Florida Medical Cannabis Collective – T7|02: Humanity’s Three Biggest Character Flaws

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you all! Hope that this post finds you well and in good health & spirits as we deal with another month of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All this time in isolation has given me ample time to reflect on many things – deep thoughts involving myself, my trajectory – and involving humanity and its trajectory.

I acknowledge that I am far from perfect, and that I have much to learn in my own journey in life. We all do. But over the past decade (and then some), I’ve watched humanity, and often felt more like an alien in human skin than a part of the society I’ve seen evolving in the 21st century. The worst isolation I feel in 2020 is not the physical isolation that has become necessary during the pandemic; instead, the most painful form of isolation is the mental and spiritual isolation as I watch humanity seem to make the “wrong” choices over and over again.

Of course, there are many good people out there. I know that many of you readings this are good people, and may feel similar to the way I do. My goal is always to spread positivity and construction in the world. We are all human; we all were thrown into this reality without any real knowledge of its nature or reasoning, so in the end, we are all each other truly has.

I think that I need/want to write and subsequently read this article as much as any of you do – we have to have these conversations. Action often starts with discussion, and the more that we are collective aware of ways we can improve as a people, the more likely we are to take action to actually manifesting that.

A major goal I have with my life is to make this world a better place (for all people) than it was when I came into it. Whichever medium ultimately helps me achieve that is not as important as getting the work done; this website is dedicated to medical cannabis because that is the way I am currently able to help others the most, and what a wonderful thing that is – but the end goal is much bigger, and this article is a piece of that, I suppose.

I’ve rambled enough – here are some of the biggest issues I see with humanity as a collective entity, and some ideas as to how we might be able to improve in those areas.

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Cannabis Product & Strain: GrowHealthy Grape Stomper Flower

Narcissism, Selfishness, and Lack of Empathy

I’m grouping these together because they all relate to one another, and often go hand-in-hand.

American culture in 2020 revolves around “me, me, me”: how can I get what’s best for me, before anyone else takes that away from me.

I think social media may have exacerbated this issue, and though I don’t think social media in itself is an inherently bad thing, it does allow us to magnify both the best and worst parts of ourselves, so it is what it is. The “selfie culture” is a good example of it; again, nothing wrong with appreciating oneself – all things in moderation.

Regardless, we seem to have reached a point where the majority of people choose to disregard others. We see it in the decisions people make every day. Littering is an example: a prevalent problem that results from a total lack of regard for the planet or for others who will come to the area afterward – this is just one example.

Voting for leaders who lead from hatred because it puts more money in our bank accounts, or 401k, is another example. Thinking about only ourselves, not realizing that these leaders incite hatred on a massive scale, and promote policies that lock living human beings in cages – all for what? The fact that that person/family wanted to get away from oppressive living conditions and have a better quality of life? Let’s forget about “legality” (a manmade concept) and think about the core essence of the situation here: We are locking other human beings in cages because they didn’t do exactly what the rich and powerful decided were the “right” way to enter “our” land. We need to see the problem with that, and while I think we need some rule of law in this world (that’s another topic), it shouldn’t make it so hard to have a good life that a person feels the need to enter illegally in the first place.

I digress; the point is that we as a society have lost our empathy for other people. Any time we make or support a decision that oppresses another human being for any reason – a decision or policy that makes it harder for them to enjoy the same quality of life that we want for ourselves – we are making a decision with a lack of empathy.

Human beings should be able to live and let live so long as their decisions and actions do not harm one another or the planet: this has been my core philosophy as an adult, and I think it’s a good one. Why should we care if a gay man or woman wants to get married or have children? Why should we care how someone worships, or if a Black jogger comes through our “rich white community”? As long as they aren’t hurting anybody or the environment, why should we care?

We as a society need to start incorporating the well-being of other people and the planet Earth in our decisions and policies. I’m not saying to be a pushover – but find balance. There’s always a “greater good”.

We need to think more about “the whole” more often.

Materialism, Worship of Money, Lack of Spirituality

The first thing I want to ask is that the reader notice my use of the word “spirituality” rather than “religion”. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

As a society, much of humanity worships money and the mundane in some way. I think income inequality, greed, corruption, and a host of other factors play into this. The end result is a growing income gap, homelessness – you know the rest.

We worship worldly things too much, and we get lost in them. We keep thinking about that next job, that next car, that next house, that next thing. We forget the whole point of life in the process – to learn, to love, to grow, to build, to share, to explore, to live,

American society makes this all to easy. We slave away to jobs for most of our week, and then we spend 48 hours recuperating – some aren’t even that lucky. And while I think working and contributing to society is absolutely essential, I think it’s just a piece of the puzzle. We’ve got to make time for all the rest of life.

