question everything
So many people trying to figure out what the right vs wrong thing to say is, who the right person to back and vote for, whose rights they should support. So caught up in playing this game that they have completely lost sight in who they really are and what they truly believe in…but can you blame them?
Many just don’t know what to do, they don’t want to pick a side because they see the negatives to all sides, so they choose to say nothing, but that in itself can be taken as a statement and demonized. Too many assumptions, no one speaking truth and nothing but games being played. We live in a world of smoke and mirrors. The sad truth of the matter is that the majority of people can and do find a balance and a compromise with one another, even if that is as simple as, “I don’t believe what you do but I respect and value your rights to have your own beliefs. Unfortunately, we are forced onto warring sides, “You’re either with us or against us”, and we are going down a slippery slope to enslavement of all our freedoms.
We live in a world where you can take something completely out of context, even worse if it was ages ago, and then shine a condemning spotlight on it to align with your cause. Ironically, we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions.
The thing with freedom is that in order for you to be free to think, speak, support and practice your own beliefs you have to allow others to do the same, even if they contradict your own. Would you really want it any other way? Would you really want to live in a world where everyone looks, acts, believes in and behaves the exact same way as you do?
Why do we think that our side is the “right” side? Our country is the right country, our president, our religion, our gender, our belief system, etc. Do we not understand that everyone else believes that their views are just as justified, important and right as our own? How many people throughout history do you honestly think looked at themselves as “evil” or “wrong”? And what makes us believe that we get to decide which is which? The majority of the time we justify our stances and actions with our own rationalizations. Believing that our side is the only legitimate one has led to a multitude of issues throughout humanity; religion, politics, gender, race and just about everything else.
It is all too easy to demonize someone or something when you have never been in their shoes or experienced those situations, on every side of the coin.
As Denzel said, “We are either uninformed or misinformed”, and it only seems to be getting worse. We are bombarded 24/7 with a constant stream of information, the majority of which is bought and paid for so how are you ever supposed to anything as factual? Skewed perspectives in politics, laws, the medical industry, nutrition, education, and keep going down the list.
As in so many facets of this life, we need to take and seek out the information that we can, on all sides, and come to our own conclusions. To think freely and rationally but unfortunately if you do so you tend to be demonized, unless you are on the “right” side. Anyone who questions the narrative is typically looked down upon, shamed, cancelled, criminalized and sometimes even killed.
When did we lose the ability to question and debate what we are told? When did we stop discussing things and realizing that other opinions are important and valid? They will either solidify our prior beliefs or give us a different perspective and possibly change our minds.
Instead, we now have people playing characters in a game. Saying and doing things not because they truly believe in them, but because it is what the popular opinion at the time says they are supposed to. We would rather have comfortable lies than brunt truth.
It is so important to, at the very least occasionally question our beliefs and perspectives. How do you even know what it is that you truly believe in if you never look at what it actually is with an unbiased lense? So many of us just fall in line with what we are told, what we are brought up to believe and never question it, and if anyone ever does then they must be the enemy. It is uncomfortable and painful to have the things that you were brought up and lead to believe questioned, but there can be no change or progression without discomfort.
Regardless of what it is or where it came from, everything has been handed down by human beings, and human beings are flawed. They make mistakes, either intentionally or accidental, and not only that, times change. What is right today was thought of as wrong and illegal not too long ago.
The view of the world is continually changing, some for the better and some for the worse, but change is the one thing that you can be certain of, regardless of how slow. Letting another have their own beliefs doesn’t mean that it takes away yours. Someone else’s rights don’t discount your own. If more of us stood up for each other from the beginning like we should have, so many of these issues would not even be here today.
So before before you jump to a conclusion and align with a side, take a step back. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes or think about these situations happening to someone you love and care about. At the very least, it should give you a more balanced perspective on most situations.
Love, compassion and understanding will free us all!
“Don’t just teach your children to read…teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.”-George Carlin
-The end