i never watch the news anymore, for a whole variety of reasons, the most prominent being that i don’t want to be exposed to the barrage of negativity. but the night before last i fell asleep on the couch while i was watching something on tv, and woke up to the news of what happened in norway.
don’t get me wrong, i know when something “big” happens in the world. someone will tell me and then i choose whether to read about it or not. i usually choose not to. i made a different choice yesterday and read all about the shooting…looked at pictures and obviously, it was horrifying.
as i took in all this information, i found myself feeling like i had been sheltering myself from a truth…the truth that people are really monsters. this idea disturbed me. i am not one to hide my head in the sand. i have a positive outlook on life because it is what i truly believe, not because i am a pollyanna. i feel i have come to the conclusions i have based on facts and my experiences, which at times have not been pretty. still, the truth has remained the same for me…that people are inherently good.
but yesterday as i digested all this horror, i considered the fact that i just might be wrong about that. that, in fact, people are horrible and will do atrocious things to one another.
then i came across this picture.
this is a picture of a passerby comforting a victim of the bombing in oslo. one person comforting another. a stranger who stopped to help.
from what i read, it seems that the authorities think the bombing and the shootings were carried out by one person…just one. and i began to think about the contrast of one person, what one person can do…what one person is capable of. one person.
it might be true that one person is responsible for these horrific acts. if so, we can see that one person can kill many, many people in a short period of time. one person can hurt so many…just one person…they can cause so much pain and hurt.
but conversely, what affect does just one person have “for good”? we see one small example in the picture above of one person and what they choose to do with their power in the world…and often we don’t ever see the good that people do or the powerful effects that these acts have.
is the person who hurts more powerful then the person who helps? i would argue no. certainly violence, confusion and hatred are much louder forces, but they are temporary. compassion, understanding and love are much stronger for that is who we truly are.
the horrific acts of violence go so much against our true nature, which is inherently good, that they have a huge impact on us. they shock us into a distorted way of thinking. i have been guilty of this distortion also. i have been guilty of only looking at the horror that one person can do, vs. the healing another can do.
can one person do things that are so inhumane, that they are beyond comprehension to the rest of us? yes. but i will ask you…how many people don’t do such things? if it’s true that one person is responsible for the attacks in norway, how many people didn’t kill people in norway the other day? how many people ran to help those who were hurt after the attacks? the ratio is really staggering if you think about it.
this can be said in pretty much any act of violence. most of us are peaceful. many more people run to help others vs. trying to hurt them. it is our true nature to be peaceful..to reach out and support each other…to love…to connect. sometimes in nature, including humans, things go wrong…we don’t get what we need, or we are born with a mental illness. this leaves us confused and disconnected from our true nature. but these few people who are lost and sick, they don’t represent the masses. to extrapolate that on to the human race is quite illogical actually, but that doesn’t stop us from jumping to the incorrect conclusion that people are monsters when we see the horrors that someone is capable of.
when you think of what we all are capable of doing to each other, how much we can hurt each other, but almost none of us do…can’t you see how “good” we really are? yes, i’m talking to you.
Reminds me of my favorite Anne Frank quotation:
t’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death. I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that this cruelty too shall end, and that peace & tranquility will return once again.
So beautiful Susanne. Thanks for sharing that.
Really made me think. You are very right, people are good. I can think of a lot of examples right now actually. We’re all capable of doing very bad things, but very few people actually do.
I guess sometimes it is what we don’t do that defines us and our character.
mahry, you are awesome!
Well spoken.
Most people understand the difference between harming and helping others, or neglecting to act when others need assistance. That is, we have consciences. Some don’t; the human species may have evolved to give an overall advantage to a society if some members did not have a strong conscience for ethical considerations. And when human beings feels like their back is against a wall, some feel that the only resort is violence.
Regarding ‘it seems that the authorities think the bombing and the shootings were carried out by one person…’ – I personally find it difficult believing anything authorities tell us, especially when authorities have an agenda to fulfill. It’s often more convenient for powerful interests if it’s just ‘one’ person committing such acts.
We are impressionable creatures by nature. Psychological experiments have shown that people are willing to go along with what authorities tell them to think and do, even if it appears to be something against what their conscience may be intimating. And in many cases, people fail to even question what authorities tell them to think or do to begin with.
