Shades of Greyish-Bluish-Orange.

The problem with people is that they think that they’re right. Every person thinks that they are right. If they think something, they think that what they think is right. I can not begin to fathom all the possible reasons why this is so fucking terrible.

First of all, there is the illusion of right vs. wrong. “If it isn’t right, it’s wrong.” Considering how people think, it pretty accurately translates to “If you don’t agree with me, you’re mistaken.” The justice system tries to alleviate this with an ‘innocent until proven guilty doctrine’, but unfortunately not everything goes to the judicial system. There is no organized system to deal with conflicts within a friendship, a relationship and most importantly, as far as it comes to the development of who you are, the household. There is only ‘the rules’. Unfortunately for those that believe in the fundamentals of respect for one-another and fair play, be it in sport or in decisions, in debate and in argument, ‘the rules’ are designed and enforced by people with power over you. They feed you and they clothe you. They put a shelter over your head. They pick you up when your car breaks down. For all the beautiful, generous and genuinely noble gifts they give you I hate to see them turn out so ugly on the fundamental level of morals and open-mindedness. It is as though they believe that because they have lived for a meager 20 years longer than you in a world that’s over 6 billion years old that they ‘know’ what’s right and that they ‘aren’t to be argued with’. It is exactly that ignorance which fuels my hatred for the smug. There is arrogance and there is ignorance. They go hand in hand. An arrogant motherfucker is an ignorant motherfucker, no matter how you slice the cake.

I have a very good way of missing my points. Hear this;

ig·no·rance

–noun

the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

A person who is ignorant is a person who is uninterested in learning things they do not know. Things that may prove that they are mistaken. If a person is truly uninterested in learning then I can honestly say that I have absolutely no respect for them, nor their opinions. Unfortunately it seems that the conviction a person has to their opinion correlates directly with how fucking ignorant they are. They argue, and they argue and they won’t shut up. They won’t hear you, because you aren’t speaking what they want you to hear and they won’t adapt their way of thinking to interact with your own. I can not stand to talk with ignorant people.

Status. People think because of where they are they’re better than you and therefore their opinions counts for more.

Religion. People think they’re right, so they prove it by slaughtering billions of people in the name of their God and raping young boys. Then, because they’re right they don’t go to jail for it.

People are allowed to have opinions. We wouldn’t be people without them, but I implore you, all the idiots out there ‘keepin’ it real’, please, please think about the things other people express to you. There is an incredible amount of information we can learn from others. The people around you every day that you don’t pull anything from. They are full of volumes of information which is all so very different from your own.

Do you know what the underground railroad was? Yes? Ask someone what they think the underground railroad was. Chances are their opinion about it is very similar to your own. Or maybe it’s different. Maybe you feel exactly the same about it. That’s great. Now ask them what fascism is. Euthanasia? Aids? The culling of the weak, Afghanistan, modern medicine. All of these things receive mixed opinions. From as simple and small as who ‘should have won’ American Idol (shudder), to something as big as God, the Universe and the question ‘Why’. Why can’t people talk about these things without being defensive? Why can’t people debate more? Why can’t people let other people’s opinions into their thick skulls? People on the whole would be less ignorant, more apt to change and adapt and more at peace with themselves. You want to feel tranquility? Try being humble. Realize that there are hundreds of thousands of people with opinions that vary from your own all around the world and they have just as much stake at ‘being right’ as you do. You’re not special or stronger or less likely to get upset because of your strong-as-steel beliefs, you’re a tortoise, flipped on it’s back, content to pull itself inwards and claim there’s no world but it’s own shell. A big, stupid tortoise. So shut your big mouth and humble.

I know that people can have debates about democracy and abortion and pre-marital sex and be open-minded enough to consider the other person’s thoughts. That’s great. But that’s not enough. People need to take that understanding, that intelligence, that humble respect for your peers, and bring it to the places that mean the most to them. If something happens between you and your best friends that’s none-too-pleasant then talk to them. Talk to them without attitude, without aggression and without pre-conceived notions of right and wrong. Talk to them with your mind, not your heart. The heart is a strong muscle, not an understanding, thinking machine. If we are all as evolved as we think we are we should be able to put our emotions aside and talk like adults about everything, regardless of whether it’s really awkward or just plain silly.

Let me wrap this up with a solid, simple point.

We all need to be very self-aware of the attitudes we extend to others and the mental restrictions our thoughts put on ourselves.

We, as a new generation of people, smart people, need to figure it out for ourselves.

The only way any of us are ever going to be happy and at peace with ourselves is through our interactions with others.

Imagine a world where you don’t have to defend your opinion against others, because we’re all in this together, learning new things from the experiences of one-another. Imagine not having arguments with yelling and threats and insults. Instead of all that negative and painful energy being thrown around there is calm, there is information and there is a general ease in your heart. That is what we as a people need to accomplish, and I feel that the best tools we have for that is open-mindedness, respect for one-another, patience and above all a humble sense of being.