Threats to Global, Social, Distributive, and Economic Justice
 
People are created to be loved. Things are created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used. —Aimi Razman
 
How do we explain the protests in the Middle East and other parts of the world? There is flag burning, bombing, firefights, murder, and mayhem. In my view, if we add a bit of dominance, and a pinch of patriarchy and privilege, we will have at least a portion of the answer. As a nation, we should rethink how we see the world, the planet, and the people occupying it. Our worldview is costing us severely: lives, money, and inclusion. Change in this regard requires different behaviors.
 
For centuries the dominant group has exerted its power, privilege, and patriarchy over women, people of color, culturally different others. Their power, privilege, and patriarchy are evinced by telling others how to live, where to live, where not to live, what to do, what not to do, how to be, how not to be, and the list goes on. Women are denied work or certain jobs because they are women, Blacks and Hispanics cannot live in certain places or buy that property because of what they are. Native Americans, the least discussed group and the poorest of all ethnic groups in America, struggle on reservations, isolated. Those relatively obvious examples have been alive and well and still are. These behaviors demonstrate control, greed, and being one-up. As we see in numerous (20) countries where citizens are responding by protesting, they don’t want to be controlled, dominated, abused; that means the landscape of dominance is changing: dominance is declining; hegemony is waning; the dominant group’s privilege is being threatened; their patriarchy is weakening. Ethnic groups and culturally different others have begun to affirm their presence, question their status, and assert their rights to be a part of this planet.
 
When it comes to global justice, social justice, economic justice, distributive justice, and the overall wellbeing of global citizens, dominance isn’t working for the benefit of all, only for a select few. So, how can we shift from using people and abusing people, to a support system that accommodates the different justices cited above? What would that look like? Would it minimize the unrest and civil strife? Would it eliminate the thousands of refugee camps, where millions of mostly women, children and the elderly suffer? My travel and experience tell me that most people, if not all, simply want the basics: food, shelter, clothing, clean drinking water, education, access to medical care, and most importantly control over their lives and well-being. Absent the basic will potentially lead to violence where innocent beings are hurt in many ways, not to mention that in some cases they are utterly slaughtered so that the dominant group retains control.
 
In closing, when it comes to the protests and chaos across the world, citizens who have been used are responding with violence, asserting their rights. And since the world population consists of one-eighth (1/8) dominant and seven-eighth (7/8) non-dominant, it is critical that those who exercise dominance, privilege, and patriarchy, change their behavior. If they don’t, I believe the response of the 7/8th will potentially lead to the worst world war imaginable.
 
What are your thoughts?