How much of my world is invisible? Air is, usually--and I tend to forget about it until I either get pneumonia or try to swim.
Unless you live in hurricane country, food generally just arrives at the store. Maybe some things get scarce for a while, but even in poor areas something shows up.
If you tent camp regularly you don't take electricity for granted, but it's so ubiquitous that it's easy to overlook.
I've read the "privilege knapsack" stuff and don't consider it particularly useful, but yes, imagine living among people who are radically different from yourself, and who don't like your tribe. If they express the dislike violently (as in inner city Chicago or the old "Don't let the sun set on you here" towns): just imagine how you'd watch your back. Non-violent expressions of tribalism (e.g. in universities) induce you to watch your mouth.
Even the antifa and blm folks rely on the police--as one can hear in the Kenosha video. Yes, if you're black encountering the cops you're more likely to get roughed up (and less likely to get shot) than if you're white--but you don't have to worry about just disappearing. Everybody assumes they'll get a day in court, and that the rest of the world will be able to hear from them. That's not a small matter.
We have vast machinery to supply parts and drugs and food and information and legal help and clothing (ever notice how often a suit of clothes is mentioned as a great gift in old stories?) and loans and things that aren't easy to get without that machinery.
Some of those invisible things we should be grateful for. Ingratitude is ugly--though excuseable in babies. Some things, maybe we should change--but don't forget Chesterton's Fence. Other things--do "window treatment" fashions matter? (You should probably not trust my aesthetic judgment on such matters.)
How do we see the invisible? A few things come to mind; there are probably plenty of others.
You can have someone sit you down and explain in detail why you are a bad person and never knew it before. I assume that corset and riding crop are extra cost options.
The Grand Tour is nice, if you have the money. But having money makes a lot of things invisible, even in a foreign environment.
You can try to get to know someone from a wildly different environment. But then, are you treating the person as a means to an end--your enlightenment? You won't really meet them that way, and it may rankle them. If you aren't, there's some goal you both share that brings you together--which is good and also means they may not be as different from you as they could be.
Read. Read the foreign stuff first, and then maybe the careful explanations. How do those foreigners like to think of themselves? Poetry, folk stories, other literature--if you feel brave tackle some internal debate. Their arguments seem sound from their point of view--why? Assume they're not deliberately malicious--though some people are.
Read stuff from the past. Your grandfather's worries were generally quite serious ones--why are yours different? Hint: it isn't because you're smarter or more moral. You aren't.
Read stuff you disagree with. Assume for the sake of argument that the writer isn't deliberately malicious. Sometimes even the beyond-the-pale ones see something you don't, though their cure may be wicked.
As mentioned above, camping can, if you cut out the electronics and other luxuries, make some everyday things like waste disposal rise up out of invisibility. (The same is true of hunting, if you want to avoid spooking the deer.) Try mending with needle and thread. (I'm not very good at it.) Exercise your imagination when visiting one of those museum displays of ancient villages--and try not to be a smartass in your fantasy. You wouldn't know any more than they did.
Cut out all electronics for a week or two. What was harder/impossible? What was better and why?
You're not trying to become cosmopolitan =home-less, just see more--and maybe be more grateful for what you have.
FURTHER Another little thing: how much money do you need to buy groceries today? We don't have hyperinflation and prices are posted--you can estimate how much you need, and not have to spend time dickering and hoping there's not just one item left (driving up the seller's price).
1 comment:
As for Chesterton's fence, there's a class of reformer now that says, "You and I both know ☢☠⚠♣ well it has no redeeming qualities!"
Post a Comment