Growing up and seeing different social, political and geographical environments, never mind travelling all over, have been a great learning experience. For a young boy the world can be a huge adventure waiting for him to conquer it.
In my case I grew a certain moral aptitude and ineptness at the same time. Maybe it’s a normal thing with youth to feel superior to the foolish older generation, whom I felt were responsible for all the wrongs not yet resolved. Which, much to my surprise, few really seemed to care about. Maybe because they appeared stagnated due to no longer reaching to right the world, or whatnot. For me that brought the urge to go out and face the unknown and improve conditions.
Time does offer the opportunity to see the errors of ones way, if one is willing to look, and see the steadfast viewpoint which in the long run turned out not to be pro-survival. And if one, like me, had grown up with the certainty that I was mostly right in my decisions, I could easily afford seeing when I was wrong and adopt a new view.
In my mind the greatest lesson have been realizing that we are all here together on this small planet and most of us want to do right but sometimes lack the proper know how. We all have, at least at some point, dreams we wish to fulfill. One of them is to right the wrongs in the world.
The methods of how to go about righting the wrongs of the world varies drastically. For some individuals it means ample use of force. As in genocide, or just making others know how powerful you are by placing as many barriers for others as is possible.
For some it means suppressing the views of others as they might bring change, not caring what change it is, just to ensure no change is approaching. The fear of facing the unknown is just too much in a world where you are mostly a victim.
Regardless of what we dream of, big or small, we have this dream of pursuing what makes us happy. It just should not be at the expense of others. Yet how do we accomplish our goals in a world where others dream of the opposite?
I found some basic ideas that serve me well:
- Do not create an effect on others that you are not willing to experience yourself
- Take actions that help as many as possible and hurt as few as possible
- Consider the effects of your action into the future
- Be responsible for your immediate environment, which is limited to what you feel is Your environment
The latter part about responsibility I know is a no-no. The R word is a huge mistake and should be removed. But the fact of the matter is that one is actually only as successful as one assumes responsibility. And the success only lasts as long as it is helping as many as possible and hurt as few as possible.
Responsibility means that one does not wait for that unknown person to set things right, one does it simply because one knows about it, or suspects it and investigates and acts accordingly.
There seldom is someone else who will correct the thing you see wrong in life. If I’ve learned one thing in life that is that most wrong things are wrong because of that assumption. Oh, I know! It’s not always pleasant, in fact it can be a huge interruption to your lifestyle!
But that’s no valid excuse to let things stay wrong! Get off your butt and do something about it!
Oh, once you start putting in order in your environment the first thing that will happen is that all those things which run counter to your order will make themselves known. Screaming and crying, those who oppose order will complain. Often loudly!
That then is a good sign that you are putting in order. Because if there is no noise after a while, you are not putting in much order.
Whatever you do, don’t stop, simply continue putting in order and sooner or later you will see how things calm down.
When you put in that order make sure you consider what is helping as many as possible and stopping as few as possible.
The best decisions comes from a mind that is at great peace. One filled with compassion for his fellow man. A man at war is not compassionate, or he’s a fool thinking that violence solves anything. It never has. Education is the greatest tool ever to walk this earth. Always be of a mindset to learn every day. Allocate time to learn about your fellow man. Discover the real why someone is fiercely disagreeing or opposes you.
In all of that discover who you really are and be true to yourself, and you will find that personal freedom and happiness is possible.