The reason I bring this up is because I think it part of the solution to the violence we see and experience in the world is to open our eyes to the reality that not only are there people in this world that believe violence is just and necessary, but that the people conducting violent acts aren’t always the only ones involved in causing such events. Sometimes, events are allowed to happen, sometimes they are even planned; in other cases, individuals were warped by circumstances of their environment, and we can look at the ideologies or conditions in place that may have influenced such people negatively. One of the main problems in averting violence may be that we are unwilling to look into such things – instead, thinking that they are just the work of one person, alone, instead of the taking into consideration the larger environment that plays its part. This may just involve indirect influences, but in many cases, we will also find others directing such violent acts as a conspiracy to consolidate power. Unless we are willing to face that fact, that human beings do conduct violent acts in concert under the cover of deception, which has occurred over and over in history, then we will not be able to take the actions necessary to prevent such things from continuing to happen. People will accuse someone who thinks this way as being a conspiracy theorist; I simply call it skepticism based in historical fact.
Mahra I think that people are animals and for different reasons they do wonderful things, in turn though there are plenty of people worldwide who do horrific things. We tend to turn a blind eye to the millions of people executed each year. Maybe because we are used to it or feel as though we are unable to make a difference. China kills tens of thousands of people each year. In other countries they kill each other because they are different religions or ethnicities. Look at the middle east and africa. Cuba is full of asshole leaders. Argentina and our own country has its share of people who are willing to do anything for power. I do not believe that the answer to your question is easily answered. People are neither good nor bad but have both sides in them. Self preservation will allow people to do interesting things in time of need. I do believe that everyone wants to feel LOVED from others and can give LOVE back. The Norway incident is but one incident. I think it was tragic but I wonder how many are being murdered in Africa each day. Or in China or North Korea. We killed many in are quest to take the USA. I know your spirit is LOVING and that the people you surround yourself with are LOVING also, but it can be a coin toss when you deal with people around the world I believe. I hope that Norway changes there laws. Because this guy will be released in 21 or 23 years if he is not murdered. PEACE Eric
Thanks Jennifer…you’re awesome too.
Mitch, thanks for your thoughtful comment. The point I am trying to make is not really contingent on whether it was really only one person who did this or not. That “news”, that it might have been one person acting alone, then seeing the person in the picture is what got me thinking about “one person”. If it turns out to be a lot of people who were behind this, I still feel the same way. We are inherently good, whether we see it through the eyes of evolution, as you alluded to, or through a particular belief system. It is all the same to me. It’s what I see…how I see humans. No matter how many people might have been involved…the number of people NOT involved still greatly outweighs it. Yes people can act out when feeling backed up against a wall…I usually describe this as a wounded animal being backed into a corner. We will do what we need to survive, usually. There are those who give their lives for “the greater good” whether it be someone taking a bullet for someone else, someone drowning because they jumped in to save a drowning stranger, someone in a concentration camp giving their last piece of bread to another inmate who was starving, the student in Tiananmen Square, etc. etc. And sometimes we do horrific things in a mob or group mentality. None of these things make me question my conclusion that people are inherently good.
You said “not only are there people in this world that believe violence is just and necessary, but that the people conducting violent acts aren’t always the only ones involved in causing such events.”
I agree.
You also said “human beings do conduct violent acts in concert under the cover of deception, which has occurred over and over in history, then we will not be able to take the actions necessary to prevent such things from continuing to happen.”
I also agree with that. The things I think I KNOW that my country has done shock and horrify me…what I don’t know what they have done…scary thought. Groups of people and governments do horrific things. I believe that in these cases, they use the group or what they see as the end outcome to disconnect themselves from their true nature.
Thanks again for your input.
Eric thanks for your comment. I agree that I am loving and I surround myself with loving people…well actually I feel they kind of come to me the more centered on my true nature I am. My life hasn’t always been like this. Therapists have cried when I have told them how my life was in the past…the traumas I have endured. Traumas and crimes done to me by other people. People I do not have good feelings about. What they did is not OK. What the guy or people in Norway did was not OK. And if he only gets 21 years…not OK…he needs to be locked away for life in my opinion. What we did to acquire this country was not OK. All the abuses of power and human rights violations around the world, not OK at all…I am aware that this all happens and is happening right now. We are capable of doing all sorts of horrific things when we feel we don’t have what we need. And yes, we are animals for sure. But, I believe, we are more. I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience. How aligned we want to be to our spiritual side is up to us. I just saw the Dalai Lama speak in Chicago. His talk was entitled “Bridging the Faith Divide: compassion in action”. He spoke of the commonalities between faiths. That we are hardwired for connection, compassion. We can find this in whatever faith makes sense to us, or no religious faith at all. A Buddhist is not more inherently good then an atheist. It is our true nature as humans. One does not have to “believe” in anything to become in tune with what is within that whether we call it God, love, nature, energy, survival of the species…to me, it’s all the same.
