This week: In the Right Direction Edited by: Kit  
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What are you doing to make the world a better place? There's a lot that needs fixing. It may seem endless...
One thing's for sure - once you start to think about people as things, bad things happen.
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about taking positive action.
Kit |
We all know the stories about darkness and light. Good and evil. We grow up with them. From our earliest years we are taught about heroes who stand up for what is right, and if you hope enough, pray enough, stand tall enough; if you have enough courage and work hard enough, sooner or later justice will prevail.
That’s what we’re taught. That’s what we keep telling ourselves.
I used to hope that one day some wise old wizard would come and take me to a fantasy world where I would be one of the heroes. I would help save the day. I had a backpack ready and everything. Of course, I was just a kid back then. Now, like most adults, I just want a peaceful life with no big surprises. I like everything nice and settled and predictable. But what happens when you suddenly find yourself in one of those times when everything changes? The kind of time that may end up in a history book, for future scholars to analyse?
I’m not a key player, that I know. Just as I never got to fly a dragon, my name will not be recorded in a history text. I am just a boring person of a certain age, living in a tiny countryside cottage. That’s not the stuff that heroes are made of. I am not especially brave, nor particularly clever. I don’t inspire. I don’t lead. All I’ve got are these words, and they’re saying what everyone surely knows already – something’s not right here. In fact, it’s going quite alarmingly wrong.
It’s not even one particular thing. It’s not confined to a single nation, to just one part of the world. There is no one Big Bad – if there were, it might make it easier. A Big Bad can be defeated. It may take time, it may be incredibly difficult, but eventually it can be done. When there are countless destructive forces, though, who do you stand up against? And who’s standing with you?
The wise Sir Terry Pratchett once wrote, in his novel Carpe Jugulum: "And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is."
“It’s a lot more complicated than that . . .”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes . . .”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things . . . ”
It is a long-ish quote, I know, but I wanted to put it here in full because it is relevant to all manner of issues in the world today. Many of them do, indeed, start with thinking of other people as things. When you see people as less than human, as not like you, not like us – when you dehumanise them like that it becomes a lot easier to do to them what you would never imagine being done to you, or to your loved ones. Whatever the reason is given – they’re from another nation, another class, another faith, or in whatever way they seem different to you, as long as you can class them as ‘other’, it’s easy to hop from there into classifying them as a thing. Once they’re a thing, empathy evaporates. Cruelty becomes ever easier, ever more comfortable. It’s been shown to happen throughout history. We are seeing it today.
How do you battle that? It takes more than a Chosen One, that’s for sure. It takes people from around the world – ordinary people, not legendary heroes – to speak up and to remind others that we are all human beings. That people aren’t things, that cruelty’s not okay, that there is no ‘other’ – there’s only us, sharing this planet, and we’re not that different when you get right down to it.
People, on the whole, just want a decent life. A roof over their head, food on the table, all those basics, with hopefully a family, and friends – people to love and be loved by. Enough to pay the bills, to not struggle, to have some fun because life should be about more than bare survival. A fair society, with fair laws and a fair justice system. To live without fear, free from persecution. It’s not much to ask for. Or, it shouldn’t be.
We should all have that, you know. It is completely possible. Ensuring everyone has access to education, access to health care, access to housing and food and heat and water is perfectly doable. Equality under the law does not take away anything from anyone – it enriches us all. Human rights are necessary rights, because once they become privileges they can be stripped away and once they’re gone, it’s not that simple to try getting them back.
People as things, that’s where it starts. Hopefully, remembering we’re all human can help to put an end to cruelty and injustice. It’s only one step on a long journey we collectively face, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
Kit
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Action/Adventure Newsletter Team
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Action/Adventure: January 28, 2026 Issue [#13572]
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