Today I read a lot of stuff the Pope wrote. I wont quote it in length, but found these guys to do it for me:
And when I was reading bits, and then hearing the guy from TYT read it, I wanted to cry. That's a lie, I cried a lot on the inside. Im sure many of you either read excerps already or saw it on the news but I stopped watching news about church activity long ago. I regret that now.
I'm a socialist. Not a stalinist, nor a communist. I'm an anarchist too. But I was raised a Catholic in a very catholic country. When I sat in church, I did everything the priests and RE intructors told me. I never had a bad experience, like a pedo-priest or something, dont get me wrong. But when I sat there, I thought how fake and empty it all was. I built my own faith around socialism and anarchic beliefs. I didn't know what they were untill I read about them years later, I didn't understand untill I was a young teenager that people had thought all this before and given it names. So I read about it, and about all the conflicts in our history.
I distanced myself from parts of socialist propaganda that is obviously bullshit. I distanced myself from regimes like the USSR and China etc, these could NOT, THEY COULD NOT IN ANY WAY, be further from socialism.
But at the same time I did not understand how everyone around me, in similar financial/social position, did not feel the exact same. An analogy I am working on:
Let's imagine a ladder leant against a tall fruit tree. Those at the top of the ladder reach the fruit and enjoy it, they then toss their rinds and cores and everything they prefer not to eat down to those below, telling them it is their share and that they should be grateful for it. Those at the top spend their time kicking those below who try to climb while supporting each other so noone can fall.
Those who get the leftovers in turn eat what they can stomach of it, and toss the meager remnants down to the poor bastards on the ground, telling them it is their share and they should be grateful for it. Those in the middle spend their time clinging to the ladder to avoid being kicked off by those above, while standing on the heads of those below to try and gain some height while they prune the tree. Sometimes they even reach some fruit.
Those on the ground spend all their time watering and weeding the fruit tree. They care for it, know how to keep it healthy. They spend their time avoiding the feet of those above while they try and get a handhold on the ladder.
Those at the bottom, and those in middle, KNOW that they are getting a worse share, but when they complain to those at the top, historically they were told that was their place and to shut up. A few times in history, those at the bottom fetched an axe and chopped the fucking ladder down. Then noone could reach the fruit, but it fell when ripe and quite a few of the people down there caught some, but when ripe these fruit are often bitter.
Unfortunatly, often they would then cut down the fruit tree and use the wood to build another ladder. Then the fastest climbed it and from there commanded the ones at the bottom to plant another tree and tend it.
Those now at the top KNOW that an axe is within easy reach of those at the bottom, and they can quickly learn to use it. So instead of telling them it is their place to tend the tree, they distract them from the axe by telling them that THEY TOO can climb the ladder and enjoy the fruit. All they have to do is put their foot on the head of the person next to them.
While they tell those at the bottom to climb, they grease the ladder with the shit and piss they drop from eating all the lovely fruit. Some DO manage to climb the greased ladder, but very seldom can they do this without standing on the heads of others. If you have stood on their heads, there is very little insentive to then reach down and help them up, since they well remember the feel of the boot.
That is our society. We didn't evolve from monkeys and climb out of the tree. We just grew a different tree, one that cannot live without the work of those on the ground. Those above still throw down more shit than fruit, and most of those below still haven't noticed the axe, and think the ladder is the only way.
That's the ladder and the fruit tree. Feel free to use it, but when you do you have to say "Some guy online wrote..." and not preted it is yours, thanks.
Then, after more than 20 years of trying to find a perfect philosofy, this guy makes me doubt my faith. In a few minutes of reading this guy, Pope Francis, made me realise that sometimes the guy at the top got there so he could shake the tree and throw down the fruit, and he made me think a lot.
This guy, this guy is a POPE. The boss. He knows. I also like how he distanced himself from the gay debate. His point as I understand it is: Sure, being gay is not ideal, but compared with the real problems we have, what the hell does it matter whose bottom you fancy.
Greed and the love of material wealth is the only stopping us from reaching the stars. You MUST all realise that. And it's easy to say "Sure but the system is set up like that so I want to succeed." AND THAT is the problem. Not that sometimes individuals find it easier to follow the crowd even though they dont really like the destination, the problem is that WE MADE THAT DESTINATION. We can undo it. They cannot eat the fruit if we dont water the tree.
I dream of when we all stop wanting what we dont need. I am no better, I want also. But I try to limit it, I try to kerb it. We can do it.
And ultimately my post was about this: Historically, the catholic church has been against socialism. But mainly because socialism was used as a vehicle by very unsavoury and discontented parts of society. But when I grind the mill and get the very core of socialism, it could not be more aligned with the VERY CORE of Christianity:
Let's clothe the naked, feed the hungry, stop killing each other. Let's search for happyness together. Maybe we NEVER find it. But it should NOT be for want of looking. We have thumbs. We have brains. We have sent people and dogs to space. What can't we do? NOTHING.
Why should children die because their parents dont have enough imaginary numbers to give to a massive company that has more imaginary numbers than many countries? The company HAS the medicine. Most research is done in universities, not in privately funded labs. That we let companies BUY the RIGHT to be the only supplier of that medicine is.... so alien to me. WHY? ARE THEY GOD that they get to decide, by their pricing range, who is worthy to live and who to die?
Even criminals: I forgive readily, maybe because I am quick to make mistakes myself.... but WHY should people make money from locking others up? Prisons in most countries (The great leader here being the good old bastion on capitalism, the USA) are private enterprises, run for profit. But not content that they are payed at a profit by government to inter these people, in the vast majority of cases they then force them to do manual labour for no reward. Well, the reward they get is a token amount of money that they can spend at a shop itself run at a profit by the same prison, and if they do the labour they are allowed the basics that the prison owners promised to supply when they tendered for the prison contract from the goverment in the first place. Refuse to be used as a slave and the prison refuses you everything except the very bare essestials to survive: water and barebones rations. Even contact with other humans is forbidden them.
How is THAT going to make them want to go to peacefully living with others? WE FUCKING MAKE THEM SLAVES. That is not the answer
I could go on but this rant has run long. I was gonna start on about bankers and the financial sector, but reviewing what I want to say in my mind, I realise that it would probable treble the length of this post. Imagine! I love you all if you read this far. And I probably love you anyway, so you didn't miss much.
