Written by Andor Carnes   

In response to: “Keep on Rockin in the Free World”: By Neil Young, Neil Young’s Blog, 19 June 2015

OPINION:
“I do not trust politicians who are taking millions from those corporations either. I trust people.”

In the painfully obvious; “People” form and make up corporations and are politicians. When we discount a person’s role in any behavior, personal or corporate, we tend to demonize, impersonalize and place our trust in the wrong people –all in reaction to the lack of trust we feel for the entity we do not regard as “people”.

Humans are not nice to each other, in the name of survival. Corporations are simply one extension of that vulnerability. Politicians are simply our way of allowing that bad behavior to become public as a way of demonstrating our tolerance for people hurting people literally in the name of the hope that they will not. It is a curious process. As long as we allow the poor treatment and inequities of underserved and marginalized people, we will demonstrate our tolerance for those who rise to the top of that treatment and power, as individuals, politicians or corporations.

Greed, cruelty, indifference, entitlement, self-aggrandizement, are but a few of the now inherent characteristics of mankind, and the most damaging characteristic, highly developed skill, is the denial that we as individuals behave this way at all.

People! You cannot trust people. Trust those who can go through life without hurting others, the environment or any entity, in their wake. Of course, recognizing those individuals and responsible corporations is not a skill that many folks have because they spend all their time bashing the obvious and not recognizing the true and just. That goes back to your, “But Freedom of Choice is meaningless without knowledge.” “Choice”, even with knowledge, just perpetuates the system you find repugnant, as long as the causes and effects of our own actions are not the paramount focus; so, we can truly cause others no harm and evaluate that in others with true empathy.

Mistrust is a survivalist tactic and never on a broad scale protected the innocent. Your demons are not corporations, they are people. They are all around you. They progress and prosper, while others flounder, and they are indifferent to those struggles. Talking is still indifference, if no sustained actions to mitigate the problems are completed. It is the nature in all of us to blame another for the world’s problems and especially corporations and politicians. Of course they are to blame for actions, which harm one or millions. However, we are to blame for seeing them as the problem. It is our insatiable tolerance for harm and damage that sets us apart as the unequivocal, immutable problem for ourselves. We want honest government but will not rise to form it (this is any country by the way). We want accountability and social responsibility but do not impose such on ourselves. We deny we are like this and are painfully indifferent to the suffering of others.

Everyone else is not anything but human, and we humans have an innate streak of apathy toward anything that does not directly affect our own survival. History has well shown this approach to be highly destructive and misguided; nevertheless, we perpetuate the culture of survival at all costs, while pretending we are socially responsible by pointing out others’ flaws and predatory tendencies.

Where does it end? It does not end. We spark it on with each new controversy or success in survival, recognition or profit.

I have always liked “Keep on Rockin in the free world” but it is a sentiment and not a reality for but a few who have the discretionary ability to comfortably survive. There is no “free world”, unless in our heads, and that is another story of freedom. There are “free-er worlds”, and our countries are wonderful examples of that valuable and thankful dynamic state.

For the 99 percent in the world, life is a struggle, caused by humans, intentionally or not. Human nature is a curious and destructively cruel thing. Left in the wrong hands and circumstances, its exploration causes great suffering and loss. I believe the hands to look at are our own first, and then others. Yes, what we tolerate is beyond comprehension. However, criticizing the obvious and believing that if we criticize enough someone else will do something about it is at best kicking the can down some road and at worst delusional for our own survival.

We only have one lifetime each. There are really only two roads for each. Those paths are care and action for the “other” or care and action for self. Obviously, there is a horrific capacity for evil and cruelty in the corporate and personal world. Yet, perhaps and probably the demons are within and not out there, and perhaps we should say, “Keep Rockin For a Free-er World.”