It can be a coin toss with anyone you meet…how they will act. I was very very close to someone last year who did things to me that I couldn’t believe. Cruel hurtful things. I have separated myself from this person and will continue to do so in the future, separate myself from people who are living from a place of disconnection and acting out on it. I know what goes on in the world. I know all too well what we are capable of. This makes me believe in our inherent good even more. We are capable of such abysmal acts when we forget who we really are and think we need such and such outside of ourselves. The fact that most of us don’t do these things makes me believe my point even more. The number of people who abuse power and other people around the world right now as we speak is mind boggling….but even more mind boggling to me is the number WHO DON’T. Again, I find the ratio staggering. We can get fixated on either side…feeling people are monsters, or feeling no one will hurt us and becoming victims. I feel the answer like most things lies in the middle. Knowing what humans are capable of and also knowing our true nature. Seeing the good in people, but not being victims and trying to help those who are. That’s the way I see it.
Thanks again for your comment. I always like to hear what you have to say my friend.
Peace to you too. 🙂
So you don’t believe in a reptilian race controlling the underground society, I take it?
Lizard shapeshifters aside, your narrative is basically true, I believe, that the universe is basically geared towards evolution towards a higher form of being/consciousness, which to return to its natural state. It may be a coin toss if human beings survive or not. There’s a Buddhist teaching, “know thy enemy,” and then of course, Plato’s “know thyself”. Unless we overcome our ignorance of the world and of ourselves, we won’t have the tools (awareness) to understand how to stop the violence we experience in this world.
That being said, I think it’s also true that we have to project the world we want to see. While it may be crucial to be skeptical and wise to the ways of the world, without vision, and the hope that comes from our dreams and aspirations, we’re missing the creative aspect of our own destiny which allows us to realize new paths. So it’s very important, what you say, to project positive imprints into the world.
Those are the two lynchpins of enlightenment, wisdom/awareness and love/compassion. One without the other really can’t carry the weight. We make mistakes of judgment when we omit one or the other. We get caught believing in ‘absolutes’, not recognizing that nothing is permanent except ’emptiness’, which is to say that nothing inherently has any nature absolutely. Humans may be compassionate beings, but that is our current karma, and karma only lasts as long as the forces that gave birth to it have lasting power. It is still our duty to plant the seeds that can ease suffering and help raise awareness, for future beings. I’m not suggesting you are saying this, but the trap in believing in something like ultimate goodness is that it has the possibility of leading to a kind of complacency or reticence, as if one can let go of taking any personal responsibility and just believe. The issue is, that the world is an interaction of forces where we must act to survive. So regardless of how the universe on a curve leads to higher forms of being, we are active participants in that course, and there are real battles that we have to fight within ourselves and against those who seek to harm others. Mainly, I just wanted to expand on that, to stress the importance of personal empowerment in your equation. Keep up the good work you are doing here. (I wish I would motivate myself to write more often.)
Thanks Mitch. I would love to read anything you would write. Have you thought of starting a blog?
Speaking of which, I don’t ever motivate myself to write, at least so far. I started this blog because I quit facebook and wanted some place to share in some way online with friends far and near….and because so many people over the years have said “you should start a blog”. I guess the message got in my noggin. When I started it I thought I was just going to share pictures, songs, jokes, links…you know, like facebook. And then this started happening…what you see here. I get an idea I really want to put into words to try to communicate to others, and i never need to motivate myself. I feel it’s because I’m biologically hardwired (and spiritually “softwired”?) to connect and share with others…I think we all are. And this is how it’s coming out, well, one of the ways. I kind of can’t stop myself from writing when I “see” something I want to describe. I have written during parties and at very inopportune times, but I felt I had to get it out. Kind of like little births. I describe this because I think it is part of my response to what you said here:
“I’m not suggesting you are saying this, but the trap in believing in something like ultimate goodness is that it has the possibility of leading to a kind of complacency or reticence, as if one can let go of taking any personal responsibility and just believe.”
