Addendum

My previous post was long enough, and the topic different enough, that I decided to add this separately.

Whether it's my Catholic upbringing or my political science undergrad, I agree with the rather lofty ideal set out in our Declaration of Independence - 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

With the understanding that it was a gender-neutral term, and that we are right to insist that applies to everyone, regardless of race or gender or sexuality or disability or whatever.

Like, I'm not sure why this is so hard for people to get?

Every. Single. Person. Is a person worthy of dignity and respect.

I'll admit sometimes that's harder to remember than others. Yes, homeless guys (and gals) are worthy of dignity and respect. As are felons. And Nazis. Figuring out how to stand for your beliefs and not enable or condone things you disagree with, while continuing to treat them as a person worthy of dignity and respect... Well, I don't claim I'm perfect at it. But that's pretty much the goal, and the more you practice it the easier it is to do.

I do, however, think that anything that falls short of that tends to have unpleasant side effects. (ie God has pretty much rigged the game in favor of treating each other well.)

Speaking of rigging, I also think that when we are honest with ourselves 'pursuit of happiness' doesn't lead to conflict.

That is, we focus a lot on the 'have nots' screwed by our current system, but even the 'haves' are not actually living their best life.

I'm not sure where that notion first started, but I do remember an early example.

I took a class on African literature in college, and one of the books was set in North Africa, dealing with a woman whose husband decided to take on a second (much younger) wife. It might have been So Long a Letter?  Anyways, we naturally focus on her struggle to deal with it, and the system allows men to do this. We think, naturally, that of course a, man would take a pretty young wife if he thought he could get away with it. But you can see in the story, sometimes, that he really wasn't happier.

Like, getting a 'pretty young thing' is all about that. They have to be young, and pretty. 

But it says nothing of an emotional connection. You don't have a meaningful relationship with your pretty young thing, because that's not what you're there for.

They're a trophy, a marker, not a life long partner you can turn to when things are awful.

They're someone to protect and be strong for, not someone you're able to be vulnerable with.

And then people wonder why men are so lonely and more likely to commit suicide.

The dramage may be felt more strongly on one side, but the system doesn't really benefit either. 

And I kind of trust that if people learned to listen to themselves (their higher self, or sit with that sense of inner peace and quiet where God resides on all of us, or whatever your preferred terms are for that sort of experience) they'd find that out for themselves.