Episode X: A New Hope

Okay friends, I have a new mission: I am going to relax a bit, reconsider my position, and sanitize my world view. I will attempt, despite myself, to see the positive side of things. I will have some hope that altruism is not dead, that people really do care about other people and the world around them. I will take comfort in the warmth of the friendship and caring of those people who've reminded me that the world isn't a bad place, but rather that my world is what I make it.

You might ask “Jojo, what has caused your turnaround"? or “What evidence have you seen that has changed your mind”? If you've been reading my posts, especially my last one, you know that I was trying to find evidence of goodness and/or rightness to possibly give me some hope. Well, I haven't really seen it. I mean, sure, I have heard some nice stories (mostly on CBC, especially the Vinyl Café for some reason!) of selflessness and love, but have not witnessed them on my own. On the other side of the coin though, I have also heard stories of anguish, and violence, and greed. If the truth be told I have not really witnessed them on my own either.

What I am saying then, to my own astonishment, is that the past week of thinking about it has given me no evidence that people are “good” or “evil” as a rule (I use those terms only as a convenience, because at the root of it, I try to abstain from the recognition of any absolutes). And as a caveat to all of this I must say that I put extreme criteria on my findings: I mean, for me to consider something to be noteworthy, it really had to grab me. People behaving as they normally do (examples on each side include holding a door open for others, or cutting people off in heavy traffic) did not count because I find those acts hard to notice (and count) in any real way…and they probably balance each out anyway! In light of this zero-sum situation, I have to think there is at least some advantage then of remaining hopeful.

Of course, I do think that there is at least some risk involved. There is a naivety in hopefulness. There are those who can identify this naivety and take advantage of it. This is almost without question, for there is much evidence of it. I will, however, also assume (again, probably naively) that there are also those who will stand up for what is right, who will protect each other, and fight for a common good. I have had several people try to convince me that people at their cores are good, and altruistic, and have the world’s best interest in their hearts. Of this I am not convinced. I still continue to believe that, as human beings, we necessarily have our own best interests at heart. It is a necessity of survival. I have also, however, been at least partly convinced by some that our society is evolving and that we should remain steadfast in our belief that things can change for the better if we work hard at creating the world we want.

There it is, my mantra for the coming days. Again, wish me luck.
Peace,
Jojo

My Anger

I need to control myself. My levels of stress and anger at the world, at times, seem to be spiralling out of control. It seems that the smallest infractions (of others, of course) affect me in a big way and I am not sure how to reconcile it with my world view.
What is my world view? Well that I am not too sure about any more.
In the past I have tried to believe that people are good - that people are not selfish, or greedy, and that they are reasonable intelligent and aware of other people. More recently I have come to feel that most people are very self-centered, greedy, and completely unaware or perhaps just uncaring towards others. A complete 180 from the past.
Is it just me? Is there something that's happened in my life that's made me take on this view? Have people really become terrible overnight? I can't for the life of me figure it out.
Every day I see evidence that people are, at best, completely ignorant. I see evidence of greed, racism, pure hatred, self-interest and at the same time I also see less evidence of kindness, selflessness, charity and awareness of what is right, or good.
I think what I need to do is to start journalling what I see and building a case for either side - if anyone is reading this perhaps they can weigh in on what I've seen and written - let them judge it and tell me what I am doing to see things so negatively.
Wish me luck - I really hope that I can start to see the world more positively. I want to enjoy the world, and living amongst the inhabitants of it. I want to try to spread joy, not anger. I want to reming people of how good they can be and not remind them of the rules they've broken.