I disagree completely. I think the only “job” we have is to become more in tune with what is within us. The more we do that, the more we look within, the more peaceful we become and the more we find ways to help and connect. I have always wanted to help….but a lot of my life, my desperate desire came from my woundedness. I feel I wasn’t very helpful when I saw the world as so so broken and “bad”. The more I healed myself and looked within, the more I could see the truth about the world and I feel I have been able to “help” in much more profound and permanent ways.
It reminds me of this quote from my good friend Mahatma….
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
I think believing in ultimate goodness makes us less complacent, and more effective.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Not so sure that looking within yourselve constantly is such a good thing. Life happens and you need to be aware and open to learning from your experiences. I see plenty of people who appear to me to be forcing life experiences and really absorbed in their head way to much. Just a thought.
Eric I don’t see how looking within would keep one from being aware and open to learn from one’s experiences. Conversely, I think that looking within helps us to be aware of the outer world more and to be more open to learn from one’s experiences, but from a proactive, vs. reactive way. Which, in my opinion, is the only way that really “helps” or affects change in most cases. I would not suggest one should force life experiences or be in their head too much. Being in my head too much is an unhealthy thing for me. We need to find our own balance…our intellect with our hearts, our egos with our souls, ourselves with the world. I would suggest that looking within our hearts is the underlying and most crucial thing we can do (that does not disregard the other parts of us, which are there for a purpose…just not to drive our lives)…within our hearts is the connection to everyone else and the whole of the world….the more we look within, in my opinion, the more we see the that we are an integral and vital part of the world around us.
Thanks for your thoughts. I love to hear what you have to say.
Just a quick comment on your reply – the type of complacency I am referring to is the idea that we aren’t responsible for cultivating our own inner spirituality and ethical conduct, that the ego is ‘good’ no matter what. I don’t think you fit in that category. This is a common perception among some, that what is good is some projected idea and as long as one believes in it, one is, for lack of better terms, redeemed or saved, as if belief alone is the only requisite for spirituality.
We’re dealing with some terms we’d have to hash out semantically, for instance, when one says belief in ‘ultimate goodness’ the next logical question is where exactly is this ‘ultimate goodness’? This gets into the Buddhist concept of ’emptiness’. It is absolutely true we have to be the change we want to see in the world, and that karma is created by each thought, word, and deed we create.
The second question that would follow would be, how does one know that the ‘ultimate goodness’ one believes in is actually real ‘ultimate goodness’ instead of a ‘deceptive’ kind? What I’m getting at is a critical approach to the use of language, which itself is imperfect, but like any tool, needs to be sharply honed in order to be incisive. There’s an interesting John Cage quote that reminds me of this sub-topic: ‘Before studying Zen, men are men and mountains are mountains. While studying Zen, things become confused. After studying Zen, men are men and mountains are mountains.’ Forgive the use of male gender there.
It may be that ultimately, only poetry can approach some truth in words.
Mitch, no need to be quick. I love discussing these things so please say as much and whatever want about anything I write. I would love it if this was a place people discussed the things I write and the ideas involved.
I get what you are saying about complacency. I think when we let others be responsible for how we see the world, what makes us “ok”…we fall into this trap. Ironically I also believe that most things are neither good nor bad…just things. We put the meaning on them. Our ego for example…not the best thing to follow most times, but sometimes it saves our lives. We need to find that balance ourselves.
And I totally understand what you are saying about semantics here. I used to get very hung up on what people think I am talking about if I say things, like God for example…most times what I am referring to is not what they are, but at the same time it is…like most things. Now I just speak freely and enjoy discussing the fine points with people who want to in a respectful way.
Briefly, and let me add I took a pain killer an hour ago for some pain I sometimes experience, so hopefully this makes sense, : )…what I mean by inherently good or ultimate goodness of people is described in most religions, philosophies and spiritual practices. It also is found in science and evolution. Whether we see it spiritually or from an evolutionary stand point…we are social creates who need love, connection, support. And have an inner need or instinct to help each other if given the opportunity. I think many people are starving to do this…they do not go out and find outlets to share or help and they are starving. I see that over and over. When given a chance, an “opening”, people go out of their way to help and thrive on it. Of course there are deviations from the norm for many many reasons. Life circumstances, abuse, our perceptions…but at the heart of us…there is love. It’s really quite simple. People want…they need to love and be loved. They need to connect. And when they think they can’t or don’t know how to, they can turn this around and isolate and project the opposite onto the world and their actions…not because they don’t want to connect, but because they desperately want to.
