My True Enemies

Continuing with my thoughts about conflict and war, this month I’ve been thinking about what it means to have an enemy. We’re consistently told who our enemies are and why there are bad. This has me pondering who my true enemies are. View or read on for more.

This following is a modified transcript of the above video.

Hey everybody, I hope you're doing as well as you can be, and thanks so much for reading. Today I'd like to talk about the concept of having an enemy and with everything going on in the world, all of the conflicts, the front and center right now, as I'm recording. this, being what's happening in Palestine.

I recently talked about what it means to me to be anti-war, and today I want wanted to get into this idea of there always being an enemy out there. We, (and when I say we, I mean the US, but I'm sure this is the case across many parts of the world) have always been told; had bashed into our brains that there is some kind of enemy out there. There is someone, something, or some group that is bad, that is evil, that we need to stop or we need to destroy. While in some cases I think that that might be possible, we're now told and made to believe that almost anyone can be an enemy. It can be our family. It can be our friends. It can be our neighbors. Anybody who disagrees with us can be an enemy. Anyone can be a scapegoat for our problems, and I wanted to get a little bit more into this because I've thought about it and I actually do have enemies myself. I am an anti-war person. I'm an anti-violence person. But I do in fact have some enemies and I wanted to discuss who they are and who they are not.

The War Machine

So, to start it off, front and center because it's super relevant as I record this today, and I think will be relevant for me for years to come; the war machine is my enemy. My enemy is the system that has told me that specific entire countries and the people within them are my enemy; that they're bad and that they need to be stopped. The ones that have told me that entire groups of people are bad. My enemy is the one who tells me that we have to murder children to get our goals accomplished. That tells me and has so many people believing that it is okay to bomb thousands of civilians under the guise of killing a few enemies. My enemy is a system that never looks for a peaceful solution, that only ramps things up, that tells us that we always need to be at war, and that there is always an enemy out there. That is my enemy. The one that tells me we need to spend far more on weapons and death and murder and destruction than we do on anything else in our society. If you watched my previous post, my enemy is a system that allows people to get rich off all of this killing.

A Corrupt Political System

My enemy is also a political system that is incentivized by donations and bribes and corruption. One that does not truly speak or fight for the people that they are supposed to represent, but rather rally for war and for corporate power to stay strong. This might not be super relevant to everything on this list, but this is super relevant to me in this moment. It's a system that tells millions of people that they can't be paid a living wage, that forces more and more people into poverty, into homelessness, every day. To have to make the most dire decisions to be able to live and to have a home. All the while so many are making billions every day with this wealth gap growing bigger.

The Media

Next, I would say the media is my enemy. A media that lies, manipulates, and convinces us into fighting more with each other than actually telling us the truth of what is going on. A system that gets millions to believe parrot their own narrative instead of reality. This system is definitely my enemy.

The Pharmaceutical and Medical Insurance Industry

This one might not fit into all of what I'm talking about today, but it's definitely been on my mind lately and.., and I would say the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is also my enemy. My enemy is a system who has the means and the abilities and the science to cure. many diseases, but chooses to not. That chooses to keep people... just so healthy that they need to keep coming back and be on medications, but never really truly being fully healthy. My enemy is the same system that charges thousands of dollars a month for a new computer. of percent markup on medicines that people need to survive when they cost barely anything to make in the desire for profits, charging much, much more than their cost of making a drug just to help shareholders get rich. A system that is so... costly, in America specifically, that people avoid going to the doctor, that avoid going to the emergency room. they're sick or injured, because they are scared of how much it will cost. system in which, while all of this is happening, people are getting rich. and growing their wealth beyond what I would say is their, is the... their true means or needs. I would say that.

Big Tech and Social Media

Next up, big tech is my enemy and This category could go pretty deep, but what's coming to me right now and lately is about... I would probably call social media tech, where we are on platforms that spread. and make money off of hatred, knowingly so, that amplify hatred to make more money. to sell more ads, while at the very same time censoring and silencing true and and legitimate dissent or questions or concerns, silencing people that are calling out the things that are happening in the world. That system is also my enemy.

You Are Not My Enemy

It feels crazy to have to say this, but my enemy is not people of color. It's not gay people, it's not trans people, it's not homeless people. it's not immigrants. I could go on and on. My enemy is the ones and the system who tells me that these people should be my enemy, that these people should somehow be the cause my problems. It's not those people. It's the people that tell me that I should be somehow against anyone. My enemy is not my neighbor. My enemy is not you. If you're reading this, even if you happen to disagree with me. You're not my enemy, and it's likely that we're being told that we need to be enemies because we need to disagree. If you disagree with me, that is fine. You're still not my enemy. And I hope we could talk about this fact and find some common ground that I know we have.

My Ultimate Enemy

I would say to close it out, under all of these terms, this the number one thing that is my enemy is greed. Greed that says: we need to take everything we can at the cost of all else and all others. That we need to fight and kill for land and money and power, that there is not enough for all of us. Greed, that pushes people to take and take and take even when they are living well beyond what anyone might need to live in multiple lifetimes. Feeding the idea that we need to look and feel like we're ahead of everyone else, and, yeah, just a system that keeps us needing more, needing to buy, needing to achieve, everyone else at all costs. Greed, I think, is the cause of of everything I have talked about today and I would say greed is my ultimate enemy.

So, thank you again for reading and as always, I am open to and love your feedback. If you have any comments on this, whether you want to put it in the comments or contact me directly, do you agree? Do you have an enemy? Do you think it is right to have a specific enemy or places or anything truly consider an enemy? I, with no judgment, would want to hear you and have a conversation.

Thank you again I'll see you next time. Have a good one for now.