Climbing the steps

Having seen the effect of western countries spending years in the lowest and the rottenest countries around the world, who also are exposed to our relatively civilised culture through the internet, who remain pretty much exactly as they were, arresting women who are seen with men in public, not allowing them to go to school or drive, slicing their genitals, holding elections where the only candidate wins 99.9% every time etc, it is fairly apparent these people cannot 'catch' goodness from outside, as they are equivalent to being a few thousand years behind us in time, and as impossible to influence a past primitive society from the present as to attempt it directly in the present. We've tried, time and time again, a little rubs off but only a few successes around the margin such as managing to abolish killing widows and organised crime gangs in India, which are one of the few examples where sheer force and persistence has wiped out other people's atrocities. But we still have bullfighting only across the channel in Spain, while today I saw a photo of people slashing a live camel with a knife in some Mayan style sacrifice to the gods in the Middle East.

Examples aside, my point is we have the standard pyramidal formation in society, where each culture and then the individuals within it start out like newborn babies, and have to learn each lesson over time, impossible to simply pick up good behaviour any more than children can learn from their parent's advice and experience and would prefer to make their own mistakes and learn directly. This applies almost universally, the few who take others' word for it being the small exception to the general rule. A friend told me yesterday she found a bin full of stolen goods, half with ID attached and some cash, all delivered to the owners where possible and the rest to the police. She told her dubious neighbours, who said she was stupid and naïve for not keeping the cash. You can't reason or educate such beliefs, as before children are told stealing is wrong they probably don't know, but once adults and have not been brought up properly they can't be simply educated to become decent from outside, they either eventually work it out themselves or die criminals.

My conclusion is each individual, regardless of their place of birth, has to work through every single lesson, first as a child and second as an individual, until they are all done. I can't say how it happens overall as we only have a snippet in a single life and I don't believe in reincarnation, but I do believe I've identified the process, and each lesson learnt isn't reversible as once you learn something new it becomes a known and a part of you.

The next problem is when you know various lessons and most people you come across don't. That is an advanced lesson in itself, one I'm in the process of learning. You can't tell them what you know as firstly offering advice without being asked will usually be rejected, but when a chance arises it will almost always be anyway, so you may as well not bother. You do set examples by your actions, which other people may learn from sooner or later if they see often enough, but I think letting them be who they are is the lesson itself. It's bloody hard when many of these people are actually the most powerful in the world, going back to my stealing example it's not exactly a secret many people making our laws right now wouldn't hand that cash back either, and would be quite happy to get someone else into trouble to get what they want (eg Chris Huhne), or take even more as they hadn't lost enough compared to what you wanted.

I've been listing these lessons myself for 40 years or so, and use them in my work and general life when others ask me, as then they are ready. But they are a small minority while everyone else continues to buy worthless investments, borrow huge amounts of money and vote Labour (just a poor attempt to offend half the country there) and there's not a thing I can do to protect them from their actions. Especially when they affect me, as Labour most certainly have. But knowing they exist is the next way to both be aware of them in general and to recognise your own. And to know what to do about it when you meet others who have not learnt the ones you have.