Awhile ago I made mention of the philosopher Sartre and his philosophy that people make other people miserable. At a point I nearly agreed, but as of right now I must say that I completely disagree. Write me up for arguing with a renowned mind, but it's not to say that I don't appreciate that he said what he said. In fact, I appreciate it very much.
The world is full of people, and we do many different things. One nature of humans is to try and categorize things. This has led us to racial and ethnic lines that divide people and even pit them against each other, obviously not the best choice, and so we're trying now to erase those lines and refer to everyone as just people. As horrific as it might sound, I believe that is a terrible idea. Everyone in the world is a different person, and so the dividing lines shouldn't be drawn by race/ethnicity/gender/etc. but rather everyone should be considered their own distinct individual. That, in my opinion, is what has made the world so magnificent. WE'RE ALL DIFFERENT! Isn't that just amazing?
In the entire worth, while many of us may and can be similar in many ways, we are different and distinct individuals. I love being able to interact with so many people and knowing that each one has some sort of new insight to offer. As such you get to expand your horizons each time you listen to people. My dream is to expand my horizons as far as I possibly can. I may not believe the same way as others, and I may not sway my mind to fully accept other ideas, but to know them is a pleasure for me. There is, however, one problem. The ideas of the world seem to accept one ideal individual, and so many people try and become that ideal individual rather than staying true to themselves.
There's a reason this is problematic, ideal individuals do nothing for society. Perfect individuals do nothing for society. I'm going to try and utilize this in as respectful of a manner as I can, but there was one perfect individual upon the earth, and, well, society crucified him. He was a man that was perfect and sought to perfect others as well, but when one man rises above society in such a way, even his presence can be taken as condemnation by them and when people don't like something, they seek to remove it from their lives. When a society doesn't like something, they seek to destroy it.
When we try to perfect ourselves, that's a great notion, but the better one would be individuals seeking to perfect society. For this to ever happen, we need to be more open to every single ideal and consider every possibility in order to know what will work and what will not. It's not fair for me to say that people should actively be seeking out other views like me, but what can it hurt? You're not being asked to change your ideas, just to learn the ideas of others so that you can interact with them. I think a place where people did this, actively sought to understand and accept one another in spite of their differences, that would be the ideal society. A perfect society it may not be, but it would certainly be better than the one that we are in now.
On to the point, Sartre, you were a great mind but I must disagree. You were right when you said that people need people, and I firmly believe that, but to say that people make people miserable is a grave mistake. It is true that some people are unable to maintain control of their own actions or lack conscience and therefore do harm others, but misery and happiness are two things that do not coincide, not at the same time. When we're miserable it eats away all happiness, and when we're happy it ebbs the misery away. Therefore, you cannot declare people make other people miserable without also acknowledging to great extent that people therefore make other people happy. Opposites exist hand in hand, and I must say that there is no substance in this world that has been able to make me happier than my fellow human beings.
That's my philosophy.
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