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MY DIATRIBE
(and I DO have one!)
At first there was light...
and then man was born...
and he brought darkness unto the world.
Having
studied various religions, and having been a student of human behavior
over the course of a number of years, I have come to some unalterable
conclusions. People aspire to "godhead" or a facsimile of such.
They wish to be "good" and "pure", they want to be
considered "kind" and "tolerant" and "just"
and "righteous"; or rather, they want to be PERCEIVED as such.
As demonstrated by action it seems apparent that what they really want is
to be able to think and behave any way that suits them, while also being
able to portray an "acceptable" image. People choose to embrace
a "religion" for various reasons; faith, acceptance, to "fit
in", to acquire guidance and a framework of belief by which to live
their lives, to reassure themselves of meaning, to protect themselves "beyond
the veil". In the practice of their own religion, however, people far
too often lose sight of the precepts on which the religion is based. The
deepest foundation of EVERY major world religion, is tolerance and love.
Human nature makes these concepts very difficult to internalize.
As a species, we are insecure and combative. In ancient times, physical
threats were very real to us, and we responded in kind. In today's "enlightened"
society, the threats we most often encounter are psychological. They wound
our egos, play upon our insecurities. When we lash out, we are not
defending ourselves, but rather, we are protecting our own ability to
ignore that which is inside of us, the parts of ourselves we wish NOT to
look at. An insult cast our way has power, only
because our own internal insecurities allow it to hurt. To
respond to insults, or imagined hurts, is to tell others that there must
be some basis in the insult; and it is a refusal to acknowledge our own
strength, our own steadfastness in our own feelings, thoughts, beliefs. It
is a retreat to an ancient "knee-jerk" reaction which has no
place in a society which wishes to move ahead, and become more than we
have ever been. Negative emotions build upon themselves and feed,
producing a ripple effect; birthing more negative emotion until the
positive is strangled and diminishes. The end result is bitterness,
regret, hatred, jealousy; emotions which we allow ourselves to wallow in
at the loss of all things good and joyous. We find ourselves in a cage of
our own making; unable to escape the negativity and mourning the loss of "happiness".
The adage of "there is power in numbers" commands us to bring
others into our own internal battles. An insult loses power when we bring
others to "our side". When they stand beside us and declare as
loudly as ourselves "That person is bad! They are wrong!" it
validates our own denial, gives us the imagined strength to defend
ourselves. When, in truth, it merely spreads the negativity a little
further, allows it to gain a stronghold in the heart of some innocent
bystander; we have succeeded in leeching the negativity further, in
spreading the poison beyond ourselves now. Is this our intent? Is this the
basis of our lives? I am reminded of childhood
playgrounds, where, when one child points a finger, many point as well. If
they point to someone else, then the focus no longer falls on them.
Whereas, if one child stepped forward and said "It was me, I did it.",
then the consequences would be less severe and it would all soon pass out
of memory, having caused no additional harm, no added injury.
If we are to progress as a species, if we are to truly embrace our
individual religions and belief systems, then it is up to
US to LIVE
them. The philosophy of "Do as I say, not as I do." is not
sufficient. By example, we demonstrate ourselves and what we believe in.
When we hurt others as a response to feeling hurt ourselves, as
humans, it is our responsibility to examine our motives. If we look deep
enough, we will most often realize that the words of others hurt us only
because we allow them to, because maybe, just maybe, we believe them. It
is our responsibility to propagate the good in this world, not regurgitate
the bad. Words are merely sounds we make, actions are our life.
Before the response begins, before
the counter-attack, before the hypocrisy of perpetuating the negativity we
so loudly condemn in others takes place... let us ask ourselves... "Does
this matter? Do I believe this person? Do I have the right to inflict this
negativity on everybody around me?".... Then turn the other cheek,
and walk away.
...and in this way we grow and demonstrate the face we wish to have and
become that which we want to be.
"We have, in fact, two kinds of morality
side by side; one which we preach but do not practise, and another which
we practise but seldom preach." --Bertrand
Russell