(no subject)

[kuangning]

Okay, so you have now been subjected to bits of my musical history. Here's the serious question:

What are you for?

Don't tell me what you're against. We're all against obvious and non-obvious things. We are against hunger and prejudice and hatred and being lonely and ugly porn. We are against mean people and roaming dog packs and being assaulted on street corners.

Tell me what you're for. What are you passionate enough about to work toward? Telling people you like them? Feeding people? Buying olive trees for Israel? Good porn? Reminding people that they're sexy? Open source code? Creating music?

What is it that you do that lets you go to bed at night feeling satisfied? What are you reactionary about? What do you try to persuade people of?

Tell me. I'm listening. Tell me what you work for. Tell me what you are for, with or without someone at your side.

-- wiredferret

Short answer: you can bet there'll be a long one later.

Humanity.

The responsibility to be stewards of the resources available to us: human resources, planetary resources, intangible resources such as creativity, love, and dreams.

Including but not limited to:
The right to a complete and adequate education
The right to food, clothing, and shelter
The right to an environment which allows you to become the best steward you are capable of becoming.

I believe that we are here for a purpose. I believe in our potential, in the power of our love and our strength and our willingness and ability to grow beyond the limits we try to impose on ourselves and others.

I know our failings. I'm not some cock-eyed idealist who thinks that there's no such thing as a bad person, or a truly evil one. If I had lived with my aunt, I might have grown up that way - because I've never known her to think badly of anyone. But I lived my early life with the only person who's ever figured in real nightmares for me, and I know that there is evil. I know that there are people who live their lives to cause pain, to take whatever they can, whenever they can, from whomever they can; who think of other people as sheep to be fleeced.

Even given that, though... they're not the majority. They don't represent the race as a whole. And humanity as a whole, to me, is a glowing, vibrant mass of potentialities. Of all the world, only we will things into being. Only we make the conscious decision to be something - and become that. Or to create something - and something exists where there was nothing before.

All the other things I believe in add up to the right of each person to the things that they need, to allow them to be their best selves. An education, to teach you to use the mind that you were gifted with, food and shelter to allow you to make the best use of your body's potential. An environment which supports and enhances your skills and gives you room to develop more. The pursuit of happiness, not for the sake of the pursuit, but because truly happy people generally are the best stewards. I've never known anyone I'd class as bad or evil to be anything but miserable inside; I think it takes that amount of misery to produce someone with the rage and vindictiveness necessary to make them want to destroy what they lack in themselves. When you know the value of what you possess and what you are, you can recognise the value of everything else around you as well, and you naturally want to cherish it, and/or to improve upon it.

Comments

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I also believe that humanity as a whole is a fabulous miracle, but I don't usually manage to express it as well as that.

[gurath.livejournal.com]

I am for learning, and think life is like a school where we are supposed to learn to love God and one another. Knowledge banishes fear, and increases communication and understanding. It corrodes evil and its tools.

I am for sharing the wonder I still see in the world, be it Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky or a crack in the sidewalk and the pineapple weed that's colonized it. I like the concentrated look in a child's eyes when they change the design of the thing they're building, because you've helped them understand something. I like wild bird that comes to my hand for a sunflower seed in the deep cold of winter. I like the boomerang that drops neatly back into my hand within a step of where I launched it into a 30 yeard circle, while the fountain in the lake in the park glows white in the birchlight of evening.

[gurath.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I guess those are the things I've really devoted my life to. Learning, and teaching, and seeing the wonder of the world for myself.

[orchestralspy.livejournal.com]

"Even given that, though... they're not the majority. They don't represent the race as a whole. And humanity as a whole, to me, is a glowing, vibrant mass of potentialities."

I sincerely agree. Again you've managed to put in words what I couldn't begin to express..
It's a powerful thought, that mankind has achieved its massive level of intellect and advancement through learning and betterment, not taking and destroying.

This is by no means everything, but

[grimhild.livejournal.com]

I believe in free will (as opposed to metaphysical determinism). Being a product of one's environment might explain some evil actions, but it never justifies them.

I am for tact. Yes, the truth is something that I value, but there always exist better or worse ways to say important things.

I am for yoking. This is a term I like to use to denote finding and knowing the happiest possible relationships with the people around you (given your circumstances), whatever they might be. The knowing is the tricky part (for me, at least), as (for example) I 've had several experiences in which there's been a great amount of love, but romance was just not a good idea. I'm working to know when and how to love someone very deeply without falling head over heels and becoming twitterpated if circumstances dictate that romantic love would be a bad idea. Of course, there are many other kinds of yoking (good coworkers, good neighbors, good online contacts :), etc.).

I am for people forming their own value systems rather than having values forced upon them. They know why they value what they do that way.

I am for putting people back together when they fall apart. This is quite possibly the most personal of the things on this list, as I find that this is something that satisfies me to a great degree (possibly more than anything else), and it might not be so for others. But I am. It gives me a sense of validation, especially when all I really need do is be there and give someone courage so that they can arrange the pieces how they want them to be.

I am for species diversity. I have no logical explanation for this -- it's just a gut feeling.

I am definitely for good porn, in which case I suppose it becomes erotica rather than porn. Oh, well. :))