Journal 8 - Small People, Big World

This is a very interesting comment/quote to me for several different reasons. First of all, let me say that I am not going to jump on either side and declare a right and wrong because I feel there are a couple shades of grey with both. For the first part “People are small…” I could not agree more. People tend to too often think of themselves as quasi-gods with unlimited importance. This is one of mankind’s greatest downfalls. If this were an infallible rule however then many of the great deeds, inventions, and contributions of mankind would not exist. For such great things to occur people must believe that they are unstoppable in achieving their goals of achieving this or helping that. Moving on to “…and most don’t matter…” I would have to say this is basically the same argument I just qualified; that on a universal cosmic scale the human population is not even worth mentioning, but to ourselves we could not matter more. The happiness of our species is almost entirely based upon the energies, attentions, and gifts we are constantly exchanging amongst each other. Thus, many would argue against the notion that “most don’t matter.” “[T]hey should be concerned with bettering their corner of the world and nothing larger.” Now once again, I have mixed contextual opinions about this assertion. As a whole, too few people are concerned with the welfare of other people that they will never meet or hear of in their entire lives. Throughout human history this lack of indiscriminate compassion has contributed to the proliferation of war, violence, and pain inflicted on others. Now, human psychologists would argue that this is merely human nature and should not be interpreted as evil or subhuman. It makes much evolutionary sense as those who felt more strongly about their clansmen than ‘foreign’ parties would fight harder to maintain one’s culture. While in my opinion I think every man and woman should practice a healthy dose of humility and sense of understanding daily, there is a vital importance of not allowing thoughts of good versus evil, right versus wrong, etc. to overwhelm and obsess your thoughts. This leads to a lack of fulfillment and happiness as a perfect world can never EVER be attained. We must all learn to live our own lives while understanding that everyone else is doing the same with the total right to.