Humanity is now cursed with knowing every bit of horror that happens all around the globe. 200 years ago you might only find out about atrocities months or years after they happened, if at all. It was much clearer then that there was literally nothing you could do about them. Nowadays if you want to throw your life away you can just buy a plane ticket to Ukraine. So now we’re being much more regularly faced with terrible things we’re not prepared to deal with happening somewhere.
And the truth is still that there is not really anything significant we can do. If it was happening in our backyard we might fight, but there’s only so many backyards and only so much room for foolishly selfless people to lay down their lives.
The weirdness you’re feeling is not a moral failing, but rather the strangeness of a world we’re not built for. As much as I and you might feel for any given fight or issue, the 99% of them are not our business, and it’s not morally expected of us to get involved. Lots of religions and moral frameworks and feelings say otherwise. Forget them.
Everyone says there’s not much we can do. That is a complete lie, meant to demotivate and demoralize. There’s plenty that can be done.
Every movement begins with and is made up of individuals working toward making things better, which is how anything in history has ever gotten better. One more individual joining their local mutual aid group, protesting for the climate, and fighting for what’s right is exactly what this world needs right now.
You may not have the ability to help someone across the world very effectively or at all, but if you fight for what’s right locally, it can spread all across the globe.
Also @Atlas_@lemmy.world
I disagree. There’s things we can do to help. If you have some money to spare, you can donate to charities that work in those countries, there are many. You can also vote for political parties that defend international justice and reducing inequality globally. You can also boycott companies that behave unethically in exploiting the natural resources of poorer countries. If we are talking about Somalia, I heard many rich countries’ fishin boats go there to fish making it harder for local fishermen to make a living. We have a lot more power than we think. It starts with caring.
We can help but not doing the right way is really bad. It starts with caring and then understanding the problem perfectly to apply a solution.
This “understanding the problem” is what many fail to do when helping. Dont get me wrong, helping anyway is good but we should make sure it is effective.
“People will never understand what others experience unless they are in there place.”
There’s a significant emotional and mental difference between giving $100 to buy mosquito nets and directly helping resolve a topical conflict within a tribe you’re a part of. A lot of effort (on both sides) goes into bridging that gap.
So yes, absolutely do the good things you can at a distance. But also don’t be disappointed when that doesn’t make you feel better.
(And yes, I wasn’t very clear about that in my original point. Good job and thank you for making+helping me clarify)
Also, it is relatively easy to understand conflicts happening near you. People take very strong stances on faraway conflicts even though it is hard to know what is actually going on, especially in issues that there is a lot of propaganda or polarized opinions about. You’d have to do a few days’ research to have a chance to understand some complex faraway problem.
