While this video is very satirical, it does touch on some very important subjects. There is a lot of violence in this world. There are a lot of people that are upset about the state of the world. I know I’m not the only one. I think that most people are inherently good people. The biggest conflict is that there are many different types of people who have conflicting ideas. These conflicts cause strife among people. There’s not really much that’s wrong with that. We just need to make sure that we try not to offend other people who are different from ourselves. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I believe it’s not fair to stifle someone else in favor of my own view. Like I say in my prologue insanity is a point of view not a state of mind. Now, all this said, there are people out there that are truly evil. These people have no remorse, compassion, or empathy for fellow human beings. This leads them to do evil things. The hard part is trying differentiate between a conflict of opinion, and someone who is truly out to hurt you.
Conflicts of opinion can be very stressful. It may cause an argument with a good friend or family member. This then can lead to not speaking with one another for a long while. I think the important thing to remember here is that we are all products of our own environment. The experiences we have had in our lives form us to be the people we are in the moment. Someone may have had a similar experience to one that I had, but the end result was different because of small variances in the situation. This could lead that person to have a different perspective on the overall experience. It’s important that I listen and give their point of view plenty of respect. This is a great opportunity to learn something new about the occurrence that I had not seen when I was in the same position. It is also a good opportunity to learn about my friend and provide my own perspective as constructive feedback. These kind of interactions will help me to grow and become a better person in the future. It’s important here to make sure that I respect the point of view my friend provides. I don’t necessarily have to agree, but by being compassionate toward another it will avoid a conflict that could result in negative emotions being displayed. I will refer to this as a constructive conflict. It’s kind of an oxymoron, but think about it. How many times have you encountered conflicts of opinion? How has your response to the situation affected the end result?
On the other side of this, we have differences of opinion that can have no positive outcome. To me, some people have opinions that are just wrong. There is no way for me to see that their opinion is right, and no way for me to agree, sympathize, empathize, or otherwise. What we have here is a conflict of not only opinion, but of personality as well. This means that any discussions I would have with someone like this would only lead to argument and there would never be any way to resolve that conflict constructively. These differences exist on many levels. This is not including someone who thinks that facts and science are an opinion. A blatant disregard for concrete evidence is not an opinion. For example, everyone has different interests. They also have opinions on those interests. Some of my interests include gaming, computers, tabletop gaming, programming, and learning about new technologies. Of these interests, let’s focus on Gaming. My opinion of gaming is that it is a constructive use of my own personal free time. It allows me an outlet to take out rage it is entertaining, and science has suggested that gaming does improve logical thinking and reaction time. So it is perfectly fine for me to spend my time doing this. Someone else may have a different opinion on gaming. Some may think it is a waste and is not a positive use of time. There is nothing wrong with this conflict. Both opinions on gaming are right, and neither person is wrong. However, because this is related to my interests, it becomes a big part of my personality. If I hang out with someone who has conflicting opinions on all of my interests, then there is no way that we can be compatible. If we tried, the conflict of interest would lead to conflict of opinion, arguments, or one person compromising their own self to adjust to the other person’s interests. This result is negative. Neither person is wrong, it’s just a conflict of personality. Overall, however, I think people do a good job of congregating into social groups with similar interests. So what we see more often is when people have strong opinions on one specific interest, but overall they still share very similar interests. So on an outward level they feel compatible, but as they get to know each other more, those strong opinions lead to disagreements and worse. The difficulty here is that by the time you get to the level of understanding of one another for these things to come out, you may already be good friends or even romantically entangled. If the opinions are strong enough, and neither person can compromise, then the relationship will ultimately fail.
Lastly, I want to touch on the anatomy of evil. Evil is not necessarily everything bad. There are bad things that happen where people don’t necessarily have evil intentions. True evil comes from a lack of compassion, a lack of empathy, and a selfish nature. In my honest opinion, if “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtue” — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, cited in The Advent of Divine Justice. Then dishonesty is the foundation of all that is evil. Abdu’l-Bahá also says that “all vices and misdeeds are the very antithesis of truthfulness”. What does ‘antithesis’ mean? Dictionary.com defines it as opposition, contrast, the direct opposite. Dishonesty is the direct opposite of honesty. Unfortunately I am no expert on what drives a person to become evil. I have a failure of understanding here because I am compassionate. I have empathy, and I love people and often times put others before myself. So I am incapable of understanding the truth of what it is to be evil. To me, it is best summed up by a quote from Charles Manson “If I wanted to kill somebody I’d take this book and beat you to death with it, and I wouldn’t feel a thing. It would be just like walking to the drugstore.” — (1987) Interview with MSNBC. There is no excuse for feeling this way, other than a complete lack of empathy and compassion.
~Nate
PS: I want to reiterate that this is my own personal opinion. It’s okay if you disagree wholly or in part. I encourage you to Sign Up and leave constructive comments so that we can open a positive discussion on these topics.
