Today in this modern age, there is always a social construct that everything is simply black and white. That there is only good and bad, moral and immoral, right and wrong, thus hiding the reasoning behind every choice we are able to comprehend or decide.
In actuality, there is a major grey area that surrounds many of the choices each and every human being has to make on the daily. From the environment we grew up in, to the values instilled in the children, to even the type of news (which chooses what we should see).
There are many variables in regards to how people act or choose to react to the situations faced in everyday life. The problem we face today is the lack of understanding perspectives for individuals.
Example:
What would be your first thought if someone was robbing a bank?
Would it be “They’re thieves and should be incarcerated” or would you think, “What got them to go to that extreme?”
While it is an extreme on both parts, the grey area that lies within the action is the perspective that which you need to sit back and understand.
Would you have thought, they were in a bind and couldn’t afford to get money from anywhere else to pay off the medical bills for their child’s chemo therapy? Maybe the man was being forced by a certain group of people holding the family hostage unless he got them an insane amount of money. Maybe their business was going bankrupt and couldn’t pay off any loans borrowed for loan sharks, knowing there was nothing else left to do but the extremes.
You see, different perspectives are something that not many are willing to listen and understand because it goes against many of the things they are taught when they were young.
Sadly, the world we live in is damaged in the sense of entitlement and first world problems. In many first world countries, basic necessities such as water, food, and shelter are covered (for the most part) but as humans we are programmed to find something to complain about regardless of how little importance or values they hold. While there are major socio-political problems regarding ethnicity, gender, and assisting those in need, many try to turn the notion into a “what about me” problem or simply situating “what am I getting out of it”. Equating to how siblings act when they’re 4 years old and don’t understand the concept of birthdays. A child turns 5, gets gifts from the family, and the other sibling asks “what about me? Why don’t I get anything”. Same problem on a larger scale.
Now I do hate to rant off and go blah bla blah this and that, but the point I’m trying to make should be straight forward.
Everyone has their differences and that’s what makes you, you. The problem we need fixed is to understand the different ways of thinking and multiple perspectives of the those who think differently.
But before change can happen, ego must be pushed to the side, it’s the killer for many of today’s society. No one wants to be corrected or told they are wrong. Afraid of failure, afraid of change, afraid of damaging their ego, or afraid to be corrected and told how they were taught isn’t particularly the most inciteful way.
But I do believe we can get there one day. I believe we will come together and love one another’s differences as it should be, and move forward. It all starts with you (Yes, you the reader of this article), become the driving force that begins the domino effect of improvement and change, and bring forth the amazing possibly of what could be a better, understanding civilization.
