A Falling Society

Tonight I watched a movie I hadn't seen since 1995, the movie is a French movie called La Haine (Hate). Without going into a long drawn out review of a 14 year old movie; suffice it to say that the images, the message and the movie as a whole have stuck with me through the years. Particularly the opening and closing monologues. Above you see the the closing monologue in the film and I think it's as good a place as any to start today's post.

-It's been 40 years since man first walked on the moon.
-It's been 41 years since Martin Luther King Jr was killed.
-It's been 44 year since Malcolm X was murdered.
-It's been 46 years since JFK was shot.
-It's been 61 years since Gandhi was assassinated.
-It's been 64 years since the creation of the United Nations.
-It's been 64 years since the end of World War II.

Today:
-In 2007 923,000,000 were considered to be starving. (an increase of 81,000,000 since 1990)
-Countless people live under ruthless governments.
-We still purchase clothing made in sweatshops.
-We spend more money on movies than on charity.
-Thousands of political prisoners are being held for their views.
-Women are being raped.
-Children are forced to serve as soldiers.
-Ethnic cleansing is a daily reality for certain people.

Sure, we conquered the moon, we have the internet, we have cars that go really fast and big screen TVs. We all fall asleep at night in our safe little bed in our safe little neighborhoods knowing that we're going to be okay. What about the 923,000,000 victims of hunger? What about the thousands of prisoners of conscience? What about the women being raped and the children that are forced to kill? Do they ever haunt your dreams?

Recently, I have to admit that they have been haunting mine. It's the worst feeling in the world waking up feeling powerless to change things, powerless to help or to reach out and take someone's hand and tell them it'll be alright.

So despite mankind's advances, all or our technical marvels and our scientific wonders; because of man's indifference we are still and always have been a falling society and our way down we keep saying so far so good... so far so good... so far so good...

But where will we land? The choice is ours.