It's maddeningly frustrating.
The world is unfair, life is unfair, society is unfair.
It's beginning to seem that everything thrives on the system of unfairness.
I used to think that as long as we are willingly to fight back for our rights, we could make it fair. That if you just let it be, you'll never get treated right until you make a stand for yourself. But when it comes to a system of ranks, hierarchy, and power dynamics where the top couldn't careless about you, this small fry, no matter how much you bark and scream, you'll never be treated right. Simply just because they hold more power, they can do anything to you, despite the violation of all things logical and righteous, they will be justified and you have to suck it all up.
I am so frustrated.
Growing up in a Uniformed group CCA, I am no stranger for the power of ranks. I have been taught to respect and obey my superiors and I did. I have been taught to command my juniors and I did. I have been taught to strive for excellence and discipline, to obey the rules, and to uphold them. Everything will go according to plan, just and righteous, as along as you adhere to them.
But then I saw the short-cuts, the corners they cut away to seemingly obey the rules. The way how my superiors who preached moral lessons that made perfect sense then but flagrantly broke those lessons in front of me. I saw how natural mistakes and misunderstandings that we can't predict disrupted those perfect concise plans and how our superiors berate us for them. And worse of all, I saw how my superiors abuse their ranks and the power they hold with it to achieve their own desires without care or thought for the juniors they affect and had no power to fight back.
Perhaps this is why I left my CCA, despite devoting nearly 12 years of service to it. I loved it dearly and miss it from time to time. It has taught me things and formed a small part of my personality that will be fixed there forever, but I left disillusioned.
But that is just a CCA.
Organisations, companies, religious establishments, charities, institutions, schools, military, banks, government, all of these the same power dynamics and rank play a part as the core structure of how they function. And it is because of the very nature of ranks, those who hold it are free to exercise it as and when they like, even on those who do not deserve to be treated as such. How they ever managed to be entrusted with such authority, I can't say for sure, but if they dare abuse it, I can say this: they do not deserve it.
We can't survive without hierarchy and ranks, for this is already the way how our society functions and to make everyone equal will only be Communism which I do not advocate nor believe in. There is good in this system for it inspires us to work hard in order to climb the ladder, with a respect for the hard work those on the top does and how they achieved it, and it delegates the jobs out neatly.
But I say give the authority to those who deserve it, who can be fully entrusted with, and give those without a medium, a voice, to speak out should they ever be mistreated. Do not simply award ranks to those with connections, do not only award them to those with the best grades. Evaluate their personality, watch them closely, see if they possess the true essence of leadership, the spirit of caring for others and pushing them to perform their best, not the greed for power and to make others do their dirty work. For a true leader works alongside their team and understands their pain, while a boss simply orders. Power goes one way, but make that way not be in the way of ranks but righteousness. Let justice be made, let the victims speak without fear and let them fight for their rights for after all, we are all humans with equal rights, despite of our rank, our jobs, our income, our race, our gender, and our age. Let those with power truly use them properly, without self-serving interests but for the benefit of their subordinates, for that is the primary job of their rank and power in the first place.
Make this world fair, everyone, for if you don't, then truly no one else would.
