"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people." - Carl Jung
I must say, it is indeed interesting to see the way that we interact as human beings. For as long as I can remember, and as far back as I have been able to study, there has been no greater joy to most than to seek out the "best and brightest" aspects of those we admire. I personally believe we should opt for the alternative. I think that by investigating the darker aspects of ourselves and those before us, we can start to really understand conscious motive...then by understanding motive, we can divine willful intent...and from intent, we can begin to understand singular and/or group actions. Regardless of those actions and regardless of said committers, I believe we must take responsibility for their misdoings alongside their achievements.
Far too often we hold our heads up in some entitled fashion over some achievement we had nothing to do with. "We kicked so and so's ass in this war or that" and "I'm American, we invented freedom!" are all but played out. How much more would be learned by a people bearing the responsibility of their predecessors' failures as well? What if instead we thought, "I can support those who have acted out of righteousness to protect their homes, but I am uneasy about conflicts of interest that destroy other cultures as a result"? What if we thought, "THEY didn't do anything...WE did this...I did this...and it is my duty to understand so that I am not doomed to make the same mistakes against my fellow man and universe?" It is a downright shame that even our education system is being methodically filtered to not include histories of the Holocaust, religion, slavery, evolution etc. Minimalizing these topics in youth education is not good for anyone past or present. It only breeds future generations of people ignorant of how they came to be where they are...what they choose to keep in mind as they mature is up to them, but not being informed is not their fault; it is ours.
This is not meant to be a stab at the military, department of education, or reference to Original Sin etc; though it could be taken that way. The sad part about the teachings of Original Sin though, for instance, is there is such a divide in how the spiritual leaders preaching about that lesson are likely doing so along my current train of thought, and not one of damnation or turning a blind eye...We just don't have the humility to actually hear it.
I do not believe that everything happens for a reason, but I do believe that some things may. Nor do I believe in a God per se, but I do believe in a collective existence that has spawned this temporary life we cling so dearly to. One should never be so vain as to believe that he knows more than the rest of the world, but I will go as far as to challenge us as a species...to be like the great philosophers who came before us; not their students. A call to frown in the face of convention, not in disgust, but as a prompt to inspire higher orders of thought. To risk being a black sheep so that one might understand what it feels like to not belong. Then, and only then, do I think we will be able to gain the perspective needed to usher in an era of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. Thus far, our effort has been but a drip from the metaphorical Aquarian vase...much less than what our prophets foretold should be happening by now.
We should be experiencing a surreal consciousness where issues are no longer "black and white or gray" because we are capable of individually experiencing what it is like to view life from every perspective...not just our own blinders of bias. Even this new testament prophecy tells us that while entering into this new city [age] we should follow [learn] from the strangers of which we have no investment. That is a world in which I could be proud to say I am a part. As it stands, I refuse to sit complacently by with my head down claiming everything is how it should be. Our collective mentality is a far cry from where it should be with our current "I'm on the winning team, so I'm telling everyone to join" thought process. Our planet...our bodies...and our souls are dying...and I refuse to accept it.
I often have these thoughts in a seemingly eternal loop playing in my head..."Why are WE this way? So unaware of our shortcomings in relation to our spiritual capacities to learn, to love and to understand?" I have to catch myself in the midst of normalcy blaming you, they or them. The real problem is that I am flawed and am but on the intentional hike up the metaphorical mountain of enlightenment. I can see you looking down at me, just as I can paradoxically see you blazing your own path further up the very same incline. Therefore through concerted effort, we can change this mess by acknowledging that we are experiencing the same universal trek, at separate points bent in space as one in the same...I can do this because, after all, WE fulfill our purpose more and more with every conscious step behind the water-bearer. Let us follow him into that room that melts away ignorant individuality and melds us into our foretold Nirvana.
