What resources do you have at your disposal? How much time, money, support? How much of it is your doing and how much of it is only available because of circumstances outside of your control?
When it comes to the environment we are born into and who we are born to, the lack of options is absolute. we are powerless. From this starting point, we are also powerless in how we are raised, the types of food we are fed, the temperament of our caregivers, what the political situation is and what cultural lessons we learn.
Plus all of these things are affected by who we are genetically. Our height, weight, colour, intelligence and our own temperaments are largely outside of our control. There is a nature/nurture question but, as an individual we have very little say in how we are treated by others when young in those most important formative years.
Much of our personality is developed by the time we are early teenagers and to change those traits can take Herculean type strength to overcome. On top of this, society is structured in a way that segments and contains people based on factors outside of our loci of control.
We are limited by how society sees us as much as we are limited by who we are and how we act. It is very difficult to slide oneself from one societal position to another once put into a box and to attempt it, is frowned upon by those in the same box and those in a box you are trying to get into.
Some people are lucky when it comes to their draw where they have a set of skills and traits that compound against each other to open any number of options in life. Although success is not guaranteed, having inherent or perceived ability gets feet in doors and often provides a softer landing for failures.
This is a huge advantage yet, most in this situation do believe that it was due to their own ability to overcome that gave them the opportunity to win. Rarely do those that make it entertain the possibility of having luck on their side at key points, let alone through their lifetime.
Others however can be born into and in possession of a whole range of negative traits that actively work against their possibilities for personal success by either being counter-productive or useless or closing doors in society that remained open for others to walk through.
If one chooses to knock at that door and ask to be considered, the guards are quick to kick one they judge unfit to the curb regardless of what is offered.
All of the lack of control sets up a stage where we can feel that we are victims of circumstance and this is ultimately true but, it doesn't help us live a better life. No one wants to go through life feeling victimised the entire time yet many do.
They have a view of if only things were different, if only I was accepted, if only they put me in another box. If only I was someone else.
Unfortunately, regardless of all the if onlies one can imagine, here we stand now with what we have available at our disposal. Society is not going to change unless we change it with what we have, suffering isn't going to decrease unless we act to decrease it, greed will not stop unless we become charitable and we will forever be caged until we recognise we are caged and do something about it.
For me, I get to run the metal cup along the cage bars and make some noise through my writing in the hope to be heard. Not by anyone, by someone who has the skillset and opportunities I am missing. What I find is that for the most part, there are the wrong or the deaf ears listening.
The wrong are people in the same cage with me but they don't have the key to unlock the door either. The deaf ears are those who dismiss everything yet offer no real solutions on how to open the doors.
Many of the naysayers tout and spout themselves as experts yet, when push comes to shove, they are actually locked into the adjoining cell with similar limited opportunities in their future.
One thing in history though does seem fairly uniform and that is it is not the naysayers who make the breakthroughs, nor the experts. For the most part, the ones that have inspired great changes in the world, the ones that have destroyed long-held conceptions and created new perspectives, are the laypeople.
The ones to stupid to see the many flaws, too ignorant to realise what is impossible and stubborn enough to keep looking until they blindly stumble onto a success. The funny thing though is that in hindsight, all the experts that should have had the skills to do this, claim how obvious the solution is and anyone could do it. So why didn't they?
All of the 'it can't be done' people in the world will most likely be proven wrong at some point as the human imagination is limited by who we are but nature is a lot less bounded. As we progress foolishly onward, all manner of random solutions will be found by idiots in places where the experts aren't looking because, the experts know better than to look where something is not.
A lot of amazing things can be attributed to unexpected people such as social movements, revolutions and many technological innovations. Perhaps the experts should spend a little more time listening to the voices behind the cups as there may be a word or two that inspires a new thought or two that could lead to a better action or two.
Many people have been lucky, right time, right place, right parents, right education, right lessons learned at the right time and enjoy all the benefits the position offers yet, moving forward into the unknown, they are lost like everyone else, they have nothing more to offer.
So, instead of working to find solutions, they hold onto their current positions under the illusion it was their competency that got them there and past this point, only impossibility lays. They will be proven wrong in time, as traditionalists always are, by people who went further despite the warnings that the edge of the world would claim them.
As they say, If you are not part of the solution....
Who knows though, I just write stuff.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
