17 November
Dear Tony Blair,
Social issues demand a social element. They are issues that bind us to one another as a community, as a state, and as individuals. As such, it is essential to communicate with the neighbour, to speak to our friends, to convey how we feel to the world. This 'reaching' out is the foundation of the human experience. Hence, Social Media. But why does it feel like the human experience is damaged?
Is it Social Media? We tap and share, laugh and cry. It isn't just me, but I laugh and cry by myself anyway. But I also do that whether the media I socialise through is in person or virtually. The virtualisation of socialising is a separate topic on its own but for us, I can say that Social Media is not the culprit for worsening social issues. Is it deeper?
I don't mean to be so existential but maybe it is a crisis of the natural human condition. We destroy the planet, and other humans, as long as it benefits us, 'our' own people. And not the OTHER people. To move forward is the human condition. To progress, we humans persevere through all manner of crises. But at what cost? The cost of the Earth and our very existence.
The social issues: welfare, housing, tax, poverty, health... they are never ending. You espouse Progressive politics and I am in large agreement with you, but Progressive politics is the cycle of human ideas. Supposedly we shift ever leftwards on the political spectrum, and this is largely true in history. But the issues persist. We people are connected more than ever, but a disconnect is truly there. As we become estranged from the planet we live on, the Earth we stand on, we become estranged from ourselves.
So Tony, instead of focusing on people, focus on the Earth. Focus on the holistic world in which we, as animals, are a part of. We owe it to ourselves to look after the world as its gatekeepers, and in doing so, we look after ourselves. We have been looking at the human experience wrong. Social issues demand not just the human social element, the Earth is the singular issue. Fix the Earth, and we live to struggle forwards to fix welfare, housing, tax, poverty, health...
Kind regards
Ethan Santos-Gardner
Ethan Santos-Gardner