The Real
Cause Of The Breakdown Of Society???
By Dorraine
Fisher
I’ve stopped discussing
politics, religion, and social problems in mixed company because I
learned something very important. And you don’t have to agree with
this. You can take it for what it’s worth.
I’m really disappointed
in the disagreements between social, political, and religious
factions of this country. Everyone is so focused on those
disagreements that they don’t even bother to take a look at that
person on the other side with whom they disagree. It may sound
cheesy, but believe it or not, that person is a living, breathing
human being with thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and a contribution
to make to society as a whole.
Everyone talks about the
good of humanity and helping people but no one really means it if
they reduce other human beings on the other side of the argument to a
set of beliefs they don’t agree with. They assume they know
everything about them, they dehumanize them and reduce them to
something evil. And that makes them think it’s okay to persecute
them…or worse. This is a very dangerous, slippery slope that has
historically led to the extermination of certain groups of humans.
Because the humanity of those people gets lost in the negativity of
arguments that no one will ever really win. An argument that has
least two viable perspectives that everyone involved doesn’t bother
to look for.
We all agree the world is
being destroyed. But it’s not being destroyed by Republicans or
Democrats, blacks, whites, religious, or atheists. It’s being
destroyed by the belief that those people over there are the ones
that are destroying it. It’s being destroyed by the disagreements
themselves. And it’s being destroyed by groups of people convincing
themselves that they’re better than the others, or more right than
others. It’s being destroyed by every one of us in our arrogance.
Yes, I’m talking about me…and you.
If we all spent just a
fraction of our time today trying to understand others and why they
think the way they do, rather than reducing them to sub-humans
because they don’t see things the way we do, the world would turn
into a better place by tonight. But no. We’re too busy judging
them and standing up on our pedestals with our self-righteous chests
puffed out to take the time to bother with anything like that. And
at the same time, we’ll claim that we care about all humanity. When
really, all we care about is being right and being superior.
And it’s hard not to be
negative about this. I don’t look for any of it to change anytime
soon. It’s hard for us humans to change our minds. If we accept a
new thought or idea, we’d have to admit we were wrong before. And
we just can’t do that, because if we were wrong about this, we
might be wrong about a whole lot of other things too. And we just
can’t face that. Because being wrong is the worst thing in the
world. Right?
Wrong. The strongest,
wisest people are the ones who can suddenly one day have an epiphany
and change their world view. They try the hardest to
understand…rather than jumping to conclusions and assuming to
completely understand the hearts and minds of those on the opposing
side before they’ve even spoken to each other.
So understand this: If we
allow our beliefs, perceptions, and ideas to override love,
compassion, and understanding, then it’s already the end of the
world as we know it. We’ve ALL already lost.
Real compassion is sometimes about doing everything in our power to
understand those with whom we disagree the most.
Because once we do that,
we always find common ground and the argument is over. We find we
agree on a lot of things. Things that we would never have known about
each other if we hadn’t taken a long look and really seen them:
Good things.
Nothing is black and
white. There is so much gray area. Every subject of every argument is
far more complex than we care to admit. There isn’t always just one
right answer. So understanding the other side completely is the only
way to really solve any problem. This is the world we’ve created
and we all have free will. We can keep destroying it with our
arbitrary beliefs and opinions or we can turn the page and really
make an honest effort to understand.
It’s up to all of us.
*******DF
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