Christmas.
I read a book about Jesus and realised not for the first time that the original message was appealing: we should help the vulnerable; everyone deserves a chance.
Organised religion is a bore. There is nothing in ceremony, there is nothing in a church. The only thing that teaches us is words and experience.
In my thinking book, as a result of reading My Name Was Judas, I wrote:
"Human rights don't exist. They just don't. Human beings have different kinds of rights depending on the values of the society they live in and how that society apportions them. Sometimes human beings have no rights. For example, slaves in 19th century America, or Jews in Nazi Germany. Because human rights are specific to society there is no such thing as universal human rights."
This maybe a cliche to some, but it was an original thought for me. I always thought (without really thinking about it) that the Declaration of Independence, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were rather grand. And yet injustice in the world is continuous. Yet champions of human rights are assassinated. It might be, I realised after reading My Name Was Judas, that these declarations are just letters to Santa Claus.
5 comments:
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Jesus was the champion of human rights.i.e. put every one else first.
It sounds daft but take a look at the selfish and compare them to the "givers".
No prizes for guessing who is happier.
Hi John-Paul.
This is Rich coming to you from Auckland... I'm heading home today. I really enjoyed your new posts.
I think the hat of middle age, though, doesn't quite fit you yet.
To divide life into young, middle age and old age is too simplistic. Maybe the divisions of a life could be based on our perception of what we think we know. Here's my first attempt:
1) What is that?
2) I know that!
3) I thought I knew that.
4) Who am I kidding?
5) How did I manage to miss that?
6) Was this my journey?
7) I don't get it.
I think you're probably at stage three. I'm stuck somewhere in late stage five.
I have learnt this year that children are very complex. They can choose a path quite different from the one you imagined for them. They are also guided quite substantially by the 'inherited bits' they picked up in some lottery before birth. Example is definitely the best teacher.
Oh yes, I know that about Jesus and, even though I am not a Christian I admire him tremendously. There are human rights but it's because we say so (I think), not because they exist inherently. Well, I realise that's an atheist's point of view.
Richard. Yeah, stage three sounds about right... (which looks at the start of the middle). What have you recently learned that you missed? Superannuation payments for the last decade perhaps?
I'm into the Greek gods at the moment... masters of manipulation!
I've just read The Iliad (a prose version of). I don't think the Greeks were that big on human rights!
Basically the only thing my whole class loved in Social Studies was studying how the Greeks slaughtered each other at Troy, and how the Greeks were slaughtered by the Persians at Thermopylae. Loved it. All of them.
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