Just for good measure, a bit about my background: I'm a Dane, I live in Denmark which is a country in Northern Europe, which we like to call Scandinavia (Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark). When WWII had begun and Germany came to invade us (we're neighbours) it took no more than two hours before we had officially surrendered to Hitler's power. Living in 'The West' is a good and developed life with a lot of luxuries, one of them being freedom, almost too much of it. I will talk more about that, after a brief introduction on how we came to be where we are today. Starting out with...
Communism
Until 1989 the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain were separating West and Eastern Europe, but with the fall of the wall, the end of communism was getting closer. This process had been going on for years with communism suffering great losses, and how can one really call all people equal when there was a guy on top controlling everything. Yes I believe communism would be the ideal world, but the perfect world is and will always be utopia, it is not going to happen. Moving on, next up is nationalism...
The foundation of the national state and its independance started to crumble already back in 1945 when Hitler lost his war. All over Europe people agreed that we should not let anything like this happen ever again. Without getting too much into detail, many initiatives, including what today has become the European Union, were founded to make sure of this. So far they have been succesful, well at least WWIII have not yet been started. Cross-country cooperations like the EU, UN, NATO and many others have resultet in the individual states losing their identities now that we have all become part of something bigger. Whether we want to realise it or not, no country is any longer going to war "FOR KING AND COUNTRY!" like we used to back in the old days with silver-shining knights in armor on white horses. This brings me to our next topic, something quite an amount of wars and especially Hitler's was focused on...
This particular topic seems to play a great role in todays society, at least when you turn on the TV and watch another restaurant being swarmed by shia-muslims trying to save their relatives and help the ambulances pick up the dead and injured after another terrorist attack. But up here, in the developed world, where we know that it simply can't be that one man, excuse me, a god, suddenly decided to create the Heavens and the Earth, religion is starting to fall behind. From what I understand, the churches used to be places where entire villages gathered on Sundays to listen to the words of God, and today that is no longer the case. Not even my local priestess' sons go to church regularly as she believe it is their own choice. I do not know anyone who truly believe in God except a muslim guy and even he says that it is not as much about how God (he calls him Allah though) created the Earth, "that's bullshit!", but more the whole idea that lies behind there being a greater meaning to life than what we see. My thoughts on religion in general is a topic I will save for another blog post....
So where does all this lead?
Now we have established that we are today people without limitations regarding to education, belief and wealth. Add freedom. Freedom of speech, personal freedom and freedom of freedom. My parents have never had many expectations for me regarding religion, work, education or anything except maybe a few house chores. Many people I know at my age are the same and I bet you that the generations after us will have even more opportunities to do exactly what they want to do.
For the individual unable to choose what they want to do with their lives, they will find themselves in a position without any goals in their lives. Basically, the meaning of life. Since the meaning of life is no longer to kill all the the capitalists, and we are no longer fighting for King and Country and our parents did not teach us to believe in God, what is there left to do?
People start setting personal goals to fulfil, and when they reach those goals, they set new ones. Is this good or bad? Where do we see the consequences of this behavior? Am I right or wrong?
Oh by the way, if you want to taste the Commie Mints, you can get them here!
If life isn't about killing all the capitalists and fighting for the King and Country or for becoming missionaries as a service to God I think people should be left to do what they desire. I believe goals are an important aspect of life, and definitely if we intend to go forward with a particular project. Goals constrict people meaning they are used for motivation and most need that extra push but think realistically and know that there won't always be someone to provide that. Once one goal is achieved, a next one should be set, unless one is contempt with mediocrity. I know for a fact that I am not. Being one never satisfied, I always strive for something more. The consequences of this is that you may drive yourself crazy. Of course this is exaggerating but that is how people become career-obsessed and workaholics. This obsession of reaching a goal can get the better of you if you cannot stablize yourself. It is important to have friends and family that you trust and believe in who should be able to know you enough to level you. No matter how great and successful we are, there is always someone watching us and putting our situations and interactions into perspective giving us a most often positive alternative.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a side note, I agree with your statements on religion (well the others too). I have been raised Roman Catholic but do not care for it as much now because it simply does not fit the lifestyle I intend to live right now. I don't want to constrict myself to one thing and I think it is important to keep an open mind and be open to other sources of knowledge and listening to perhaps other peoples beliefs. This is why wars over religion confuse me, why must we feel the need to enforce one over the other? Why can't people just accept people's differences or colloquially speaking "agree to disagree"?