Tannishblog

I have a fascination with Society’s Decline. This is the central theme on Tannishblog, although I had no idea at inception. "Civilization is a fragile construct," I often say - only to meet silence and odd looks. These days we can see society tremor from unstable systems and practices reaching inevitable conclusions: Climate Change; Global Banking meltdown; A Housing Crisis in America; Unwarranted warfare; Political corruption, and hundreds of slayings of infinite variety. All occur as expressions of self-centeredness. Hatred, fear, greed, disinterest in our environment or in each other are cause of the above symptoms of civilization’s destruction.

Yet some voices of truth can still be heard:

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.

                   – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I can almost hear you scoff: "Yeah, right!" you say. Take a moment to think about it. We have not been taught, in the Western Society, to cherish these qualities. Your dismissal of such messages are a result of years of being told and sold the opposite message.

"What’s in it for me?"
"Show me the money."
"Looking out for Number One."
"Taking care of business."
"Me first!"

"Me First" is exactly what is killing us. Compassion and Empathy is what can reverse our course. People want that, Barack Obama’s appeal is that he exudes compassion, that he cares about others. Most just don’t know how to express this most basic human quality as he can.

And that’s sad, isn’t it?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 8:40 am and is filed under Opinion, Wednesday's Words, Ponderings, 21st Century Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.