Jeremy C Kester

There was a loud crash. Quite literally. Several coworkers and I were enjoying a dinner at a brewery when someone ran the light outside and slammed into another vehicle. Within seconds, I was out the door, seeing if there was anything I could do to help.

This type of thing happened before. Several times, honestly. Often I question myself about how I would behave if everything went to shit. In all likelihood, I would probably run towards the preverbal fire, like I did with this accident. I run toward the danger, even as my own fears might tell me to do otherwise.

But then, why have I remained so damned silent while it seems everything in society is falling apart? There’s a metaphorical fire burning, and yet I refuse to run into the building.

It’s an interesting dichotomy between the ideas of standing up to injustice versus running into a burning building. Courage is needed for both, certainly, but are they the same courage? Does it come from the same place?

There are numerous people who, like me, would run towards danger without a second thought. Their goal isn’t to see what is happening, but to find a way to lend a hand. To help. Sure, there are always people who are nosy, simply going towards the danger so they can satisfy their curiosity — or worse now, to post photos and videos on the internet and social media.

As we saw during the COVID event, there were many who willingly stood up to counter what they saw as overreach by the governments of the world, incorrect information from pharmaceutical companies and agencies, and the misdirection about health fed to people across society. While I am among the people who very much agreed with these counter assessments, I did as little as possible to stand up while it was happening.

In short, I was more likely to comply rather than defy.

Am I frightened of what might happen to me if I was to stand up against the authorities? Yes. Definitely. More so than I might be when running to go help someone in danger.

Humans are social creatures. Evolving within the primate line of animals, we operate within social groups. This has been the case for untold centuries as we moved from lemur to monkey to ape to human (even as humans are, in fact, still apes). Social groups were necessary for survival. Familial and tribal units were of staggering importance in order to remain safe and survive against a world with little regard towards any individual’s life.

As we created culture and civilization, the complications of life started to promote the need for delineation of responsibility beyond the basic natural inclinations (such as child rearing). We developed the needs for specialization. People started to fill specific roles not just within their familial group but also within the wider society. Blacksmiths, bartenders, scribes, are all great examples. As society becomes more complicated, it seems the variety of special roles grows.

Yet, even as this may be the case, this development is really only new if one thinks about human society compared to the millions of years or more built into our evolutionary journey. Add to that how it is only in very recent memory one’s ability to survive without a close network of others in a social group — like said family or tribe — and one can wonder how we have the inclination to stand against the group at all.

Social ostracism is a deathly fearful proposition. Imagine a time where there were no supermarkets, Starbucks, or any of the conveniences modern life allows? How would one be as able to survive without the help or protection of their tribe, much less their pumpkin spiced latte? Venture too far from the safety of the village without the group and one takes their life into question. Many dangers lurked for millenniums before humans largely civilized the wilds. We made much of the world legitimately safe for ourselves. Yet how does a change within the last few seconds of our existence as a species undo the rest of it being a fight for survival which depended so heavily on our social networks?

Thinking about all this, one wonders how it is even possible anyone would be willing to stand against the society which protects them. Are they simply masochists who prefer pain over comfort? Are they stupid and don’t understand their position?

Many reasons exist as to why there might be a need for a sort of social resistance. Some might do it for selfish gains; others might do so to battle against those selfish impulses. Evil exists, whether one wants to admit it or not. Yes, much of the world is gray rather than black and white — but there still is black and white; there is good and evil. Selfishness is one manner in which evil manifests, with individuals of groups becoming more concerned with achieving ends benefiting them over those which benefit the group. Social resistance is both the way in which this can overthrow a stable civilization and restore a civilization’s truth.

Without those willing to stand up against the greater threat of social ostracism, I am uncertain any culture other than tyranny would have ever existed.

Growth does not happen in culture or in life through ease. Ease spoils. It decays. The same is true for the opposite — continued stress and strife. Moments should exist for each. Moments. Nothing more than that. Life is wired for turmoil, as it is through this turmoil that life is improved and refined. A great sculpture does not happen without the chisel. The same is so with an individual. A family. A tribe. A society. A species.

Improvement isn’t found relaxing while gorging on pleasures. Hedonism — the ultimate in selfish indulgence is thusly evil and only poisons those partaking in it. Akin to hedonism is avoidance. Though not exactly the same, the two are nearly parallel. It is in this where deliberate ignorance exists. It is where one could and should know the truth of something, making the effort instead of doing anything but what one should be doing. With writing, this means scrolling through social media while knowing the story is in need of your fingers and attention to bring it to life.

In a society, it is quietly accepting lies while convincing yourself of their validity as to not disrupt one’s life — be that life great or terrible.

People and society prefer homogeneity. In simpler terms — they don’t like change. Despite this, there are always individuals who seek to go beyond the edges of our known space. Explorers in both the physical and spiritual realm (artists), these people circle the edges of society trying to push boundaries. Unfortunately, there is only so much tolerance for this. Particularly when groups within the society have attained power and can only maintain it through means that counter truth. It is at this juncture where the explorers and artists are either lured or punished into submission.

Yet it is the explorer, the artist, the philosopher, the soldier, the thinker, the scientist, who enabled humanity to grow from a simple ape foraging and hunting to the advanced society we enjoy now. Why suppress them?

Because so often we choose to suppress ourselves.

Here I sit, as society burns. It might not appear to be so. We still have our pumpkin spiced lattes. Bridges haven’t collapsed. Monetary systems continue to trudge along. People continue to live. But each is sick. Not just sick, but nearly coding. Like a person in denial of their addiction, society refuses to accept this is the case. That sense of not wanting to change remains strong in each of us.

I am no different. Other than being myself an artist and somewhat of an explorer, the prospect of standing up is still frightening. It would be against a cacophony of voices telling me and everyone else to sit down and to trust the leaders as I can see them steering directly towards a cliff, convinced of their own delusion that the cliff isn’t there — their own selfishness urging them on. After all, since when does the Devil wish for his victims to see the truth until it is too late, only to realize at the last possible moment — when it is too late to turn or stop, where he would reveal the plan?

Change is hard. Good change. The kind of change we need now. It only takes a bad leader mere seconds to destroy what takes untold time and effort to create. Staring at the work needed to correct even the last few years of damage is nearly paralyzing. The weight of this adds to this urge to remain in my seat while I watch it all turn sour.

Crash a car, and I am out the door. Why can’t I bring the same instinct forth into this fire that is our current society? We are sick, and while my voice is only but a small one in the overall current, what if it could make the difference? What is stopping me from standing up with those who already have?

---

Copyright © 2024 by Jeremy C Kester – all rights reserved
Do not copy or reproduce without written permission – photographs and images included unless noted otherwise.

If you enjoy the content from me and this site, please consider purchasing one of my books, or if you prefer another way to help support my work, consider donating by clicking: PayPal.Me/jeremykwrites