What World Do We Live In?

Went to a client's housewarming party this afternoon. He has a lovely, eclectic group of friends. I met people from China, Israel, Mexico and Nigeria. My client is from India.

In high school I found myself gravitating toward the foreign exchange students. To look at our world through someone else's eyes, from a completely different perspective, I find that fascinating. I still do.

So getting beyond the initial "where are you from" icebreaker, this gal from Nigeria (wish I had gotten her name) and I had quite the exchange. She made quite the declarative statement about the U.S. not being a first world country. I couldn't agree more.

In 2009 I took Amtrak down the Northeast corridor from New York to D.C. Between each gleaming capitalist mecca of skyscrapers were the most bombed-out-looking, decaying townships of urban blight you've ever seen. These scenes looked very reminiscent of the most run down, down-and-out parts of Detroit. In 2014 I took Amtrak up the Northeast corridor from D.C. to New York. The picture gliding by out the window didn't look any better. Buildings boarded up or half open in ruin, piles of bricks, weeds growing out of streets. It looked completely post-apocalyptic. This is America?!

This beautiful young woman I spoke with at the party from Nigeria thinks at least forty percent of America lives in a substandard state of poverty. In her home country, she said even the poorest of the poor can still get by. Her people take pride in helping others. She said her people routinely ask each other if they've eaten. She said if she were starving here in Seattle, perhaps she would only call on her closest friends for help. Back home it would just be granted by whomever.

My new acquaintance from Nigeria also spoke of some time she spent in Chicago. She was shocked by the urban blight she saw there, ruins of neighborhoods, horribly impoverished ghettos, which she drove through for about forty five minutes before the scenery improved. She has traveled all over the world, and thinks America by far is the most racist country on the planet.

From her perspective, the saddest thing about this other America, the decaying third world part of our wealthiest country in the history of mankind, is many who live in these squalored conditions are unaware of their situation. They still think they live in the greatest country on Earth, and most are compliant to believe what they're told by the media (which is corporate controlled).

We're only as strong as our weakest link, and we have some terribly weak links. Wealth inequality is one thing. The extreme disenfranchisement of millions is another.

Speaking of, my new acquaintance is being mentored by King County councilmember Larry Gossett, who is working to reform Washington's prison system. She mentioned about seventy percent of our prison system inmates are black. That's when I piped up, "But isn't our total black population here around three percent?!" Yes, she agreed I had it right. OK, that's insane. One of the smallest segments of our general population comprise nearly three quarters of our prison population.

And we also covered the topic of government surveillance. She said it's nearly as bad as what occurred in the former Soviet Union. On the contrary I would say far worse. We have so much more technology at our disposal, thus you need far less man power to more comprehensively know what the population is up to every moment of everyday.

She remarked sometimes she's thinking about something only to a short while later be Googling something and see an ad representing the topic she had just be thinking about. She said it may sound crazy but she thinks they've found ways into our minds.

I don't think it sounds crazy at all. I don't think it's happening quite the way she alluded to. There's a stream of consciousness, and some of that stream may be forced, such as through broadcast frequencies, etc.

It amazes me how much America condemned Soviet surveillance of its citizens during the Cold War, and yet what America is doing to its own citizens here and now goes far beyond. Was pre-1989 America different?

Oddly enough one of the first online topics that caught my eye after the party was my friend Richard's posting, a WIRED article about surveillance: http://www.wired.com/2013/06/why-i-have-nothing-to-hide-is-the-wrong-way-to-think-about-surveillance/

It's important to be aware, to know the truth and to help others. For this reason I believe it is essential to do some form of inward looking/meditation on a daily basis. Some way to calm the mind and tune out.

During my drive home from the party I listened to NPR, which featured an intriguing On Being segment. Today's guest was writer Rebecca Solnit. She searches for the hidden, transformative histories inside events we chronicle merely as disasters, in places like post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. She writes that, so often, "when all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers' keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss."

I was just talking with my mom about this very thing the other day, the hidden beauty shrouded in our darkest struggles.

On a final note, because so many more days are physical struggles for me than not, my perspective around problems has shifted. A long time friend of mine sent me a text this evening about how his ex lied to him about where they were and who they were with. This friend along with many of my other friends usually avoid asking me how I'm doing. Not that its a prerequisite, it would be nice. Sometimes I think that I've been sick so long people have forgotten. Then again, I don't see friends very often. I pointed out to this friend what a luxury it is to be concerned about what other silly humans are doing. That the trivial weight of such burdens is in some ways enviable. They insisted this was bad because they were lied to. I reminded my friend he and his ex have had many lies between them over the years. I asked whether they were surprised.

I don't intend to lack compassion around such things. I just really couldn't care less.