It is not your colour, but your behaviour

Colour has taken on unprecedented significance in Hong Kong.  For many people, the most important characteristic of a person, business, organization, …, anything, is the colour.  Not colour of skin, hair, or eye.  But your political stance.  For some, it is even more mundane - it is the colour of your clothing, your face mask, umbrella, …   It sounds absurd, irrational, but sadly, true.  

There are good reasons to favour stability, respect, order.  But there are also bad reasons to favour the same.  There are good reasons to favour freedom, change, equality. But there are also bad reasons for the same.   It is true that those in power have a strong motivation to use unfair means to retain their power, while those out of power are motivated to seek change, sometimes also using violent tactics.    The overwhelming imbalance in power in the political machine, economic resources, and military might puts the establishment in great advantage.  That has always been the case in most places through history.  

The important question for us, as a human being, is not where we are at.  That has already happened, often out of our control.  But we do have some influence over the future.  It is what we do, given where we are at.  

Do I have the wisdom to understand myself, why I am in my position, why I think this way, my position in society, and why I am in this colour?  Do I have the courage to act in justice, compassion and love - now?  Do I have the courage to restrain myself, give up some of my unearned privilege, confess to past wrongs, and do the right things from now on?

Or, alternatively, am I an animal who can only respond to external circumstances?  If the going is favourable, I gloat?  If not, I whine and fight?  Do I use any means possible to preserve my advantage?  Do I continue to abuse my power, be it political, economical, or military?  Do I continue to make statements that I know are false?  Do I continue to  despise those who are different?  Do I continue to persecute those who hold different opinions?  

The answer to those questions tells me, and the world, what kind of person I am, and what the future of the world holds.