Social Conscience, Social Contract, and Social Media

Turn on your television and watch the world news for thirty minutes, and you will fill up your mind with more conflict, suffering, anger and pain than your soul can actually process at one time. As a result, by tomorrow, today’s suffering in Syria, abuse in Afghanistan, unthinkable invasion of Ukraine, failed attempt for peace in Palestine, injustice in Iraq, and tragic headlines in Hiroshima, will all be just yesterday’s news. Year after year, the daily dose of disaster dries up our emotional response reserves and numbs our souls. Sufficient for the day is the evil that fills it, so why let our emotions get all worked up about what’s going on in our world? What could we possibly do about it anyway? Isn’t that the government’s responsibility?

 Maybe it’s time that we did allow our emotions to be moved enough to actually push us off of our couches and into our world to get involved in making positive contributions for change and offering compassionate care to victims of tragedy, atrocity, slavery, and poverty. Until we all decide to leave our lethargy and move beyond the mediocrity of the masses, the world doesn’t have a chance for peace, unity, caring community, political health, or financial prosperity. 

                                                                      Consumerism Has Corrupted our Social Conscience

If the motivations of self-preservation and survival of the fittest are not balanced by love, compassion, and social responsibility, they will lead the human race down the paths of hatred, destruction, and apathy to extinction.

In the Western world, our culture and society has shaped a spirit of entitlement that adds fuel to the fires of economic collapse and world conflict. One of the greatest sociological shifts needed today is the transformation from entitlement to enlightenment. We need to have our eyes opened to the present reality and our personal responsibility. It’s time for us to stop expecting something to be done for us and begin doing things, not only for ourselves, but also for others in our communities, in our countries, and in our world. Instead of feeling like we deserve more, we must realize that we should do more.

                       When Natural Disasters Hit Our Community of Humanity, Relief and Rebuilding is Our Responsibility 

In the Western world, we also believe that all humans are born with certain unalienable rights. Unfortunately, billions of people in other parts of the world never get to enjoy the luxury of experiencing these rights. Throughout history, dictators and political leaders have tried to either rule, or police our world – Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Italy, France, England, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Japan, China, Russia, and the USA - nations rise and fall and fight for their place on the world stage. No matter how benevolent or essential, at times, that intervention is needed, whenever governments get involved, things become very messy. When governments join in the fray, politics and power play their part, and motives rarely remain pure.

                        Terrorism is Tearing Our World Apart

With terrorism and racism on the rise, and consumerism and corruption causing the economic collapse of entire countries, it’s obvious that the problems of our world are too big for the political leaders of our world to handle. Big spending must be bridled by the business leaders of our world, and by we the consumers, not by congress or parliament. Racism is not a matter that government can control. It will only be eradicated when every one of us has a change of heart. Terrorism will only be totally dismantled when individuals decide to create communities that condemn the actions and the philosophies behind every act of terror on our planet. When these communities choose courage over fear, faith instead of religion, and love above all – only then can terrorism become a thing of the past. Together, we must create a tipping point where the masses join together to minimize and ostracize the minority of terrorists who are destroying the precious lives of our fellow members of the community of humanity and wreaking havoc in the only world that we will ever have – our home. Together, we must inform them that terrorism is not welcome in our world, and we must do whatever must be done to disarm them and send them packing, and onto the 'Paradise' that they long for at the end of their journey of Jihad.  

                 Only Love Can Eradicate Racism in Our Hearts

For the world to truly change, we must all shed our spirit of entitlement and develop more of a social conscience. We must come to believe that all people are born, not only with unalienable rights, but also with social responsibilities. We must live, not only by the principles of our political constitutions, but also by the promises of our social contract. As citizens of the world, we are to become our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Together, we must build community and a sense of belonging and ownership by all and for all. Social Media provides a platform that can fan the flames of social conscience and ignite the spirit of social contract with one another.

While we are tackling terrorism together, we must also work to free the 27 million slaves in our world, educate and empower the 1.3 billion children at risk on our planet, find homes for the more than 100 million street children in our neighborhoods, and overcome poverty. Again, somehow, our governments have epically failed in all of these matters. From this, we have learned that the most effective assistance is that which is offered by individuals or groups led by humility, pure motives, social conscience, and a spirit of service empowered by an interdependent social contract.

                                                                    It's Time For The Nations of Our World to Truly Unite 

We are all world citizens, and it is our world. How then can we not live as people led by our social conscience and bound by our social contract with each other? Our nationality and race matter not. Our religion and political party should not limit the scope of our conscience or contract. If, in truth, we are all created by one God, who has told us to love one another and take care of the world that has been entrusted to us, then it’s high time we begin doing just that. 

We at Humanility believe that each of us is part of the community of humanity, and that makes us responsible for all of us. We also believe that news and social media should be used, not to create more fear and division, but to generate more knowledge and unity that leads to responsible living. We are about creating communities that generate conversations that lead to change. Join the Think-New Movement and help us build something better. Let’s live in accordance with our social conscience and contract and create a kinder and gentler world, with justice and liberty for all.