Few will deny that we now reside in a global society. The days when America (or any country) might be successful in maintaining a society that is independent and isolated from politics and economic conditions around the world are gone. There are still many who have not come to accept this of course, but the impacts of the new reality ripple through our cultures on many levels and simply cannot be denied.
As the old saying goes, "people create society, but society also creates people.“ Regardless of what we may think, (whether we want to admit it or not) there is very little neutrality to be found in our economic and political systems. All such systems tend to support certain basic ethical and moral attitudes and tend to undermine other ethical and moral attitudes. As we grow in awareness we become more conscious of the suffering our collective choices inflict upon society. At some point awareness compels us to take responsibility for our personal and collective choices and become proactive. Simply giving lip service to compassion is not enough. To generate real change in people or societies, the aware must dedicate themselves to reaching out to confront ignorance.
The question is; what IS ignorance? As simplistic as that question sounds, it is a very valid one because all people view reality from their own, individual perspective. That perspective is most often built upon selfish concepts designed to feed the desires of individual egos. This kind of thinking is dangerous. It builds barriers between people and separates and divides societies into tribes that are largely incapable of working together for the good of the whole. When those tribes develop the capability to inflict mass destruction on the world, the survival of the human species itself becomes an issue.
There may never come a time when all humanity is on the same page at the same time on these important issues. But we may in fact be able to reach a collective ‘tipping point’ where the aware and compassionate begin to outnumber the unaware and indifferent. It is a mission worth taking on because the alternative may be too disturbing to contemplate.
In the meantime however, we will need law enforcement and security professionals to maintain order and protect the weak. Those willing to dedicate themselves to protection and service need to be provided with the tools they require to do their jobs effectively with awareness, compassion and discipline and they deserve and need the active support of the rest of society.
