75 years ago, our species did something incredible.
We tried to codify aspects of our condition as universal: to say that everyone - no matter your nationality, creed, age, sex, racialized ethnicity - deserved access to the same fundamentals.
We have *never* lived up to the promise of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Not ever.
We spend more time defending why X doesn't deserve Y.
We don't have to - but we do.
What would the next 25 years look like if we didn't?
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
500 years ago is an interesting comparison!
That's when Queen Isabella, furious with actions in the Americas, established rules of conduct. Europeans didn't know what to make of so many non-Christians (some felt heathens could be abused) but she maintained that they were to be treated as subjects deserving of equal protection (while of course being indoctrinated).
Both it and the UNDHR are ambitious texts! The problem has always been the follow-through.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/settlement/text4/OvandoHispaniola.pdf
@MLClark Interesting! 500 years ago was also when we had the establishment of the discovery doctrine from the Pope. It established the concept of Terra Nullius, inhabited land, if the holders are not christian, can be claimed by a sovereign christian power.
That was indeed the debate!
And it carried forward into advocacy work from missionaries in the Americas over the next few decades, with many religious orders pushing back on abusive policies, and trying to report the cruelties they saw enacted by military personnel and others of the faith.
In short, again, we've *always* been struggling between those who recognize the cruelty transpiring in their era, and those whose livelihoods depend on it continuing.
Ever was it thus for us!
Another heartbreaking example was learning that *many* in Europe in the late 19th C knew King Leopold II was a murderous fraud, and petitioned for their states to intervene when he was bringing about the deaths and mutilation of millions in the Congo.
He wasn't "of his time". Then, as now, most people have the ability to recognize unjust action when they see it. But generation after generation, power has been in short supply to bring a swifter halt to other people's cruelty.
@MLClark Leopold the Second was one of hell's own monsters and if he had been alive today would be tried in the Hague.
@MLClark I am quite enamored with your point. I know that Abagail Adams, the wife of John Adams, championed, quietly, equality for women. There was the Albigensian Hersey in 1209 that established considerable equality between women and men.
Not to mention the Abolition movement, all of these things that showed sparks where at least some people recognized... but the wave was not yet reaching the shores.
@MLClark Even Thomas Jefferson, that asserted and cited the discovery doctrine in justification for the United States and its actions, and a notorious slave holder, condemned slavery something like 87 times in the original declaration of independence.
He was smart enough to know he was committing an evil, but lacked the moral power to escape it.
Congress made 87 edits before its approval...
Oh, fabulous examples. :)
And what agony, especially for the most committed to their cause, to be doing that work when you have no idea if it will make a difference in the long run.
(John Brown is a good example, too. A no-nonsense life dedicated to the cause!)
I think this is a strong lesson to take from history instead: not that we're in "more moral times", but that when grieve today's moral failings, we can always draw strength from those who grieved and fought them before.
@MLClark The arc is bending towards justice because there have always been souls at the rail, pushing with all their might.
I don't know if I dare ask, Bun, since it's such a tricky query for we writers, but... 👀
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How was the writing this week?
@MLClark I got First tier sorcery restarted, and I've got a first chapter I'm happy with. I even managed to revise and expand it a bit.
Otherwise, outside of my journaling habit it was a low production week as I've turned much of my focus on finishing Farthest Star.
I got the cover art in, and am truly stoked about it. Reached out to my graphic design friend for lettering, my team is doing a polish past. All the little incidentals when you're a small shop.
And here I am conducting the chaos
@MLClark How did yours go?
Huzzah! Yay to new beginnings for pesky projects!
It sounds like a good time to lean into celebrating the lovely things you've accomplished this year. You have every reason to be GLOWING at that cover - it's so rich in nuance!
Some weeks we think we're going to be writing, but we end up doing a lot of critical thinking work instead. Still good! :) Everything helps in the end. May the next week be fruitful too.
@MLClark "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice" This is one of those places where we can look back and see the bend, though the journey before mankind is still long.
The idea that something like this can even exist as an ideal was impossible 500 years ago.
Progress is the proof of hope, even if the progress is yet to be fully realized.