As much as certain societies at certain times make it their point to dehumanize the other, we need to rise above such dangerous stupidity to recognize the inherent and equal worth of every human being, no matter their creed, their color, or their class status, without exception. In other words, anytime that we divide humanity into different categories based upon their class position, their faith, or their racial characteristics, we are in most cases, not doing so in service to the betterment of humankind, but rather we are doing it to justify our mistreatment of our fellow brothers and sisters, so that we can continue to be unjust to them and to exploit them, with the dubious reasoning, that they are lesser than we are.
We cannot improve the condition of humankind until we recognize the inherent dignity and worth of everyone. Those who cannot see themselves in the other need to work on doing so, because we need to recognize our commonality, as opposed to focusing on what appears to be insurmountable differences between one and the other. To exploit the other is to take advantage of the other, for our own selfish means, which isn’t right, for whatever that it is that we need to get done or get accomplished, can be done so in a manner that is fair and takes into consideration that if the shoe was on the other foot, we would appreciate being treated with respect and fairness, no matter our circumstances.
So too, there cannot be justice, when there are certain elites or other privileged people that are essentially above the law, as opposed to all those others that are under the law, which oftentimes is structured in a way and manner to oppress them for the advantage of those that would most benefit from seeing injustice being applied against the other. There needs to be true equality under the law, or else humankind will not truly respect the law, for they see it for what it really is, a cudgel to keep the masses in their place, while benefiting those who believe that they not only know better, but are better.
For there to be freedom, we need to have not only the right to be free about our actions and our beliefs, but the society that we are part of, needs to do its part to uphold those rights, or else these aren’t rights at all, but are simply words on a piece of paper, that might mean well, but in their implementation, aren’t doing much of anything to promote that we are all entitled to our own voice, our own perspective, and therefore the right to think our own thoughts, and to be about our business, without undue interreference from the state.
As always, as free-will individuals, we as a society have a conscious choice to make, as to whether we will do our fair part to help better the society that we are integral part of, by doing the right thing, and treating one another with respect and consideration, or whether we will focus on taking care of our own selfish needs as our call to action, and care not a whit about the other.