Perspective
So many people trying to figure out what the right vs wrong thing to say is, who the correct person to vote in, whose rights they should stand up for. So caught up in playing this game that they have completely lost sight in who they really are and what they truly believe in…but can you blame them?
Many just don’t know what to do anymore. They don’t want to pick a side because they see the negatives to all sides, so they try to stay neutral and choose to say nothing, but that in itself can be mistaken as a statement and demonized. Too many assumptions, no one speaking truth and nothing but games being played. We live in a world full of smoke and mirrors where true motives and intentions are hidden behind the veil.
The truth of the matter is that the majority of people can and do find a balance and a compromise with one another, even if that is as simple as, “I don’t believe what you do but I respect and value your rights to have your own beliefs. Unfortunately, we are forced onto warring sides, “You’re either with us or against us”, and have lost the ability to have respectful debates. We are going down a slippery slope to enslavement of all our freedoms.
We live in a world where something can be taken completely out of context, even worse if it was ages ago, and then shine a condemning spotlight on it to align with a cause. Ironically, we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions.
The thing with freedom is that in order for us to be free to think, speak, support and practice our own beliefs we also must allow others to do the same, even if they contradict our own. Would we really want it any other way? Would we really want to live in a world where everyone looks, acts, believes in and behaves the exact same way as we do?
Why do we think that our side is the “right” side? Our country is the right country, our president, our religion, our gender, our belief system, etc. Do we not understand that everyone else looks at their views being just as valid, justified, important and “right” as our own? How many people throughout history do you honestly think looked at themselves and their actions as evil or wrong? And what makes us believe that we get to decide which is which? The majority of the time we justify our stances and behaviors with our own rationalizations. Believing that our side is the only legitimate and just one has led to a multitude of issues throughout humanity; religion, politics, gender, race and just about everything else.
It is all too easy to demonize someone or something when you have never been in their shoes or experienced those situations, on every side of the coin.
As Denzel said, “We are either uninformed or misinformed”, and it only seems to be getting worse. We are bombarded 24/7 with a constant stream of information, the majority of which is bought and paid for so how are you ever supposed to take anything as factual? Skewed perspectives in politics, laws, the medical industry, nutrition, education, and keep going down the list.
As in so many facets of this life, we need to take, and seek out, the information that we can, on all sides, and come to our own conclusions. To think freely and rationally but unfortunately if you do so you tend to be demonized, unless you are on the “right” side. Anyone who questions the narrative is typically looked down upon, shamed, canceled, criminalized and sometimes even killed.
When did we lose the ability to question and debate what we are told? When did we stop discussing things and understanding that other opinions are important and valid? They will either solidify our prior beliefs or give us a different perspective and possibly change our minds.
Instead, we now have people playing characters in a game. Saying and doing things not because they truly believe in them, but because it is what the popular opinion at the time says they are supposed to. We would rather have comfortable lies than brunt truth.
It is so important to; at the very least occasionally question our own beliefs and perspectives. How do we even know what it is that we truly believe in if we never look at what it actually is with an unbiased lense? So many of us just fall in line with what we are told, what we are brought up to believe in and never question it, and if anyone ever does then they must be the enemy. It can be uncomfortable and painful to have the things that you were brought up and lead to believe in questioned, but there can be no change or progression without discomfort.
Regardless of what it is or where it came from, everything has been handed down by human beings, and human beings are flawed, every last one of us is. We make mistakes, either intentionally or accidental, we have ulterior motives and skewed perspectives, and not only that, times change. What is right today was thought of as wrong and illegal not so long ago.
The view of the world is ever changing; some for the better and some for the worse, but change is the one thing that you can be certain of, regardless of how slow. Letting another have their own beliefs does not mean that it takes away yours. Someone else’s rights do not discount our own. If more of us stood up for each other from the beginning, as we should have, so many of these issues would not even be here today.
So before you jump to a conclusion and align with a side, take a step back. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes, think about these situations happening to you or someone that you love and care for. At the very least, it should give you a more balanced perspective on most situations.
Love, compassion and understanding will free us all.
“Don’t just teach your children to read…teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.”-George Carlin
-The end