Forced Realizations July 13, 2009

Recently I was engaged in a conversation with a young man who came from a culture completely different from my own. The tragedies he witnessed make the insecurities I inherited from a judgmental society shrivel and dry. I will not include the country from which he escaped as a small boy, but I will say that his experiences are those that are harrowing and inspiring in the same moment.

Our conversation revolved around the issue of culture and what is right. Obviously, coming from very different backgrounds we were unable to completely understand one another on issues such as womens’  right and the right to determine one’s own sexual orientation. Huffing and puffing did occur in our determination to find common ground amid landscapes created by such different weather patterns. The moment of agreement did come when we both returned to the starting point: cultures are ingrained in our individual realities and cultures other than our own should not be analyzed without recognition of our own cultural beliefs.

His main point was that he did not believe it was right for himself or any ‘other’ to walk into his village and suggest that every person in that community has the inherent right to determine his or her own sexual orientation. I completely agree. Even though my indignant demand for equality in my culture attempted to overpower my adherence to cultural relativity, I was able to agree that no one culture has the right to believe the path that they follow, the moral values that they tout are true and correct.

Though I believe this and in every part of my life attempt to recognize my bias before making a judgement or observation about something different from myself, it also creates a sticky situation for globalization, international intervention, and other forms of cross-cultural exchange.  How do we determine when and why to intervene and who are the illustrious we? We have a toothless United Nations that secretly wants to reconfigure the power structure of the world, but those who benefit the most from the current power structure live at the top, so why change? Then we have semi-autonomous organizations like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which can choose to intervene in countries throughout the world, with little definition of what they use to qualify intervention. Is it possible to shed these organizations and return to a pre-World War conception of the nation state? Even then there was foreign intervention.

In some ways it still seems as though we live in a Cold War era, but instead of Capitalism versus Communism, it is now Rationality versus Religious extremism that has been termed Terrorism.  The allusive we are still supporting a hegemonic reality, but at times I move toward the idea that general public around the world are uniting, while those who hold concentrated power are moving away from representing the people and looking toward integration in a global power struggle, economic, social and most importantly, ideological.

To return to the narrative, during this conversation with this culturally estranged, but human being just the same, I was forced (yet again) to realize the insignificance of my crusade to constantly evaluate how my bias is forcing my perception into a certain pigeon hole. Until we can recognize that there is not right answer, that we all have our own bias….I am not sure what to do.

Ah, yet again a ramble that leads to confusion.

Moments Aplenty July 8, 2009

There are some moments in which I dread, moments when I seriously consider following in Jim Carey’s footsteps in asking for a clean slate. These moments are usually those of confusion to such a level that I will almost never be able to untangle myself from the strands that seem to desire my lifeblood. Or at times I know a moment is inevitable and even with this knowledge I dig my heals into the ground in an attempt to stop the inevitable…have you ever tried to stop what is inevitably required to happen? I would advise against it. If you do attempt, be warned that the strands of confusion, heartache and pain grow at an alarming rate and stop for the likes of no one.

I do sometimes wonder if people like Hitler or the masterminds behind the Rwandan genocide were running from a moment, were trying to rip away the strands of time and thought that had begun to suffocate the decency and humanity from their bodies. I suppose that I am giving them too much credit or making too many assumptions, but putting events such as those created by these men in such a small home as the space of a moment gives us an atrocity on which to cling, but it does not give us hope that paths of terror can be rerouted with the appropriate intervention. Intervention should be encapsulated in the definitions of diplomacy or international development or even a global world order such as capitalism or democracy. Maybe intervention is the wrong term to use because of the weight it holds in these key facets of modern society. Perhaps we can continue a little further down the thesaurus line and talk about recognition of a common strand associated with a common history. This commonality does not give those powerful few the prerogative to define a common future, something the world has been experiencing since the apex of the 20th century, but gives us all the chance to recognize a common goal. I believe that the moment when we, as a world and a global community, realize the potential we have to manifest and create positive change will be the moment when everything so many of us will be working for will come to fruition.