How does one know what they are believing in is ultimate goodness and not the deceptive kind? Very simply if is coming from within us, what we are believing…not from the outside world And, sometimes that takes some work I think. If we are wounded and full of pain and false beliefs about ourselves and the world, we need to free ourselves of that so we can see clearly. And then instead of looking for any answers outsides ourselves, we need to look for them within. Sure, I see many things in the world which jive with the truth within me, but that is secondary to me. First is that it is within me, then I can see it in other places. Never ever allowing the outside world to tell us our truth or ultimate goodness. Never. Real teachers teach us we have the answers within and encourage us to examine our beliefs…we must examine EVERYTHING we believe. It must all fit…you know? I believe people are inherently good. Period. That is for everyone. When someone hurts me, I want to say “Well, except that person, they clearly are not.” But luckily for me, that lasts only a moment…a fleeting ego driven thought that soon leaves me. It applies to everyone. It is a universal truth I believe in. Does everyone act on that inherent goodness? No, but we are not our behavior…we are responsible for our behavior but we are not our behavior.
I agree with you about words. Some things are indescribable…but we continue to try to put words to them…which is OK…it just never can describe the the real idea…kind of like Plato’s cave.
I will leave you with some words from one of my favorite spiritual teachers.
“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”
-Winnie the Pooh
Very well said. I think what you are describing is a propensity, but also a shedding of ignorant views (attachments to the external, temptations to think negatively, and so on) to reach the primal source of knowledge, which in Buddhist terms is the act of ‘renunciation’.
Human beings have very good karma to begin with, generally, to enter into that state of illumination. I’m not so sure if other types of lifeforms have quite that ‘propensity’ for awareness. In that sense, while there’s differences between good-tempered and bad-tempered dogs and cats, for instance, and some degree of intelligence, the awareness of reality isn’t as advanced as found in human beings. Maybe I’m expanding the realm of what we’re talking about, but when I look at such things, I can’t avoid considering the viewpoints of all lifeforms, as I believe in reincarnation and that all creation is intertwined, in terms of karma.
I return to one of my other points, that ‘goodness’, as a potential force found in all of us that we all seek and desire, seems to be limited in its ability to effect beneficial changes in our world, to the degree we have acquired an understanding of our being. Does it matter? Can we ‘maximize’ our potential for ‘goodness’? With power, which comes from a greater understanding of the universe, comes the charge of more responsibility. The more energy one assumes, the greater the temptations that lie in our abilities to affect others and our environment. That isn’t a criticism of anything anyone has said here, just an expansion of the topic.
One of the main points drilled into our heads during Buddhist classes was the importance of both awareness and compassion. We may well feel the need to love and be loved, and help others, and reciprocate the good deeds we see in the world, but what of the art of knowing /how/ to love, be compassionate, and perform good deeds? Yes, the answer is to come to realizations within ourselves, and be able to recognize such things as cause and effect, and when we have made errors. Easier said than done; often we are handicapped by not being able to recognize the difference between karma from our past causing our current reality and that what we do now leads to our future karma. We mix up what leads to what, and we’re often distracted by trivial things.
While Buddhism speaks much of compassion and giving, there’s equally an emphasis on this practice of basically dismantling our illusions of reality. It can be said that no matter what our intentions, even if they are the best, without the wherewithal and means to bring our visions into the world truly, we really are still in a state of struggling. I think you have touched on all this. We are talking about the same things, only in different ways through our different experiences. So that is quite good. You are in a very good place. Keep writing about these things. It will lead you to even more happiness as you explore the world through prose. For myself, nothing ever seems to be very simple. I have a tendency to over-complicate things probably, likely due to my ego or whatever it is that makes me dissatisfied with what I have in the ‘here and now’. It’s like you say, always looking externally for the answers, I suppose. Well, externally, there’s a lot I’d like to change that I see wrong with the way our society is destroying itself. I’m trying to understand why it is that way. It isn’t that it depresses me; it’s more like a tangled maze or web that the deeper I go into to, the more I discover that is leading me to some kind of key to the puzzle. At times I’m overwhelmed, but then I take a break, and come back to it without ever forcing myself to. The real question is where it’s leading me. That I don’t really know. I suppose I should make a plan or something, LOL.