Julius_Van_Der_Beak
White Raven
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 20,183
- MBTI Type
- INTP
- Enneagram
- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/so
First, other than Beau, what do you suggest I should read, write or listen to?Us implies the communal existence with other humans. No man is an island. No Island is an island either, everything is connected to everything else.
I'm afraid of people. Why shouldn't I be? I think people don't learn from history, because they always think they are "exceptional" in some way and have special norms that mean bad things can't happen. This is a fiction to make people feel better about themselves; it has nothing to do with reality. Any country can become tyrannical and any country can become genocidal, given the right circumstances. I already know that the average American would do nothing in the face of injustice, which means they are exactly the same as the average German in the 30s and 40s. If Trump put Mexicans into concentration camps, most Americans wouldn't care.
I am not afraid of people to the extent of cutting off all contact with them. I make friendships (if only a few). I hold the elevator door open for people. Someone taught me once that sometimes it's a good idea to give other people a chance, and they were right. This has made me more willing to reach out to others. I have learned that perhaps things could be different, and I have appreciated the lesson.
This suggests a loophole here. Yes, people are terrible. Yes, society is terrible. But maybe it doesn't have to be. Maybe we actually could become better. The challenge is that most people are intransigent with regards to thinking about these issues, and this is where I get stuck. People prefer to keep things as they are as long as they still have the have freedom to drink a liter of Sprite every day. This is not just Republicans, many Democrats are like this as well.