Depression and anxiety are at all-time highs, and I blame our society for this. I blame the world and the worldly for this. I think if we somehow eliminated the current structure of 1% of the people owning 99% of the wealth (yeah, I know..), gave everyone a true equal opportunity to succeed, and moved work weeks to 20 or even 25-30 hours a week, you would see a huge reduction in the prevalence of mental illness. People are forgetting how to live – or not being allowed the opportunity to!

So how do we find solace in the meantime? Almost counter-intuitively to the first section in this article, we focus on ourselves – on our spirituality. Again, notice I chose this word instead of religion.

I won’t get into the religious debate too much, but I will say that I believe any man who says he knows the nature of this universe for certain, is arrogant. How could we possibly tell someone their idea of “God”, “Allah”, etc. – is wrong? If we look into it, almost every religion has good things to offer – and some questionable content.

But spirituality – that is something we all can grow in together. The religion someone chooses doesn’t matter much to me; they are all vehicles to spiritual growth and development. Some even choose science and call themselves agnostic or atheist, but they still know deep down that there is more to life and “reality”, and that there is a level of understanding further than what we perceive.

I think if we all focused more on finding our way for spiritual development, and practiced it, we would see a more loving society. To have that, though, we must be tolerant of others’ beliefs – which are almost always going to be slightly different than our own, even within the same religions.

To bring this all together: we as a People need to focus less on the worldly aspects of life, and more on the Bigger Picture. Whichever vehicle you choose to get there, pick one – and enjoy the ride and all the joy it brings.

Partisanship, Division

One could argue that this is the biggest problem in America right now, in 2020. Partisanship and vision are absolutely rampant in our society, to the point that a damn global pandemic of all things, was politicized.

This is dangerous, and it has torn our country apart. Whatever “side” you choose, you have to admit a truth you know deep down: we are living in different worlds, and so many of us consider our fellow Americans to be the “enemy” in some way. Comment on a social media post with any sort of opposing idea, and rather than being met with discussion, chances are you’ll be met with anger or name-calling from the “opposing side”.

I hate the two-party system we have in American politics. It has caused people to lazily vote for whoever is on their “team” or become single-issue voters rather than actually look at people for their merits. And of the people we do get into office, going back to the materialism problem, they often get bought off and otherwise compromised from truly carrying out the will of the people.

Everything is political now, and it is ridiculous. If not with politics, Americans find some other way to be divided – be it race, class, religion – you name it, people find a way to divide. Perhaps it’s in human nature to form factions, but when it prevents us from truly moving forward as a People, then we have a real problem. When it prevents us from loving our neighbor, we have a real problem.

A people divided will surely fall, and we have played into that plan almost willingly. We need to stop thinking about things like “red or blue”, “black or white”, “gay or straight”, and start seeing people as human beings, as souls who are cohabiting this reality with us. We all have that in common, and we would all be so much better off if we found a way to work together and get past our differences.

Partisanship has gotten to the point where even speaking up for the right thing gets you a label – even if you identify somewhere in the center. We have created a breeding ground for evil and malice to run rampant, for fear and anger to lead us rather than love and hope, and it shows. America is slipping in many ways, and we can only become “great” again if we unite as a people and move forward, instead of trying to recreate a false sense of perfection from a bygone era. The reality is that America has never been truly “great” for everyone, but we have made giant strides together, and we can do so much more if we look past our imaginary dividing lines and find a way to work together in the name of love, justice, and righteousness.

I encourage all of my readers to analyze yourselves and ask yourself this question: “What is causing me to look at any other human being as an “enemy” instead of a fellow soul inhabiting this reality together with me?”
If you can honestly answer “nothing”, than you are ready to build and grow with others, and should help as many people as possible to reach the understanding that you have.

We have to find a way to make it our subconscious predisposition to look for commonalities in our fellow humans, rather than all the ways we are different – unless that is done with a loving perspective with intentions to learn and understand. It is time to stop fighting each other, and time to start helping each other get on our feet and make the best of our lives – together.

Closing Thoughts

Though times may certainly seem gloomy or hopeless for so many during this pandemic, we must remember that we are a resilient people. We have overcome much worse: other pandemics, slavery, civil wars, world wars, and so much more. We can overcome the issues that prevent our growth in 2020, and make the world a better place for ourselves and all those who will come after us. It may be easy to lose hope right now, but we simply can’t – our ancestors fought for hope, and we must do the same for our descendents.

The world can be a better place; the world will be a better place. I believe it. The revolution starts within ourselves – and I have faith in you, the reader. We are all uniquely beautiful, and have something that we can use to make our lives – and the lives of others – truly better.

Never forget that we are all one; we are connected, and our “whole” is much greater than the sum of its parts. We are better, we are greater, when we are together – and we can get there – together.

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