Periodically
people will ask why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Sometimes
it is in anguish, knowing that there is suffering that is undeserved. Sometimes
it is used as a way of proving that there is no God, or that God isn't worth
much. That is completely missing the point.
I
am a religious person, and a key point of my religion is that God has given us
the power to choose. If you believe free will is an illusion, today's post may
not hold much for you. For everyone else, I know that I make mistakes and mess
up on a regular basis, but I do value that power to choose, and I don't want to
give it up. I know that sometimes other people make ignorant or mean-spirited
choices that negatively affect me, but still, I don't want to give up my power
to choose, and everyone else having that power comes with it.
There
are people who know that, but still think about at a fairly low level: what I
do affects my outcome. Those may be the easiest cause and effect cases to
observe, but there's more going on.
Think
of it this way. If I smoke, that obviously increases my odds of developing lung
cancer. Less obvious but still pretty well understood, it also increases the
lung cancer likelihood for those around me, especially with prolonged exposure.
Cancer
is a cause of huge heartbreak, and there might be a feeling that a longtime
smoker who gets it was asking for it, as well as some anger toward smokers on
behalf of those who get cancer from second-hand smoke.
What
about the cancer in Detroit? Some people had their houses bought out, but
only after prolonged exposure. Some would like to move, but they can't afford
to without being bought out. Their health is being directly impaired by
exposure to toxins. Questions of legal liability are important, but not what
I'm talking about here. Someone decided that the profit was more important than
the environment or the people living in it, but it's more than that.
If
we are collectively allowing weak environmental protections, because we don't
believe the indicators until things have already gotten irreparably bad, or if
we do believe the indicators but know that realistically they will affect poor
brown people more than us, or we have decided that government is bad and only
gets in the way of progress, or we voted for people who give into corporations
because they tugged on our heartstrings about abortion and played on our fears
about race, we have a responsibility there too.
If
a farm bill that was supposed to help farming families and ensure that there was
always a food supply in America gets twisted so that it now puts money into the
pockets of corporations that used their superior financial resources to buy up
the family farms, and for profitability they end up growing crops that are
inedible without extensive processing, and then the subsidized additive you
have is high-fructose corn syrup which they say is fine in moderation but it's
hard to eat something in moderation when it's in everything, including things
that aren't particularly sweet, and the entire cycle is hard on the soil,
farming families, and human bodies, and still doesn't guarantee a good food
supply, but we keep on mindlessly buying the additive-laden food, enriching the
corporations and manufacturers and voting in the same politicians, that's on
us.
If
the desire for lower taxes means that we keep taking money out of schools, so
gym and music and recess is cut, and classes are over-sized so children don't
get much individual attention, and a lot of the better-off ones end up using
online schools which are free because that money just comes from the general
educational budget, but it's not an option for families who can't afford to
keep an adult at home, and then in the public schools the most important thing
is passing standardized tests, so the education goes downhill, and now there is
less possibility of them finding the stress relief of exercise and the joy of
creativity, because really, the corporations only want drones, and school
funding comes from those corporations sponsoring the curriculum or the
cafeteria, that's on us.
If
eating the artificial food has a worse effect on some bodies, and combined with
stress, poor diet, and a lack of activity, they gain weight, but there is no
profit in improving the food and activity, so they get referred to pills and
surgery and gym memberships and supplements and programs that have a lot of
profit potential in them, and many fail and get depressed, and others start
experiencing disorders where they no longer even see their bodies accurately,
and that is worsened by the media showing false images and criticism from
others, because we have been taught that it is all about the personal
accountability so if you can't conform that is on you, that is on us.
And
if the scariest thing in the antebellum US was that the slaves would rise up,
and so modern police forces were based on the slave patrols, and years of
extending slavery, economic manipulation, destruction of property, murder, and redlining
have enforced extreme inequality, and unequal prosecution of crimes fills the
prisons with black men (and there are people making a profit on that) that's on
us. If we try and justify it, and if we get mad at protesters because they
block traffic or make you uncomfortable when they are trying to establish safety,
let alone comfort, that's on us.
God
allows it (for now) because we do.
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