We Talk Friday
(WTF)
This is a semi-regular series that I will run on Fridays to hold discussions on a current topic from the week gone. The aim is to keep them light and conversational, though some might be heavier - regardless of the content topic itself though, just have some fun engaging and discussing with whoever happens to put in the effort in the comments section below.
Imagine someone has a partner, a boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or husband - and they want to break up wand say to the person, "This isn't working, I won't to be alone, I don't want to share the same space as you" and then rather than letting them go on their way, the person says...
No. You can't break up with me. You have to live in my house and by my rules.
Do you think it appropriate?
Do you consider it an abusive relationship? Do you think the person who wants to leave should keep trying to leave? How far do you think they should go to obtain their freedom?
A lot of countries are jumping on the "Recognise Palestine" bandwagon now, but being naïve, I have never understood why they weren't recognised before. If a group of people want to break away from another group, shouldn't they be supported? Maybe if this was done a long time ago, perhaps there would be less problems now.
Maybe there would be more.
All of these border and national disputes are pretty infantile - they are like brothers sharing a room and running a piece of tape down the middle that neither can cross. It could be at some point, that humanity wakes the fuck up enough to stop caring about imaginary lines in the sands and realise that we are better off working for common goods for all of humanity - to increase wellbeing across the board.
But in order to do that, we'd have to give up our cherished and meaningless identities, like our nationality, and perhaps even our language. People hold onto their language as if it is important, but really, it doesn't matter what we speak, as long as we are able to communicate effectively for interpersonal understanding. Technology is already taking down a lot of the language barriers that existed until very recently, and in the next decade, I suspect that there won't be a reason to deny someone a job because they don't speak the language, because everyone will be able to communicate effectively.
Does that scare you?
It scares many. Because while all can see the upside of being able to talk to anyone, people also know how close their mother tongue is to them, and how they identify with it and often, feel superior because of it. Especially in the English speaking countries, there is an expectation that everyone should speak English locally. But this isn't the case in Europe for instance, where there is little expectation that someone visiting has to speak French, or Finnish, or Italian. Instead, they will do their best to help, in whatever language they can - even if it is gestures and noises.
My first girlfriend in Finland didn't speak much English, and me managed for a few months in her broken English, my broken Finnish, and a dictionary. However, she wanted to improve her English for exams, so we switched to English only and a year and a half later, she started studying international business, in English at university. After she graduated, she got a job in IT and then, wanted to breakup with me.
I said no. I cited all the things I had done for her in order to get her into school and supported her financially through university. I brought up how I helped her get promoted at her job, and how I had done all the work to renovate our apartment. I said, she can't leave and has to live in my house, by my rules.
Of course I fucking didn't do that.
After a discussion, as soon as I realised it didn't matter what I said, she still wanted to leave, I gave her a kiss and said, okay. And she left that night. Then we started sorting out me buying her share of the apartment, and separating our stuff and splitting apart insurances and whatnot, and we went our separate ways. Still friendly, still able to talk to each other, still civil, but separate.
And while this might seem far less complicated than geopolitics, it really isn't at the core. If people were civil and acted with love, if the goal of all society was human wellbeing, if people just grew the fuck up, a lot of the problems we face in the world would disappear, and we would have a lot more resources to spend on doing awesome shit instead.
Instead, we keep fighting for our misplaced identities.
In service to making someone who doesn't care about us, a little more money.
Taraz
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