By Aditi Deleep, 10 A
Have you ever noticed how the problem with feminism isn’t feminism itself, but certain feminists? How the problem with veganism isn’t the ideology of veganism, but more so certain vegans? How the problem with communism isn’t communism, but certain communists?
These ideologies, however, are all tame in the face of others like racism, nazism, fascism, elitism, homophobia, and so on; that’s because the problems with these rest in the very concept itself. But what good is an ideology sans the people who back it up? Ideas are manifested by people, and without people, ideas & ideologies would be null and void.
Most people tend to propagate whatever they believe. A good portion of those people also happen to be really, really wrong. The world, if you haven’t noticed already, has a bit of a people problem.
A people problem that has a lot to do with hate, intolerance, toxicity, and the fundamental belief of I’m better than you which can present itself under numerous facades and pretences. Every person in this world has an opinion on something, but not everyone realises that their opinion isn’t the only correct one, and that to some people, their opinion is inherently harmful.
So, what can we do to solve this people problem?
Changing the way people think is something all humans have been trying to do for millenia. It’s not news that we can educate people for a better future and/or educate people who share harmful opinions on what the morally right thing to do is. Morality, however, is a crisis; as humans, we can’t really point out what’s good for our community and what’s not, because everyone has a different set of requirements. Some people need money, some people need rights, some people need validation. But a lot of us of us need hope.
Hope is scanty amongst certain groups of people. Most of the people who need hope are people who have been made to feel less and inferior by propaganda and some of the aforementioned ideologies — alienated, hurt, deprived. People of colour. The victims of poverty. LGBTQ+ members. Mental health patients. The physically challenged. Such people are everywhere, some out and proud, some lurking in the shadows where it isn’t safe, but safer than the outside.
What we, as a collective, not as individuals, need to realise is that it’s so important to make sure the everyone — everyone on the planet, mind you — understands what it means to be equal to someone else. We have to stop telling people and enforcing the idea that some people are lower simply because they differ from the existing standard, which happens to be Caucasian, cisgender, heterosexual, neurotypical, relatively healthy (minus diabetes, I suppose) and financially adept, and start telling them that regardless of their skin tone, orientation, gender, diagnosis and financial standing, they have a right to everything the cisgender, heterosexual, neurotypical, physically intact Caucasians receive with a silver spoon and fries on the side. They’re not lower, they’re not less, they’re not invisible. They’re people, and this entire paragraph is so cheesy, but if everything was really being implemented everywhere, I wouldn’t be here ranting.
TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) can believe that trans women are not actually women, and that might be their opinion, but it doesn’t make trans women any less a woman and TERFs are quite frankly, irrelevant. Racists can believe that their race is the most superior and that it’s okay to use another person’s race against them, but it doesn’t make their race any more superior than they actually are, which is not superior at all.
Which brings me to my conclusion — the solution to the people problem are the people themselves. The people that know in their heart that everyone is born equal with a right to all the luxuries we can offer. The people that know that they can and will, in the end, succeed in making the world a better place for everyone to live in.
The moment we start looking at people and certain communities as equals, past our degrading beliefs and opinions, is the moment we’ll not be doomed as humans and finally save the world. Or rather, finally focus on saving the world. The world is still dying. Global warming, remember?
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