oops we're screwed...
I really don’t like thinking about philosophical topics, like love, where we come from, why we’re here… because my mind is full of things and when one of those topics gets in (which according to many sources happens to all of us from time to time), it spins around and around and adds more things and changes its mind… and in the end… I don’t end up anywhere.
But this January has been, I think, different and I couldn’t avoid thinking about human stupidity… (among the philosophical topics I don’t like, that’s one of my favorites).
Among some of the events that happened during my philosophical month are:
- I started reading a book about the great things we’ve done, the brilliant and the terrifying (and I still see examples of the latter every day).
- Someone yelled at me in a really mean way, said things I didn’t want to hear… but it was all because of an innocent mistake…
- I got really angry this month, I’ve been a little unbearable, it must be the stress. :P
So I was out there thinking, why is it that if we’ve done things that seem so intelligent, we still keep doing such stupid things? Why did they yell at me in such a mean way? What do I do about my screw-up? I didn’t mean to say what they understood and after clarifying everything, I still felt bad. Why does this happen? Why doesn’t it do that? Why am I angry?
And in the end, as always… I arrived at the same unscientific answer but one that serves to resign myself… every head is a world… each one has a crystal mirror where they see the world in a different way, in a unique way, the mirrors are not interchangeable, perhaps adjustable but not interchangeable… and well, I came to the conclusion that we’re screwed.
We’re never going to be fully aware of our mistakes, no matter how hard we try we’re going to mess up, because many of our horrible faults aren’t even faults to us, to us they’re perfectly fine, but to the people next to us it’s a mistake, huge, senseless, just like when we point out a mistake, the perpetrator often didn’t even realize they screwed up…
How do we avoid making mistakes if we don’t realize when we make them? How can we not hurt others if we don’t know it hurts? How can we fix a world that’s different for everyone?
I’m aware that I didn’t discover hot water, for many my monthly dissertation will be obvious… but for me it’s a conclusion that took time to understand… and in the end the benefit is that before I start screaming and turning green with anger, it’s best to breathe… think and politely request an explanation… with the hope that I too will be able to explain my madness.
Drawing by: http://www.marktoon.co.uk/scrapbook.htm