Giving, or getting? Ask any average person that, and they'll probably give you a standard answer of, Getting/Definitely getting/Getting what, duh!/something that proves that you are an absolute idiot to ask this question.

Personally, I like both. There is joy in both, but I'm not the subject topic I wanted to discuss.

In our world now, many of us are so concerned with materialistic goods. Yes, I succumb too...and yes, I am admitting it here. (That's rare, you're not going to hear it in a long time.) I WANT! I WANT! I WANT! That's what you can hear all over the shopping centres all over now, as children pull at their parent's hands towards the coveted object. I WANT THAT FAB BLOUSE! From the women who are frantically grabbing items. Probably of clothing. I WANT THAT NEW SET OF GOLF CLUBS, maybe, from the men.

Notice one thing?

I WANT. I WANT. I WANT.

Honestly, is this entire world about what 'I WANT IT NOW AND NOTHING'S GONNA STAND IN MY WAY'?

Go read this article: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/243867,extra-wal-mart-employee-killed-in-shopping-stampede.html It's from not that long ago, just November last year.

People actually just knocked down that store employee in their rush to get into Wal-Mart. They knocked the doors off its hinges. They trampled and killed that man just to get in. And, in the midst of all that rush, as he lay gasping for air on the floor, people didn't step around him. Many of them actually stepped on him.

I don't know what was in their minds at the time. No one stopped to help. No one tried to stop people from stepping on him. All they thought was, "I WANT TO GET THE BEST BARGAIN HERE AT WAL-MART NOW, NOW, AND RIGHT NOW."

This just serves to illustrate my point that us living in this generation are extremely concerned with materialistic goods, and ourselves. Are we all narcissists? We seem only to care about ourselves. We seem to have our minds filled with thoughts for ourselves.

Actually, it's further than just being a supposed narcissist. What defines us as human beings? Our feelings. We can feel hurt, sad, angry, glad...and a whole plethora of things, including pity. Including compassion. Empathy. Sympathy. (Of these last four I haven't been really doing lately.) Caring for others is just another of our abilities. (Which I have been doing quite enough, as the MG U14 Debate Welfare Manager.) So, it's our 'heart', not the organ, but the one that allows us to feel. To care. Not about ourselves, but about other fellow human beings. Our soul.

So what happens, when we become this uncaring, or this unfeeling towards other people(which I am leaning towards now)?

Do we cease being human beings? Do we lose our identity as the human race, Homo Sapiens?

If we are not human beings, then what have we become?

Is it too late to save the human race? To save all us selfish people, myself included, from ceasing to be human beings? Is it too late, to make us all stop, and confront ourselves. To look at what really has happened to the world. To look at what we have become. The world has become. We've just been all caring about our own selves, whether we can satisfy our own needs and still have enough to satisfy our wants, and never mind about the old lady on the street selling tissues for a living.

Is it too late? To stop and buy three packets of tissue for a dollar? To the world to unite as one, realise that we all may be different in race, in religion, but in all, we are still human beneath, and we can forgive and accept each other for who we are?

To show people that we should all be accepted, not discriminated against because someone may be a Christian in Communist North Korea, or a black in a predominantly white society and business?

Really, why do we tell each other, I'm different from you, we're never going to get along?

Human beings have the ability to forgive. To accept. To love. Where has the ability gone? Honestly, I have no idea why we all don't like, or instantly shy away from someone who is different?

Is it too late for human beings to try to reach the root of their identity, accept, forgive, and begin living anew?












posted at 1942