I wonder: how do people see other humans aside from themselves? I can tell you what I see, but I tend to find myself wondering how others see things. Well, you’re here, so I figure you’d like to read more on how I see other people.
If not, don’t worry, there’s probably a joke in here somewhere to lighten things up, or make it all worth reading.
Probably.
Simply put, I see human beings as piecemeal creatures. We’re made up of so many elements, there are so many facets, that calling a person one specific thing, trying to define them as right, wrong, good, bad, just becomes a lazy form of pigeonholing.
Granted, there are times when you can say someone follows their worse impulses more than their better impulses (and vice versa), but I don’t see people as all good or all bad. While I would agree with some religions that we’re all flawed in some way, that doesn’t make us inherently bad. It is our flaws that help us come to grips with our existence, our humanity. Our flaws make us human more than any other attribute we have.
It doesn’t excuse a person from harm they cause another. I get just as upset when I read about murder, rape, and other forms of exploitation and harm brought against humans (and other animals, too). It’s just I can’t say “that person is completely evil,” because I think the vast, VAST majority of people are not evil, or even bad. They’re just flawed. Sometimes deeply, but flawed.
It’s why I believe almost every human being is redeemable. A person can do something bad, and make recompense. A human being can do terrible things, and be “salvaged,” and from that point forward do what’s right by others to repair the damage they caused.
The human brain is a collection of thoughts and impulses, conflicting with one another for dominance. Sometimes one gets through, and it results in a good outcome. There are other times where a bad outcome is achieved. What makes up a person’s heart is also in their brain. I don’t mean the physical heart, but the emotional one, the heart that guides our ethics. That, too, is a part of the brain, and so there are times when intellect and emotion clash, and the brain has to choose what it believes to be the right path to take.
So I just don’t really get scandalized when bad things happen, because the more I learn about people, the more I realize we truly are just fucking lost in this lightly held concept of civilization. We make these rules, normalize them, and then condemn people whose brains haven’t quite caught up to how the whole thing is supposed to work.
In an ideal world, human beings would know their hearts and minds fully, without conflict or uncertainty, but we don’t. We live in a world where we are constantly at war with ourselves, trying to find the best way around in what must be like a maze for our minds to work through. This is okay? This isn’t? Why not? How does “because” become a valid reason to change the rules?
It can be confusing. If we lived in a better world, though not ideal, we would at least have a way to help those brains figure things out without condemning them, or destroying their lives. Of course, we don’t live in that either, so people who need help don’t get it, they get laughed at, hated, imprisoned, shunned, so many things that only make their confusion worse. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are no monsters.
We’re all half-blind. All of us, including the ones who claim to see the truth. You’re half-blind, I’m half-blind, everyone is. All I can do, just as all you can do, is to try your damnedest to figure out the best way to keep yourself on both feet, and help the person next to you stay on theirs with what limited perception you have. It’s really all we can do, which is why working together makes it a little easier. When someone has your back, you’re not quite as afraid to fall.
Perhaps there will come a day when we will see everything around us with perfect clarity, but that would require unified hearts and minds that go beyond our own selves. I don’t think humanity can pull it off just yet, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. These piecemeal brains will come together some day, and I just hope it’s soon.
Remember, I love you. You are loved.