Do not spend your life fighting people. It is exhausting and a waste of time.
Are people ideals? I have never met an ideal person in my life! We are so much more complex than that.
Ideals are. People choose. But as we choose we change how we see this world.
We do not change what truth is, for truth is only truth no matter if you see it or not. But as we accept one thing or another, aspects of the truth becomes easier and harder to see.
No aspect is easier to see than the faults of those around us. No aspect is harder to see than the faults within ourselves.
We are slaves bound to our beliefs. There is no helping or changing that. But as far as slaves go, we are given more freedom than most. We are slaves who can choose our master (though our current master may fight a bit before they let us go)
But throughout it all, no matter what belief we serve, or aspect we chase after. We are still, and always will be humans just like EVERY one else. Our perspective is limited. We overlook important consequences to our actions every day.
Did Disney make films with the intentions of telling girls to be bound to misery until some man comes along to save you enthralled by your beauty? NO! He wrote movies to inspire children to dream, in a day and age where dreams were considered worthless and the future looked grim and hopeless.
Was candy invented to create a world of obese, and unhealthy children? No! It was made to give children something they enjoyed and would want.
And yes I will go there. In WWII, there were many unforgivable and inhuman things done, but did Germany turn to Hitler because they wanted to get together and torture Jews and Gypsies, as well as several other types of people? NO! They were won over by talks of the financial suffering inflicted upon them by the treaty of Versailles, and the Jews and Gypsies were used as scape goats, with books upon books of biased stats and reports showing how they were the cause of the world’s problems and suffering through conspiracies and manipulation…. much like what we talk about our scape goats of current day.
Does this mean that these people were justified in their actions? That we should celebrate and support their beliefs because they originally meant well?
STOP TREATING THIS WORLD AS BLACK AND WHITE! You’ve spent 60-some years now protesting and parading about how this world has many shades to it! Support the belief yourselves!
Bad things happened. Some by innocent mistake, some by the slippery slope of throwing away morals.
The bad things we do are not ingrained in who we are. They are not part of so many rotten spots that you have to throw away the entire apple.
We come to accept one lie, like we are wiser than anyone else. We are more important than anyone else. We are capable of things the rest of the world is not. We have to protect ourselves as the entire world is against us. An entire people live with the only purpose to conspire against us. The world is scared of us. Etc
Once that lie takes root. Other falsities begin to sprout from it.
Creatures evolve from survival of the fittest -> If only the fittest bred it would probably cause a species to evolve faster -> Clearly we are the genetically advanced race because we understand this and I know we’re pretty strong -> We should avoid having children with lesser genetic samples -> In fact we should keep other genetic samples from having children altogether! -> in fact why are we wasting our important medical supplies on people who are genetic wastes. Why do we even treat them as humans when we’re their genetic superiors. Let’s just kill the trash and be done with it for the sake of the world!
This isn’t made up. This is the thought process that led to a giant number of deaths in WWII… and the scariest part of all is that up until that last segment, it wasn’t just Germany, it was all of Western culture taking part. This is the power of justification. This is the power of blinding ourselves to our own actions by focusing only on those we consider our enemies.
But at the same time. All the evil that was done, sprouted from one, strong, deeply rooted lie.
“We are better than others.”
This one lie is the root of much of the most evil deeds done in this world, though it comes in many unique flavours.
“We are genetically superior to others!”
“We are morally better than others!”
“We are less manipulated than others!”
“We are religiously better than others!”
“We are bloodline wise better than others!”
“We are monetarily shrewder than others!”
“We are patriotically better than others!”
“We are politically better than others!”
The list goes on, but the root is all the same. It’s the belief that you are justified in your actions because you are better than those around you. But if you can cut off that root…. the rest of your arguments falter.
If you are not better than others, than why should you not help them?
If you are not better than others, then what right do you have to attack or abuse them?
If you are not better than others, why should all focus be about you?
If you are not better than others, why should you force them to do what you do? Encourage them yes, but force them??
We all focus on the external battles alone. Those who start mobs. Wars fought. Murders done. Mistreatments made…. but in each person in each physical war… there has been an internal war they are fighting.
The aggressors in a physical war are always the losers and victims of their own internal war. And believe it or not, they are already suffering for it!
Pity the racist, for they miss out on the pleasure and wisdom of so much of this world!
Pity the sexist because they will never benefit from the wisdom and abilities of the opposite gender!
Pity the anarchist, because they have locked themselves in a world where they believe themselves to be the only person who will ever look out for themselves!
Pity the vigilante, because they have found themselves trapped in an ever growing lust for greater and greater suffering for those they call their enemies. It is a world where the hate you throw at your enemies begins to pale to the disgust you find in yourself.
People are not your enemy! This world is not so simple as that! Fight against people and you will not stop their cause. You will simply strengthen their resolve. They will tell themselves that this world needs people like them all the more because people like you exist!
Realize you are targeting their ideals. Ideals that have been founded by a stem that has taken root!
The stem of a plant is the furthest down and thus the hardest to find, but it is also thinnest, and easiest to cut.
Attack the twigs and branches, and you will spend your lifetime pruning away. Attack the stem, and the whole plant will fall over in one fell swoop.
But more than anything. Realize you are human as well.
DO NOT tell yourself you are better than them simply because you cannot understand their most topical actions.
DO NOT tell yourself they are less than human because of what they have done.
DO NOT tell yourself you are justified in doing whatever you want with them because your cause is just and theirs is evil.
You are fighting ideals not people. If you become their ideal, to fight their ideal, you may have won the battle, but the war shall continue with you as the new enemy.
Finally, though I have said this many times, I find people need it spelt out as clearly as can be these days,
THIS IS NOT TO SAY ‘DO NOT STAND UP AGAINST EVIL!’
Evil will always be in this world. Evil will never be fully defeated. But we have a duty to stand up for those who are hurt and to protect them, and fight to build a better future.
What this IS to say is that if you truly want to fight evil, and not just fulfill a vindictive buzz, make sure you target the true enemy, and not just the little grunts who follow him.
News flash for you. Your enemy doesn’t care how many of his puppets you abuse or torture. Actually it makes him delighted to see you turning over to his side!
You are in the middle of a war. It is a much bigger war than most people ever live to realize. If you want to keep fighting puppets and meat bags, you will only find yourself overwhelmed and then taken to the side you thought you hated the most. But if you cut off the supply routes, build up defenses, and show the grunt soldiers the lies they were told about you were false, you will watch as your enemies begin to collapse, imploding one after another.
This is not a simple schoolyard fight. This is war.
