Cultural dissonance

In Cognitive Dissonance their are feelings of discomfort that result from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.

In human culture these days, there is what I will call Cultural Dissonance.  That is the individual and social consciousness--what some people think of as waking up on a political/community level--that is causing many people to seek a societal answer to the differences between what we all know is right and what is currently being shoved down our throats as (chose your poison) just the way things are; normal corruption; money talks, bullshtick walks; business as usual; how the world works; one hand washes the other; you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours;  it's not personal, it's business; how power works; survival of the fittest.

Every religion, spiritual belief system, philosophical belief system and even secular humanism--which denies being a belief system, share certain ideologies about how to act.  Chief among those is the golden rule--treat others as you want to be treated.  Not far behind is you reap what you sow, otherwise stated as what goes around comes around, and live by the sword, die by the sword.  In other words, if you don't treat others like you want to be treated, it will come back to haunt you--whether in this life or the next.

Other truisms; be honest, be true to your word, don't take what isn't yours, whether it is a life or a material object or an opportunity that is obtained by removing the same from another person.   Be a good steward, care for what you have, do what you say you will do, don't put material things above living creatures.  There are a million variations of these but it all comes down to the same thing, treat others as you want to be treated.

So why, right now, or maybe now and at all times previously, but well hidden due to no open internet-type phenomenon, are we seeing so much corruption of roles.  It's not just the petty bureaucrat that does more or faster for a small bribe, its a system that no longer works at all unless money is greasing the wheel.  It is health care aimed at profit not helping people, it is education aimed at mining government loan money with no concern for providing an education that is either high quality or valuable to the person borrowing the money for the school.  Its keeping jails full to fill for-profit jails and prisons and drug trials more interested in getting a drug out there than in whether it both safe and effective.  It's farmers getting money for not planting, or for throwing out their crops to keep prices high while there are people hungry..

Why are we doing these things--and worse things: Wars to keep the weapons factories pulling in the money.  Coups to give new leaders a position so they can favor the rich backer for trade protections, people working in virtual slavery conditions to mine diamonds, farm coffee, cotton, chocolate.  Children whose only value is for the free labor they provide until they fall over dead is just not thought about while we brag about the great buy we made at our favorite discount store.

We complain about people getting assistance with rent, utilities, food, then complain again about worn out and degrading neighborhoods and then complain some more because the homeless people with their carts and dirty clothes are so unpleasant to look at. 

How much of that is the flip side of seeing the top 2% of the wealth owners live lives that look luxurious, that get away with murder and cheating and lying and stealing and it just makes them richer.  How much of crime is just the poor kid standing in front of the candy store window day after day watching well dressed children get whatever they want and then throwing what they don't want in a trashcan.  How much is envy and jealousy.  How much is absolute horror that their own offspring will have no more opportunity to do better than they had, or their parents or grandparents.  How much is fear that all those excuses:  just the way things are; normal corruption; money talks, bullshtick walks; business as usual; how the world works; one hand washes the other; you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours;  it's not personal, it's business; how power works; survival of the fittest, will continue like a twisted mantra to keep the rest of us hopeless and downtrodden and barely energetic enough to keep going to a job that will never take us anywhere but to old age and an early death.

If I was one of those 2% at the top, would I also be blind to those that have too little?  Would I also pat my self on the back for being a hard worker and a smart businessman and wise enough to be born in the right family?  Would I share out money that I would never use anyway to my pet charity and tell myself what a good person I am?

I am not a hero.  I am not a great activist.  I did not join the Peace Corp or the military or Greenpeace.  I did not take my service education to needy places and work for no money to help those worse off than I was.

I did struggle to pay my bills, take care of my children that, now grown, are very concerned with their children's clothing, and opportunities to participate in school and after school activities--because I was raised in handmedowns and home sewed clothes, and could only afford a single activity per child, and sometimes not that.  I did feel guilty that I could not offer them annual summer trips to nice places.  I felt bad that I could not pay for their college and amazed that my own parents had done better with their own family.  I was terrified when the job I had paid no insurance or only the employee, but would cover family for roughly half of the already stretched paycheck.  Suddenly every accident, every cold was a potential loss--life, debility, house, child--none were acceptable, all were too horrible to consider.  The balance was too delicate.  Everyday was a day that treading water might change to drowning.

I  try empathize with those whose own situation is worse than mine, people whose childhood was so poverty-stricken that their parent or parents were struggling just to feed them, or had given up on them, so ravaged by lack and despair that they could not even think of them so they sought escape--drugs, money, a better spouse, any spouse, someone to help, someone to make them forget, something.  Those children could not benefit from school.  They could not concentrate on anything but their own fears and  hunger and pain.  But empathy implies thinking about it, and thinking about it is so painful and so hard to do anything about.  And empathy does not actually fix problems unless the problem is hate.

We do have a lot of hate right now.  We do want to blame those that are worse off than we are for being worse off than we are.  It helps us not have to empathize or do anything.  And if we are also struggling, we want someone to blame.  It is always easy to blame those worse off.  And blame leads to hate--especially when those in horrible situations become so downtrodden they commit crimes to stop being poor, or take drugs to stop feeling powerless and guilty.  We don't like it that there are people getting help from our taxes, money we could have used ourselves.  We don't like it that we are not rich and powerful and capable of giving our families anything they want and of giving our favorite charities great gifts.  We hate those people that are taking our tax money and filling our jails and ignoring their responsibilities while using drugs.

We hate them, because hating them is so much easier than empathizing with their plight.  It feels so much more righteous than the powerlessness of knowing your own children have to get a college scholarship by playing sports or and instrument or studying constantly.  It feels so much less scary than "there but by the grace of god, go I"