http://news.distractify.com/people/complex-humans/?v=1
I was looking through the photo's in the link above and found myself wondering how much of who we are and what we have done is truly good and beautiful and how much is abusive and evil.
There are moments in which we show what kind of compassion and love we are capable of, but if look at the people and world as we live now, the "bad" outweighs the "good".
We try not to see it, we try not to pay too much attention, but most people are simply nasty and cruel. We put on good faces and everything is shiny and happy around other people to keep up appearances, but when we retreat to the safety of our comfort zones our true nature starts to show. We gossip, shout, blame, judge, humiliate, manipulate, compare, lie, cheat, steal, hit, kick, belittle, deny, spite and display all sorts of other vicious behaviours. The reality is that it is very rare to meet a person who has never had a nasty or spiteful thought - and that is truly a depressing reality. The worst part is that that's not even the most depressing reality on this planet - not even close.
So many of us try so hard to not know the worst parts of ourselves and each other. We lull ourselves into a complacent and ignorant sleep where we block out any knowledge that is contrary to our belief that life is good. It is entirely possible that we know - deep within ourselves - that if we knew about the dark and horrible things that go bump in our minds and in the world that we would feel compelled to act. Or maybe we fear losing our sense of "happiness", because knowing what is really happening would cause such a bottomless pit of despair within us that we could never feel happiness again.
How often do you meet someone who says "Oh no stop! Don't tell me anymore - I don't want to know!" when you tell them of some horrific story of human cruelty? Or someone who tells you to stop sharing "depressing things" on Facebook. How about someone who tells you that spreading awareness of atrocities will cause more atrocities to happen because you are focusing on the negative when you should rather be focusing on the positive? Hah. Good one. 'Cos thinking about love and happiness will stop cruelty and starvation on the other side of the world.
If only it was so easy to change the world, to change human nature. Deluding ourselves will not make any real difference to the world - it will only make a difference to our apparent experience of life. We will be able to live in a big house with a white picket fence and say that "life is good" - and maybe it is for some - but in truth I doubt that. There is no way that you can say that life is good when there is so much going on - that and I don't meet very many people with the kind of skills it would take to truly live a life without worries or emotional baggage - we're not taught how to do that in school or college.
There was one photo called "100,000 monks praying for world peace". I think that enough time has passed to prove that prayer is ineffective. I see no peace anywhere.
The real question is: Who are we really? If we were to be the people we really want to be, would the world be different? If we knew how to stop thinking and doing such nastiness, would we actually do it? Now I am not posing whether it is possible - because it is possible - the real question is whether we would actually go through with changing ourselves into better, kinder people?
I was looking through the photo's in the link above and found myself wondering how much of who we are and what we have done is truly good and beautiful and how much is abusive and evil.There are moments in which we show what kind of compassion and love we are capable of, but if look at the people and world as we live now, the "bad" outweighs the "good".
We try not to see it, we try not to pay too much attention, but most people are simply nasty and cruel. We put on good faces and everything is shiny and happy around other people to keep up appearances, but when we retreat to the safety of our comfort zones our true nature starts to show. We gossip, shout, blame, judge, humiliate, manipulate, compare, lie, cheat, steal, hit, kick, belittle, deny, spite and display all sorts of other vicious behaviours. The reality is that it is very rare to meet a person who has never had a nasty or spiteful thought - and that is truly a depressing reality. The worst part is that that's not even the most depressing reality on this planet - not even close.
So many of us try so hard to not know the worst parts of ourselves and each other. We lull ourselves into a complacent and ignorant sleep where we block out any knowledge that is contrary to our belief that life is good. It is entirely possible that we know - deep within ourselves - that if we knew about the dark and horrible things that go bump in our minds and in the world that we would feel compelled to act. Or maybe we fear losing our sense of "happiness", because knowing what is really happening would cause such a bottomless pit of despair within us that we could never feel happiness again.
How often do you meet someone who says "Oh no stop! Don't tell me anymore - I don't want to know!" when you tell them of some horrific story of human cruelty? Or someone who tells you to stop sharing "depressing things" on Facebook. How about someone who tells you that spreading awareness of atrocities will cause more atrocities to happen because you are focusing on the negative when you should rather be focusing on the positive? Hah. Good one. 'Cos thinking about love and happiness will stop cruelty and starvation on the other side of the world.
If only it was so easy to change the world, to change human nature. Deluding ourselves will not make any real difference to the world - it will only make a difference to our apparent experience of life. We will be able to live in a big house with a white picket fence and say that "life is good" - and maybe it is for some - but in truth I doubt that. There is no way that you can say that life is good when there is so much going on - that and I don't meet very many people with the kind of skills it would take to truly live a life without worries or emotional baggage - we're not taught how to do that in school or college.
There was one photo called "100,000 monks praying for world peace". I think that enough time has passed to prove that prayer is ineffective. I see no peace anywhere.
The real question is: Who are we really? If we were to be the people we really want to be, would the world be different? If we knew how to stop thinking and doing such nastiness, would we actually do it? Now I am not posing whether it is possible - because it is possible - the real question is whether we would actually go through with changing ourselves into better, kinder people?
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