all branches of science readily agree that humans are pattern recognition machines. why then, is so much of humanity completely impacted by the need to focus and orient not in relation to similarities, but differences?
here, an assertion — the myth of self is the underlying seed from which this deviation from what is readily admitted to be a physiological and psychological norm that covers all races, cultures, and societies.
we are born looking for connections. we are taught to find distinctions.
we are born comparing things to find their similarities. we are taught to distinguish between things.
we are born with an inherent grasp of communal being. we are taught to discriminate.
layers and layers of differences are introduced as early as possible. environmental preference and distinction between ‘family’ and ‘others’ arrives before the end of the first year of life.
segregation of ‘mine’ versus ‘yours’ arrives on the playground and in the home at roughly the same time that the developing mind is discovering the truth of its own subjectivity — that what is perceived is not always what is.
the myth of the individuate is instilled early and reinforced often…. and often harshly. the natural inclination to nourish, nurture, and share is sharply impeded either by cultural taboo or social reification.
we are taught that there are rules that ‘must be observed’ in relation to how much we share, when we are ‘correct’ to share, and what is ‘right’ to share.
we are taught that there are entire segments of humanity with whom we should not share, with whom sharing is ‘bad’ or somehow ‘wrong’.
we are taught that we must focus upon and pay careful attention to our differences, so we do not inadvertently give to someone society or culture has determined is lesser, undeserving, or somehow worthless of any support.
the distinctions and discriminations pile upon one another, with ever-shifting counter-rules, exceptions, and situational guidelines until the sheer contradicting weight of it all becomes it’s own source of suffering.
but because it is all we see around us, because it is all we ever get rewarded for, because it is the measuring stick by which the remainder of humanity consistently value one another (or de-value one another), it often seems impossible to choose otherwise.
this is the great lie. it is never impossible to choose otherwise. to be sure, doing so means having every one of those punishments heaped upon us. to be sure, doing so means being quickly and resolutely cast aside, de-valued, ridiculed, and in some cases, persecuted.
i think humans get angry when they see someone choosing otherwise. either because they feel trapped and unable to do the same, or because so much of who they see ‘themselves’ to be relies so heavily upon that everest of etiquette that any evidence of its flouting automatically brings a sense of being personally diminished.
i think that is the saddest outcome of all. how lost we are, we humans. and in the midst of it, blind and deaf and so often muted, feeling trapped, we resort to the cruelty of the most ‘dog and manger’ sort… sour grapes… vindictiveness… if ‘we’ cannot be so free, then any who would be so… well, they must not be permitted. they must be made to pay. they must suffer. as we do? oh jealous human heart. for shame. truly.
this is the true horror of what discrimination and distinguishing does. what we permit it to do. how many humans are angry to see an eagle in flight? a sunrise? a mouse escape the cat?
and yet so often our hands are the most eager to snatch up the stone when a fellow human finds such freedom.
how did this happen? how have we allowed it? how long will we continue to do so?
are we truly so hopeless, helpless, and angry that the thought of any of us managing liberation despite it all must result in anger? disdain? cruelty?
how weary and sorrowful that we do not celebrate every sighting of such liberation. how pensive the ache that we give up the birthright that rests in our very genesis, our cells, our being and begrudge it of all others.
we have proven that evolution cannot hope to impede our eager sadism in this. ego and self and pride would see no further than the nose, turns our eyes, our faces from it.
but in the deeps, it lingers… it remains… and the despair remains, even if it is only the most quiet, choked whispers.
that which is cruelty, that which punishes and cannot bear to see the human spirit in flight is pointing to itself in every moment it reaches with clenched fist, with harsh word, with determined aggressiveness.
what rare moments of clarity exist here witness it. compassion for the wounded who eagerly wound so as not to bleed alone.
but oh, will ever we change?