Individual in a Community

photo credit: Marta Rifyak

I was commenting on Lou's post about what we consider normal, as opposed to weird, and thought that this actually deserves a separate blog post.

So what is normal? Why do we pick from all the possible opinions and behavioural patterns just a few limited options and say "Okay now, people. From now on this is what you're supposed to be, look, and act like." Where does this concept of normal even come from?

We are considered to be social creatures. Right? The need to interact actively with other people is what gave us language and civilisation. But at what point does this urge for human communication collide with the inability to accept opinions, that differ from our own? What evolutionary advantage do we get from cherry picking only what we like and agree with, while shunning any alternative point of view, not really caring about looking at the other side's arguments? Where we always like this?

Well, it may be, that I'm looking at this from the other way around. As I've mentioned before in my Persepolis review, the humanity is becoming more and more peaceful. The willingness to accept and support each other helps make the community stronger. People are just tired of destructive behaviour. Ruining someone else's happiness is no longer enough to make ourselves happy. We let go of our imperial ambitions. It's not about "divide and conquer" anymore. The psychology of "create and unite" is what seems to be on top now.

If you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket of water, they all want to get out right away. So they push and pull on each other, drowning one by one. And then there's just one left, but he can't even reach to the top of the bucket, because all of his fellow crabs have sunk to the bottom.

If we by now have managed to notice this correlation in our own actions, and recognised it for what it is, then maybe this world is not doomed after all.

But back to the "weirdness" thing!

Weird is not wrong, nor is it bad. It's just not accepted by default.

We may be wise enough to have stopped building walls and digging ditches around our "castles". But people cannot change overnight. There are so many different opinions, that it's kind of hard to look at them all with an open mind and say no more than "Okay. So this exists."

My personal philosophy is that you can be and do whatever you please, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Well, the understanding of "hurt" may be different for every person, so maybe that's why?

We need to work as a community in order to survive and make this world a better place for us all. At the same time we need to respect and accept every single person in this community as an individual. So yes, there's probably a bit of contradiction here (no, not really), and not everyone is able to understand this concept of Individual in a Community yet. But we're getting there. One step at a time.

I'll stop here, before I've bored you to death with this philosophical babble. And in the next post I'll do something fun, and tell you all about my weirdness! Stay tuned! <3