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Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
Israel:
“Except Palestinians.”
The US and other Western democracies:
“Except Palestinians.”
@aral it seems their playbook will be pretending like all the evidence we see from Palestinians is fake and all the evidence from Israelis is real, even though it's laughably more towards the opposite to anyone with an internet connection. Manufactured consent for the modern era.
@tio True.
I don't believe this is true.
We are heterotrophs and need to consume other life to survive. However, that doesn't mean we must consume more than what nature can regenerate. There are hundreds of millions of people living in harmony with nature, doing good things, right now.
In fact, we can also feed 10 billion people sustainably:
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-feed-10-billion-people
The problem ofc is that our societies, especially in the Global North, actively prevent this.
Let's change them.
I probably misunderstood, but replied to this:
"no one can live on this planet without trading.... you can't be a good human being, do good thing, and survive."
which I understand to argue that no one on the planet can be a good human being and survive at the same time?
There are both (indigenous) people living directly off the land, and people within societies consuming very little, but still enough to not only survive but also have a good life.
So "no one" is not true.
I did understand the context, and I know I'm probably unfair here. Don't mean to argue with anyone, and could've just made this a separate point and not a reply.
The reason for my drive-by comment, is that I think it's really important to draw attention to how wildly different human experiences are, when there is talk about what "people" or "humans" or "planet" are. I believe doing this can unlock a lot of imagination.
Don't know if I succeeded in any of that here though.
@aral @ttiurani I see. Sure I should have said that pretty much no one. The people you are talking about are a very tiny minority. What I mean is that being a good human being is not enough in our "modern" society. There are no programs in place to help people have a life. Like the declaration of Human Rights says “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
I spent the last 15 years of my life creating a lot of "things", from books to documentaries or online free services for everyone. All scientific and educational. And I never traded them. Meaning I made no profit. I want to do good things and help people, get myself informed about how the world works, etc.. And I cannot survive in this world unless random people from around the globe support me financially. And that's a core issue within our global society, that people cannot have a life without being forced to do something in return or engage into this trade society.
I very much agree with your point. I read too much essentialism in your comment, not knowing the background.
While (I think) there is no research on how many people within countries are currently able to have a good life without consuming more than nature can regenerate, I don't think "very tiny minority" is accurate.
From the little I know, a sustainable level is surprisingly high and achievable almost everywhere with policy changes.
@tio@social.trom.tf @aral@mastodon.ar.al @ttiurani@fosstodon.org
Simply abolish the homestead real estate tax and employee wages and the whole system of forced economics and inflationary pricing will collapse. Every other solution is band-aids on a sucking chest wound.
@tio@social.trom.tf @aral@mastodon.ar.al
"A good life" is judged by whose standards?
Man is not the measuring stick for what is good. Man is inherently evil, and his idea of "goodness" is always self-serving and deceptive. When any other man tries to tell me what is "good" I ignore him with vigor. It doesn't matter if it is a priest or humanitarian or a prince. No man can decide what is good for another.
"I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ... And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them ..."
What the necessary material conditions for good life are, should IMO be democratically decided. And as far as planetary limits are not transgressed – which means actively harming other people's possibility for a good life – there is no need to define the meaning of a good life for anyone else.
FYI: there are efforts to find the lower limits for these material conditions, like decent living standards:
@tio@social.trom.tf @aral@mastodon.ar.al @ttiurani@fosstodon.org
Man is not designed to live independently. Mankind is a distributed organism. Our souls are organs within a larger soul. One organ dies and another takes its place. Nothing can change that.
@tio@social.trom.tf @aral@mastodon.ar.al
Technically man does not consume other life to survive. A cow is dead before a man eats it.
@aral@mastodon.ar.al
Welcome to mortality. It is what it is and until death is swallowed up in life that is how it will continue. If we try to preach morality we will only generate proselytes for a more decorative form of hell. We must cut through to the heart of the matter: man worships himself, and this is the cause of his problems. Man fancies his own ideas and things more than the spiritual reality of the conscience.
If a nation is not in awe of the true God who gave us human and national consciousness then man will play god and warp everything into corruption. There is no peace without the love of the Almighty. Morality without the Spirit is in insult, not an improvement. Every clever form of morality from Christianism to Humanism all denies the fundamental reality that we are powerless to save our own lives. So why is that the main focus of most men? Why do the rich and powerful strive to do what is clearly impossible at the expense of everyone else?
Thousands of years of recorded history prove this repeatedly yet the nations refuse to heed such clear instructions. They think they can do better than the Creator, and the more they believe this the more man is alienated from reality.
God does not want man to change. Man can't change. God wants man to change his mind. Alienation begins in the mind, not in outward show. Repentance is in the mind, in what man chooses to value above all.
@aral And except Armenians, Afghans, any PoC in a small boat on the Mediterranean or arriving in the UK, and anybody else I forgot to mention...
@gunchleoc … the Kurds, you forgot the Kurds.
There is nothing new here. It's just that millions are seeing it with new eyes.
"Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."
"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."
"Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."
The Internet is one big block of housetops.
#hypocrisy #religion #israel #palestine #gaza #genocide #imperialism
@aral Incidentally, that declaration was written post World War 2 by a committee headed by the wife of a US president. But all its stipulations were deliberately made legally non-binding. So that universal declaration is essentially a memorial to international political hypocrisy.
@aral And what about the right to life, liberty and security of the people Hamas took hostage, raped or killed? Perhaps you should direct your concerns towards Hamas and their Palestianian supporters, too.