The World is Too Big

How do you view yourself? A fish in a pond, a cog in the machine, a beacon in the dark? Do you hold the next great idea? Are you the next big actor? Will you change the world? Save it? Burn it? Rule it? Leave it?

Do you see yourself as the mouse in the maze, or the scientist testing the rat's best time?

So much happens in the world and we can't even comprehend it all: Vladimir Putin trying to sow discord in the EU and annex more of Ukraine, China and US in a cyber war that goes completely unspoken, all the human rights violations in North Korea, ISIL spreading throughout the Middle East, Palestinians struggling to get electricity, strikes and discontent across South America, the hottest year on record in Antarctica, California running out of water, the FBI not allowing for public disclosure of its surveillance technology, cartel wars in Mexico, the slow privatization of public services and the military, corporate oligopolies, etc. etc.

If the list in the paragraph above strikes you as surprising in any way, I can assure you that this is a very, very small list of issues that runs in the background of the news you see on TV every day. The fact is that the average news show is only set up in such a way so as to present to you the news of the day with some other tidbits in between, depending on what station it is. Even if a show anchor wants to present something other than the doldrums of the day's headline news, they're required to dedicate a certain amount of time to the stories, even if the anchors on the previous shows have covered them to an early death.

I concede that it's good to know what the president/prime minster is up to, but to follow them around in the course of their daily lives, even if they're on vacation? Even if they're just spending time with their family for Christmas or going out to get a burrito?

It serves a purpose, some would argue; it humanizes the president/pm and makes him/her seem more like a person and less like a plutocrat. At the same time, dedicating a news story to how he/she hit a jump shot only detracts from a much more important story, such as the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner, or the murder of Putin's largest opponent. (Those are two stories that have been covered, but to the extent that they should be? Certainly not.) A person's day-to-day is not news.

But then what is important to the average person? Usually, you can count them off on your fingers: money, job, social life, a place to live, and all the minutiae in between those fingers. Most will never look to completely change the world or lead it, and are content to make enough money so that they're happy.

This doesn't speak to the difference in some cultures, where getting more is better, or having too much money is looked down upon.

Few will ever make a huge dent in the sociopolitical fabric of everyday life. It's a fact that can be generalized throughout time whenever one studies the 'lucky few' who have their names in the history books. For instance, a majority of Americans (estimation by Howard Zinn) in the 1770s didn't support separation from the UK. And yet, America's founding fathers hold an esteemed position in American history, even though all were wealthy slave owners, and were, on average, very young to boot. They were the extreme minority.

I've found myself thinking that the world is far too big, regardless of how much some pundits may say that it's smaller than ever because it's more crowded and we've got the internet and whatnot, because it's the truth. The world is big, and complex, and one person could never even hope to truly comprehend every viewpoint and issue that pervades the social fabric of our time. There are 7 billion people on this Earth, a number that is unconscionable to most, since most people can't even accurately guess how many pennies are in a jar when there's a prize on the line.

What's more, it's easy to completely ignore the rest of the world. It's easy to never think about how some things affect people thousands of miles away because they're not immediate. You'd never imagine the life of someone who is afraid of a clear blue sky because of the possibility that they'd be killed by a drone high in the sky, or understand what it is to be without running water in a desert, because those problems aren't immediate. Yes, we in the western world are concerned about drones, but overall, they aren't bombing anyone on the local soil. There is no danger to us.

Terrorism was the one action to slither its way into the public conscience because it became immediate. The danger was there, clear and present, playing on the TV nonstop for 24 hours a day for months on end. Terrorism was the issue that moved from the invisible to the visible, from the shacks and debris of war-torn regions to Main Street.

Those in the smallest minority, those dedicated to waging a lopsided war on behalf of a defunct notion of justice, changed the course of history. That's not to say that the people who commit atrocities should be lauded in the centuries to come, but that precisely isn't a judgment anyone can make. History, as is said so often, is written by the victors, and there has never been a victory so difficult or an issue so muddled as what it actually means to triumph against terrorism.

Even then, when the issue became visible, so many people didn't understand it. The world was too big at that point, the issue too complex, so the reasoning became simple and stupid, compacted and rebranded until it could be sold to even a squirrel picking at nuts in the Autumn.

The world is big. You're small. It is simply the way of any organism living on a rock floating in space. Don't feel bad because that's how you were born, and it's how you'll die.

This has been a post full of rambling. I'm sure I had a point somewhere, but I'm typing this out at work while there is nothing to do. Oh well.

That's all for now,
Das Flüg