Hw 52

Hw 52-
As mentioned, this assignment is ridiculously impossible. Oh well.

Since I can’t possibly address all that, I’ll just talk a little about how I feel about people in general.

This may not surprise anyone, but in general, I like people. It’s not like there’s nobody I don’t get along with, but I tend to try and see negatives as one aspect of the person and not necessarily something condemning. I try to value everyone, even when they make it particularly hard for me. I can honestly say that I appreciate and hold dear the lives of strangers, though as a human it would be denying myself to say that there aren’t those I love more. I think it is popular right now to be cynical-- if asked what they think would be the right thing to do if they saw someone being mugged, most people in our class would probably say something like “ignore it, it’s not like I know them.” They would also probably claim that that’s what they would do in that situation, even if it’s not the real answer. I honestly don’t understand the point of this. I genuinely think that the right thing to do would be to help them, and if asked what I would do I would say that I would at least try. Whether I would actually do it probably depends mainly on how much courage I can pluck up in the actual situation. Which brings me to my next point.

I think that the worst thing that someone can be is a hypocrite. Obviously, some situations make it worse than others (saying veggies are good for you and refusing to eat carrots isn’t as bad as saying god hates homosexuals on your way to meet your gay ‘escort’, for example) but as a whole, there is no greater violation of personal or pubic honesty. I can’t say I blame a person if they commit hypocrisy unknowingly, or over something they can’t control, or if they’re trying to learn something to correct it, that’s just another of the unpleasant aspects of humanity. But if someone knows that they are a complete hypocrite and takes no steps to the contrary, I personally find that infuriating.

Another thing that I tend to stay away from, as most people who know me know, is polarized opinions. I think that there is nothing to gain by excluding other’s viewpoints in almost any aspect of life. If you exclude them because they’re wrong then you should at least grant them an audience in the hopes that they’ll do you the same, and if you exclude them to preserve your own ideas, perhaps they are so easily changed because they are yet unfinished (in which case another opinion could do you good).

Unlike one of the more popular teenage philosophies, I see nothing wrong with courtesy. Blatantly speaking your mind may be a good way to get your point across, there is definitely a time and place for it, and lying to protect someone’s feelings rarely does any good, but when it comes to non-helpful thoughts like insults and general rudeness I don’t see the point of making these things known. I also don’t have a problem with doing things I don’t want to do at all because society demands it; it is part of life and there’s no way around it. Wolves get killed for eating before their turn, I see no reason to claim that societal norms aren’t a major part of any social animal’s life.