The War Effort: By The Light, Divided

Being asked to write the first piece for a feature that I am sure will see contributions from some wonderful young writers, to me, is an honour and a privilege. After following Stereokill almost daily since its inception I’m excited to see what The War Effort will bring to the table – inevitably a forum for discussion, opinion and well-informed debate.

I didn’t plan on writing anything today, as my general Christmas ritual has previously consisted of the following: opening presents, eating as much food as possible, drinking wine, and then sleeping for anywhere from 3 – 8 hours.

And this would render me incapable of processing anything in the vicinity of rational thought. But this year, I became a vegetarian and my own personal thoughts on food and life changed significantly. This is the reason I am not currently passed out, face down, in the same pile of turkey that I’d spent an entire afternoon attacking with what can only be described as carnal voracity.

The thing that strikes me about Christmas this year is how much modern technology is an integral part of many of the year’s most desired gifts. Laptops, iPods, digital cameras, mobile phones, the list goes on – some of them, real feats of human design, ingenuity and engineering.

Which brings me on to another train of thought – that humans, when provided with the right motivation, can do amazing things. We are at a point in history where we can put 500 people into a 400 tonne aeroplane and fly them 6000 miles across the world, and it is normal. We have been to the moon. In the middle of the Arizona desert, we have built, powered, and facilitated one of the most wealth-heavy cities in the world. The automobile is a huge part of our daily lives. Somewhere along the line, teams of people wrote the code that makes hundreds of thousands of computers talk to each other, globally, creating the Internet. These are things that we all take for granted – but looking closely, they are truly remarkable accomplishments.

However, it seems that the technology is more advanced than the very mindset that engineered it. While we are architects of some amazing ideas, we are still living in a world where we are judging everybody else, based on the colour of their skin, their lifestyle, their belief systems and the things that they do with their short time on the planet.

It is remarkable that the same minds that can build life saving equipment, that can put cameras on the end of a pin, that can build structures 1,500ft high or put satellites in orbit, are still so neanderthal in principle. Making judgments, starting wars, creating entire movements based on a hatred for something as trivial as sexuality, religious belief or skin colour. Hatred for cultural diversity and human genetics.

With so much technological and industrial progression, we should be proud of the path that our decisions have led us down. But with this, comes huge responsibility. If we are convinced that we are further along the evolutionary path than all other animals, maybe it is time that we started approaching each other with compassion, understanding, and above all else, a respect for a lifestyle that we personally, may not choose. Instead of being scared of, denouncing it or ridiculing it, we should be celebrating a diversity among our own species that we can learn from, educate ourselves with and understand the origins of. Asking the questions that your fathers and their forefathers never asked, and sharing ideas that will otherwise continue to stay within this archaic society’s woodwork.

This world is bigger than you. The essence and sanctity of life dwarfs whether or not your neighbour believes in a different God than you or whether or not his skin colour and genetics originate from a different place than yours do. Are you so arrogant that you believe you are the best form of life?

We all fight different battles. Every single one of us as humans experience emotions, desires, needs, victories, failures, cruelties and justice. The sooner the day comes that we can recognise each other as people, to know that we are all on the same ship, rather than evaluating each other on tiny-minded, outdated social ideas, the sooner we can start to solve real problems.

If you need to know what I am, I am a 21-year-old, straight, atheist. Godless to some, logical to others. I do not need to know what you believe, what your sexuality is, and I don’t need to know what your skin colour is. I want to know you for yours dreams, your culture, your passion, your loves and your fears. And I don’t want these to be divides. I want all of these things to be bridges.

This stagnant social climate can either progress, or destroy itself. I’m ready to move forward. Is anybody else?