The following is a direct response to what was written here...
http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/12/sometimes-good-men-do-bad-things.html
Crikey, what a topic..!
I think this one's probably had dictionary-sized books written about it, possibs by your Oxford people...
Probs by people who are much smarter than us, who have spent lifetimes trying to understand why humans do and act, the way they do.
And the final chapters in all those books, probs say something sorta like this:
Our language is too simple to explain the way humans work.
Think about it.
We have twenty six little letters and words that mean more than one thing to more than one group of people, always.
How can we "get on the same page" and understand any type of explanation? How can we accept any excuse or reason?
We can't, don't even try or you will spend your whole life trying to learn something that can't be learned.
But let's imagine we could actually understand each other for just a minute. I mean, I'm game, it's a rainy Tuesday and I've nothin' better to do for a bit eh.
Let's pretend that two people who have known each other their whole lives, two people that have spent every minute together, have shared every thought together, could not be on the "same page" any more...
Let's pretend for a minute that this perfect pair exist and that they can, with a simple gesture, communicate their thoughts and feelings, to each other, perfectly.
But real quick like, did you picture this couple as a man and a woman, two women, two men, an adult and a child, two old farts in an old folks home..?
It doesn't really matter because this super duo would be way beyond anything the rest of us could ever accomplish. And they'd want to share their super powers, they'd want to tell others how they did this and their ability to communicate on a heightened scale would be off-the-charts, exceptional.
It would spread, mabes slowly at first but it would, like enhanced evolution.
There would be the people of "one mind" and those "all alone" and "eventually", the one-minds would overpower the rest and god herself would descend from heaven and declare the game officially over huh.
So we're humans, I'm sorry. We're "single minds", yeps. We're stuck with a horrible representation of a language and we don't really have many people who want to be better, to learn more or to "try" harder.
We're sorta stagnant in our laziness, praps we don't feel like we have to work harder because hey, what do I want from my life..?
A soft couch to sit on, a big tv to stare at, alcohol and drugs to numb me, pizza delivered to me and a toilet built in to my sofa so I don't have to move, mabes a vibrate function...
Why should I, or anyone else for that matter, want to work real hard to make the world a better place for all those lazy humans out there..?
But let's go a different route for a little bit, you're depressing me with your negative perspective there Bishop...
And okay, let's see...
Humans like to judge, it's important for us. If a fire will warm us but also burn if we're too close, we need (and want) to judge that fire "harmful".
If another human approaches and wants to be warmed by the fire, we will yell out "hey, watch out, that fire will burn you!" right?
If there's some skepticism, mabes we'll offer a clarifier in, "you know, if you get too close."
But how close is "too" close? Does it translate to inches or those funny centimeters..?
Does it matter if the direction is from the side of the fire or directly on top?
And if you can step back a second and really see my analogy for what it is, can you see that we'd need to write a healthy sized book containing all we know and suspect about fires if we wanted to protect someone from being burned?
And, just for hypotheticals, wouldn't it make slightly more sense just to let that human touch the fire and get burned a little, you know, instead of writing the book?
There there, not as depressing right? Now step back from my fire, I'm gonna do a little dance and it should be entertaining, you know, as long as I'm not bumping you into that fire.
Let's assume for a minute that someone out there, let's say "me" for example, just for a second... Let's say I have already written a book about how to tell if people are "good" or "bad".
I've dedicated a couple of years of my life, described in horrific detail the meanings of the words "good" and "bad" (because even they aren't the same to every reader...)
I've broken down every single little step about how to "read" people, including the distances required and the angle of interceptions (really, just like my fire remember?)
So here it is, it's massive, I wrapped it in the world's biggest tortilla and dipped it in melted cheese in case you get hungry while cuddled up with it in front of the fireplace some night.
On the cover is the suggestions "Ages 13 and up" (you know, 'cause there's some adult content) and "Estimated length of reading, 2 years".
But hey, if you want to really crank that puppy out in six months, well it's possible if you don't need to sleep right.
So here it is, the answer to one of the toughest questions on the planet AND..!
It's free! The best part huh, no need to indenture your future children, no loans from banks or mortgaging your boats.
I'm giving it away because I want the people of the world to be better to each other, I want them to have better, happier lives and produce better children so that someday we can all "graduate" when the universal gig is up.
So... the only real issue left is... will you read it?
Well of course you will right? You're reading my words right now aren't you..?
But okay, I'll concede for a moment and let you hear from others who have read my work.
The "others" that have read my work have claimed it to be brilliant. It's funny, it's honest, it's crucially informative and it makes a great wrecking ball if you ever need to do some home remodeling, knock down a wall for "an addition" you know.
But they all say the same thing happened, in the end. Having all that information and experience handed to them, well...
They looked and looked and couldn't find a "good" guy or a "good" girl.
With my best descriptions and explanations and "excuses", no humans fit into the "good" mold.
So you might be better off getting burned. And you might have to lower some expectations. And this is getting depressive again isn't it...
We need to judge, it's important. We want to judge and tell others our judgements. We really have to judge and we can never honestly stop.
But we have to also remember one really significant concept for a bit.
Good people, doing good things, are completely invisible upon a first glance.
In fact, there might be good people all around you right now, doing good things and you don't even notice 'em. And the sad part is, you haven't noticed 'em in a long, long time.
Because our minds are "problem based". We look at the flaws, the faults, the errors with a microscope. We get excited when we can firmly place blame and we line up to watch heads being chopped with a guillotine.
Can we really blame those that want to stay home glued to their couches watching tv their whole lives? Can we really tell them to come out and play with us heartless bastards who just love to throw stones?
Not too often is someone's good deeds studied with a microscope. Sometimes a human will do something amazing in soldier combat and we hear their stories in our news, they're given medals or recognition and fancy ceremonies.
Because they saved some fellow soldiers or they sacrificed or they killed a bunch of other humans fighting what our government has labeled "the enemy".
How many times do we see on the Oprah show, a married guy that went to a local bar, had an opportunity to cheat on his wife with three strippers and, declined.
How many times do we celebrate a single father who refused to send his child to day care so that he could spend real quality time with his offspring, teaching 'em and honestly caring about them?
How many times do we stop a vehicle on the road to thank them for handing that homeless guy on the side of the road at the previous intersection some money?
If you're looking for good people and can't find them, you're probably not looking very hard.
If you're looking for bad people and they're everywhere, well you're probs looking too hard.
If you think you know a good person, explain how you measured and display your proof.
Explain how you've witnessed this person doing good things when given an opportunity to do bad when no one's watching. Or how you know that when they dream at night, it's not about having sex with others or fighting someone.
There's an expression that describes not judging someone until walking a mile in their shoes.
But I think in order to truly "judge" in the fullest sense of the word, we have to walk every mile in their shoes.
We can't live without others in our lives, those couch potatoes trying to live through social medias are not really, sadly, living.
We can't live without fire and we'll never take away it's ability to burn us.
The best we can ever really do is try to maintain a positive perspective, try to be understanding and sympathetic to others.
And enjoy some warmth before the burning.
No comments:
Post a Comment