Feb 20: Life-Changing Event

What life event most changed your perspective of the world?

I’m not even really sure if there was one specific event that changed my outlook of the world, as far as I can remember, I’ve always seen the world for the harsh reality that it actually is. I never grew up with the outlook of the world that everything is sunshine and puppies and rainbows (well, the rainbows came later in life….), but I think that it’s hard to even have that sort of view of the world, when all you see on the news is death and destruction. Yes, you can always choose to completely ignore mainstream media, because they rarely report on anything positive or uplifting, but isn’t that, in turn, just being ignorant?

I know that when I was a kid, I was pretty switched on, even if I didn’t necessarily understand things that were happening, I knew that things were happening.  I just didn’t know why.

In terms of my ‘outlook’ on the world, that ‘outlook’ per-se is more like an ever-growing disappointment in people, society and humanity. Undeniably, one of the pivotal points in this was the attacks of 9-11. How people could do something like that is something that I will probably never understand. It’s one of the most horrific moments in history. Even to this day, I remember exactly where I was. I was in a computer lab – I was supposed to be studying, but instead, I spent the entire day constantly streaming videos from multiple news sites, and constantly had tears rolling down my cheeks. It was simply unfathomable that something this would ever happen… but it did, and it completely changed the world.

I’d already lost faith in humanity before that point in time, but after that, I lost all respect for society. But the confusing part of it all, was that there were so many conflicting reports stating that it was a revenge attack for the US not withdrawing their troops; other reports were that it was simply an attack to instigate a war; and other reports were stating that it was all because of religion.

As somebody who believes in science and evolution, I completely disregard religion. I don’t claim to understand all religions, but I cannot stand people who use religion as an excuse to spew hatred, create pain and cause destruction upon others. However, ever since 9-11, all Muslims are now considered terrorists and potential dangers to society. It’s just really disheartening. I’ll openly admit to one sharing that same view, until I actually decided to form my own decisions and have my own thoughts on the matter, and it left me feeling torn and confused.

Since that point in time, my view on the world has just continued to decline. Even when I thought it simply wasn’t possible for humanity to disappoint me any further, it somehow manages to – to the point where sometimes it can almost become so overwhelming. You start to even question your own sanity and views of the world. Maybe it’s not society that’s so horrible, maybe, instead the problem is actually me? Maybe I’m the one thats got the problem? Maybe I’m just being far too sensitive about everything. Maybe people are just happy to sit back and accept all this horrible news, and that in-turn, makes me sad for society. People don’t seem to have any interest in things anymore, because nobody wants to actually get involved.

And thats perhaps the saddest part of it all.

Jan 30: Persuading Others

If you could persuade people to do one thing right now, what would it be?

I would actually try to persuade people to have more of a social conscience.

Only in the past few years have I really developed more of a social conscience in terms of being more vocal about things that I believe in – things like animal rights, climate change, marriage equality, boycotting companies that don’t support the same beliefs that I have.

And then we end up with this complete and utter monstrosity, Tony Abbott, as our leader, who is so completely backwards, he almost seems to be determined to try and inflict as much damage as possible, so that when he gets voted out at the next election, him and his Liberal government will then have all this damage and destruction to use as a platform for the incoming government, and use that to make them look inadequate because they won’t be able to fix it overnight, and they wont have billions of dollars at their disposal to start trying to undo all the damage that the Abbott government has, is and will cause to our country.

Without actually thinking about the country that we live in and the world that we live in, people tend to just sit back and ignore or avoid these kind of things because they don’t think it affects them; or they think that they can make a change, (or maybe they don’t want to?!) but the fact still remains, that there is a lot of shit that happens in this world, and not enough people really seem to care about it to do anything to create a positive change. Yes, there are a number of activists out there, but more often than not, they give the actual term ‘activist’ a bad reputation.

What’s the first thing you see in your head when you hear the word activist? I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that it’s something like a person with some signs / placards, chaining themselves to a fence or a tree, or maybe standing in the way of a bulldozer in a picket line. Perhaps they’re rocking out a giant mop of bushy dreadlocks, screaming into a megaphone, barefoot, with a face full of piercings and referring to themselves in the third person by their alternate non-religious name of Sapphire or Moonflower.

That doesn’t have to be the case. Any body can be an activist without having to resort to that kind of action. You can do little things, small every-day things, that will at least make you feel like you’re doing your part to help a worthy cause.

Personally, I’m not going to go out of my way to go to a rally. Even if it’s for something that I support, I generally loathe them, because you see those people I just described, and they make me want to throat-punch them. Instead, I do my own stuff. I’ll sign petitions; I’ll buy only free-range eggs; I’ve even gone to the point now where I completely emptied my entire bathroom skincare and hair care products for cruelty-free brands. I’ll donate money to charities like the RSPCA, or supporting initiatives for the homeless. I refuse to support companies that don’t support marriage equality, or have financial ties to anti-gay organisations like the christian lobby. I no longer donate clothing to The Salvation Army or The Red Cross because they refuse to help people who are in need that are homosexual. Those people are more than happy to take my hard-earned pink dollars, but if I ever found myself in need of their assistance, it’s so disheartening to know that the people who gladly took my money would refuse to help me.

Why would I continue to support that. Especially when I’d blindly been doing so for so many years. Part of me wishes I could ask for a refund of everything I’ve donated to them, just so I could give it to a more deserving charity.

But I am just one person. I cannot make a big enough difference to influence any change, but I can tell other people about it. And they can tell people, and so on and so forth. But there’s a difference between agreeing that there is a lot of stuff that is wrong in this world and actually stepping up and doing something to make a difference.

So if you were to sit there and make a list of what do you feel strongly about in terms of a broader social aspect, what would you write down? What are your top five issues? What small steps can you take to make a small difference?? And for those of you that believe in it, I think we can agree that by making a positive change for a social cause will bring you good karma.

And everybody wants good karma, right?