Aldous Huxley's book A Brave New World was published over 80 year ago. George Orwell's 1984 had its 65th anniversary this year. Utopia, by Sir Thomas More, was brought into light over 500 years ago.
These books — among many others — were written both to signify how bleak the current social/political/cultural climate was and where it could go if not fixed and you'd think by 2014, the works by those three authors would be silly historical fantasy instead of frightening foresight. I certainly thought the world would be a smarter place by now, but it's not that case at all.
Every day, I open up my laptop and am greeted with increasingly grim news: non-white keep getting racially profiled by the police in fatal ways, and the cops still get off scot-free so they can continue to collect paycheques. Every time I read about a Sammy Yatim, Michael Brown or Eric Garner, I become more ashamed of my fellow humans. What's so unbalanced about society that it seems like the only tool to resolve any dispute is a gun? Are there not other, better and more peaceful ways? And every time I read about them, I mutter a silent thank you that it's not me in that situation, although I'm not so blind as to think it'll never cross racial lines. It will. It's just a matter of time, if we keep going in this direction.
Rosa Parks was almost 60 years ago and Martin Luther King, Jr. was just 46 years ago. While I wasn't around during both of those, reading about them made me think they were abnormal events in history — the past.
They're clearly not and I can't understand why humanity seems to be regressing.
But in the midst of this, I still see kindness every day. There are people in this world who truly care about others and want to make it a safer place, a world where we can all walk around without worrying about being antagonized, attacked or abolished.
Today's also the 25th anniversary of the Montreal massacre at École Polytechnique.
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