We Are Humankind. We Are No Longer Slaves.
First published 19.08.23 on Medium.com
These are dark times. Global warming is now physically manifesting symptoms and world leaders still want to slow down the change to stop their individual countries growth collapsing on their watch. America seems to be edging closer to splitting apart and a possible violent civil war. China is now the world’s biggest economy and producing most of the crap that we buy and yet it is not a democracy – or have western standards. (Though why should it?) Some countries in the world, the poverty-stricken lower class who must pay for education are pimping out children to make ends meet. These are black times indeed and getting worse by the year.
I am afraid to research this introduction because I know I will find even more evidence to fuel my despair.
In the 1980s the experiment that politics was led by market economics began and has been driving this globe ever since. Once inclusive wealthy countries have now become exclusive domains of the one per cent, leaving ever more of their populations struggling to make ends meet. Struggling to juggle heating, healthcare, and food to eat in an ever-decreasing cycle in the cost of living.
What is the only reaction to this: family. Look after your own.
Saturday was Grandparents Day in our house. We were lucky to have our grandchildren visit us. Not all of them, our house is not big enough.
I will explain. My wife and I were married this year, May, although we had been together some years. When we met, I had one (step) child. This child was eight when I came into her life and because of that, I took on a parental role with her. And I was lucky that she accepted me as a parental figure. So much so, I was a proud father walking her down the isle to be married. She has a daughter who, this September, has started her state paid schooling. I am Grampy, my wife is Grammie, and she has her father’s parents as grandparents too. I love my daughter and my Granddaughter is a heart-melter. They are my family; I will die to protect them.
My wife has four children. They were all adults and well established in careers when we met, and they do not need me as a father figure. I would not expect them to see me in any other way. Their father is a good man, and I am sure they all love him dearly. I have behaved like a prick sometimes. That is because I am a dick at times. We all do and say stupid things, it is a part of life.
Between her four children she has seven grandchildren, with one on the way and all the other three trying to have more. As this education year begins the eldest is starting university and the youngest was a screaming delight as he was bounced upon knees on Saturday. Whether these grandchildren call me Grampy will be up to their parents. This will not matter to me. Not because I do not care, but how they see me does not affect how I see them. I told my daughter once, ‘You may never see me as a father, but you will always be my daughter.’
Quite simply I will love them for what they mean to me, not for what I mean to them.
It may be a fault on my part, but I cannot change who I am. All my stepchildren will experience the real me. I am a liberal, it is people’s right to live which life they want. I will tell them what I think. I will offer advice, without being asked at times, but if they do not heed my advice that is their business. I have never thought less of my daughter when she did not listen, nor will I think less of my stepchildren. They are all a similar age, and none really need advice from this aging writer. All but one of our collective five children have had a university education and I would hope all our grandchildren manage to follow that path.
Education is the saviour from poverty. Though that statement is becoming less true as every year passes. But that brings me back to the destruction that neoliberal capitalism has wrought upon the world since the nineteen eighties. The seeds sown then are now flowering, and for masses of population the flowers are dark and poisonous.
Civilisation is facing a tough century. If the populations of the world do not remove via a vote, or non-compliance to authoritarianism, those leaders that do not address the growing problems with positive action, we are doomed. We need a global solution to all the problems. Some countries will need to sacrifice to meet the needs of the whole. We need an end to neoliberal economics – which should reside in history as a failed experiment that was never designed to address the needs of all the populace. We need to end the goal of economic growth that is destructive to nature. We need less divisive politics and the means to war. Competition always brings out the best in people, brings improvement but competition must benefit all rather than subjugating populations. There is nothing wrong with wanting your competitor to do well, nor does your competitor take from you by doing well. No one person can have it all; no one company should have it all. Monopoly is just a board game, not a way to live life.
We would never want to see our grandchildren starve because of a choice of their parent. Or a parent starves because of a bad choice. Being a family is important. Being a family means you support each other. In this world, family are not always people carrying your DNA, relationships fall apart and new partnerships form, bringing step and half siblings.
I am not my brother’s keeper is no longer an option for this globe. We are humankind. We all need to eat; we all need to defecate. Let the end of this century be a celebration for the decision to help all eat and not for defecating on each other.
All images on this page were created with AI. (c)nigelhare.com
Find more of my Writing on Medium: https://medium.com/@hippnk
Nigel Hare 
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