Don’t be like that! Is that what you’re wearing? That’s not how you sit! You’re eating all that? I have no doubt in my mind that most of you have heard all of these questions and you can even give me more examples. You and I all know that if I continued this list, it would roll down infinitely like a comedic scroll sequence in a cartoon. If this hits home and I unsettled you, my apologies, but I need all of your minds and eyes wired on this piece of writing as it may shine a new light on how some aspects of society should shift or radically change for us to live in a better world.
The potter wheel of our past
According to Aristotle, the essence of humanity comes from our sociability, from our ability to build highly complex societies, unlike animals. During most of our history, societal norms and traditions were still clay, meant to be molded into the pots that would contain the essence of a thriving society. There were still rituals and practices performed by most people, but, in hindsight, judgement was not stricken upon those who didn’t conform or did it differently.
As time went on, our species was swallowed by greed in all of its aspects material, intellectual and emotional. Abuse of power, fear-conditioning, excessive thirst for validation, judgement, all of these turned into the scorching fire, that began, in a closed oven of oppression, to harden that flexible, free clay into something more solid, and yet more fragile and susceptible to cracks.
Swinging a hammer of aversion and hate while being in the pitch black inside of the ceramic vase, made humanity blind to the horrible consequences this action brings. Multiple societies have been engulfed in a state of tension, as some people see those cracks as beautiful decorations, a normality of the “material” societies are made of and others, illuminated by faint light rays, look closer and observe how little pieces are slowly falling off.
“New” needs a hug too!
Societal norms should be established only to maintain order, but when they are used for discrimination, authoritatively or to harm in any way a person, who wasn’t posing a danger to themselves or others, that’s when things take an ugly turn.
The emergence of technology created this illusion that humans progressed in every possible way, but in reality, emotionally, we are no different than our ancestors. We just use our hands less and “spit” more. It is said that human nature cannot be changed, yet there is one essential aspect of it we must work to reduce: our ingrained aversion from unfamiliarity, from new manifestations of our ways of living.
This avoidance makes humans seem like complicated creatures because, besides it, it is also in our nature to want to explore new or uncharted concepts more and more, which shouldn’t be seen as a personal attack, shouldn’t be ridiculed just for being different. “Beauty is the eye of the beholder” as firstly said Plato. Each of us have different perspectives, create our own truths that may not be always applicable to others.
Of course that we’ll always be entitled to our own beliefs, but the most important thing is treating the world, either good or bad, with kindness and empathy and when that little red friend on your left shoulder has an itchy mouth, give him some good old “word filter” cream.
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