I say this because manifesting and creating change is the most natural and most broadly recognized part of our common moments. If every moment was a photograph or a painting or a piece of graffiti lining our downtown’s or the face a person, we would recognize that each moment leaves its own distinct mark on time. Many moments may be similar in size and significance and maybe in appearance; this is where we are able to recognize the connection we have with other people their repertoire of moments. There are many aspects of this world that I wish were different, and I am creating my part in the change that is inevitable, but if I had the ability to change one thing it would be that we were required to wear our moments like a cape, for the world to see. I feel as though we would understand the commonality so much more if we were able to share. Instead we have the moral regulators of weakness who always seem to recognize the weakness in others without displaying the colors and textures they have accumulated over time.

Alas, I digress from the discomfort and confusion I feel toward my own life at the moment to project at the world and then solve the problems I see as the most significant. I am only a cape-wearing fool who believes that the moments that fill us are meant to be shared.

What is a moment? July 7, 2009

When I attempt to remember who I was when I was young, I cannot. I suppose this is because who I was then is the building blocks for who I am now and in an effort to separate the two all I discover is someone who is not complete within herself. So I must conclude that trying to remember the past is a task of realizing the present.

I do not know what it is like for others, but for me a moment is fleeting, yet essential to the definition of time and humanity. In one moment thousands of people can parish, while in that same moment an unbreakable love can be born. But are these really moments, or are we forgetting the great strands of moments that brought us to this particular telling event? My birth was preceeded by moments in which my parents made a commitment to eachother, whether it was love no will know. The foundation of America is remembered in a single moment, July 4th, when in reality its creation took countless moments of suffering, discrimination, joy, and freedom to expand intellectually. Maybe the complexity of any given moment is too much to comprehend, or maybe we edit out the intricacies because of our increasing need to move forward in a fast-paced and unforgiving world. Whatever the reason, we have failed to recognize the tradegy, the beauty and the seriousness of the moments we live. Why are we, our country, our standard of living the way they are today? Why are we able to gloat a powerful economy, even in the midst of an economic disaster, while people around the world are unable to realize thier potential within the global hierarchy?

I could go further, but perhaps dwelling on the moments and on the great vines of experience is just as detrimental as forgetting them all together. Maybe the answer lies in a balance of the moment and its precedsors. Maybe the only way to learn from the past is to have one foot in the creation of the moment, while the other stands firmly in the moment and its consequence. This is something I have learned in my life, my education, and in the contemplation of my moments: true and relevant solutions and answers are increasingly impossible to realize.

It could be that we as a world, or even a small but determined group of individuals, are looking to change the ways that inequalities are woven into the lives of huge numbers of peopel residing on planet earth. The thought of this makes my current moment humm with happiness, but then I consider the issue of context and time. History is edited, history is typically seen through the lens of a man, sometimes a woman, and until recently an Anglo-man. Because the roots of our current predicament can only be found steeping in the pails of the past, it is here that we look to define, redefine and provide solutions for the issues that plague us in the present. Thus it can be concluded, that until recently (and some would argue it continues today) the mine from which we dug for answers, suggestions and solutions was provided by a small minority of the world: white men and thier view of the world and thier perception of cultural and social stability and change. Examples of this can be found in so many aspects of our society, such as capitalism, treatment (in this case, dominance) of the environment, and the superiority of the white human over any other homosapien.

So a moment is not only a brief flash of time in ones existence. A moment is defined by all the moments that came before it and the magnitude of all those moments combined into a stream of conscious thought can be very intimidating. I will dedicate this blog to moments: personal moments, collective moments, moments of great sadness and moments that deserve massive celebrations. I will try to do my best bylooking not only at the moment but at the history of that moment through the guise of a biased history. I will attempt to be objective, but interestingly objectivity is subjective.