The rule of “status quo” is that there is no room for movement, growth, or change. The dictators of status quo would like everything to remain the same, with the same old rhetoric, the same old leaders (or those who agree with them), the same way of doing things.
Look to your own organizations. The leader of a group may be the best person for the job, and he/she remains in that post, sometimes until death. As a free society, we know that there are many groups and associations, most of them with a head honcho, grand “Poohbah,” or “great, white leader,” in an historical manner of speaking.
In societies, people are judged by their lineage, by the amount of money they have earned or inherited, and by the influence of their “clan.” In this age, we could construe the word “clan” to mean “extended family” that has been acquired because people substitute acquaintances for real family that has been “lost” in moves to distant states where money-making opportunities reside.
A lot of people might feel stuck in society’s overall view of who they are perceived to be. Education has always been a possibility for a step up the ladder. Historically, and I will use Spain as an example, one way to get ahead was to either become a priest, or join the military. And, the tradition of the latter has continued, there and here.
Young men are attracted to the military for many reasons. Some may join so that they can more easily get the training they need for the jobs they wish to hold, later in life, if they survive their tour(s) of duty. The military seems to be personally helpful to formerly undisciplined youth who never made a bed at home, but now MUST do so (at “work”). The military guarantees a paycheck, and work, unless someone makes some horrible mistake, is wounded, or fatally injured.
Where am I going with these thoughts? Well, let me back up a bit and mention a PBS special program called “Secrets of the Dead,” that I viewed last night. The show was about the fight by “the powers that be” to restrict the common man’s access to a version of the Bible in English, which was first written in Greek. The hour long show included a segment in which a dissenter and promoter of the English Bible was killed, but later exhumed, so that his body could be burned and his ashes spread in a non-Christian burial ground.
What is that all about, you say? Why would anyone do that? Seems radical. “The powers that be” had to make a further example of the man in hopes of dissuading anyone else from doing the things he had done, in life, that were considered to be so wrong. Power is at the root of the action.
Money, greed, and dominance equal power. The debates about power, and the misuse of it, probably reach back to a time we can only imagine: pre-recorded history. The debates and the struggles of man are often unchanged from century to century: the rights of self-governance, the right to make war, and what sacrifices will be required before we can make peace.
Yet, in our hearts, we all long for peace … except for the annoying neighbor, except for the co-worker who pulls our chain, except for the rest of our “enemies.” No, we speak of peace, but our tongues are swords, ready to go into action at the slightest hint of trespass of what we believe should be the maintained status quo. In other words, people are fine, as long as others go along with our set program, or follow (us) along like sheep going into the slaughter.
There may come a time of peace in the future. That may be when a nuclear holocaust has arrived, the war engine turbines have been silenced, and only ants continue to walk the earth. In the meantime, we live with our own delusions that everything is ok and will be ok. With any luck, we will continue to make some beautiful quilts to comfort our bodies and our souls, practically and visually, while we wait for the Generals and soldiers alike to put down their armaments that maim and kill living things.
Peacefully piece.
Pat
