Teach me about the world

I am not very good at convincing anyone of anything because I don't really care so much of convincing anyone, yet I am quite argumentative - especially face to face. One of the reasons I fail to convince people is because I skip and jump across topics, often before they have a chance to consider, let alone respond to what is being said and it seems I squeeze far too many points into far too little space. Is this a problem?

Perhaps if I was trying to teach people something or manipulate them into my way of thinking, it is. However, I am not trying to do that at all as I think that it doesn't really matter what people think, it matters how they behave and as I say, knowing isn't doing.

Do you know those people who know the right way, but it depends on everyone else behaving along a set of rules that people just won't follow, even if they know them? I was once a bit like that and maybe still am at times but regardless of if I am right or wrong, I have accepted that people are people and no matter what they could or should do, they do what they will do and there is very little anyone can do about it.

It doesn't really matter what the rules are, there are always going to be people who break them -even if it isn't in their best interest to do so. As I said to someone who thinks that critical thinking taught in schools will improve decision-making, if you can't teach them enough to even eat a somewhat healthy diet with 40 years of educational advancement, how are you going to teach them the intricacies and complexity associated with behavioral economics at both the psychological and emotional levels in a way that it is not only practical, but effective?

It is a bit of a challenge, isn't it?

People do change though and those who believe they can't, are fooling themselves. Even extreme changes in behavior are possible, it just requires the right conditions. I am sure in 1930 Germany, most people didn't imagine themselves killing people en masse in the cruelest and most grotesque ways just a decade later. Change is possible but it seems that what we normally think is impossible is our change for the better, even though we desire it.

Are you a good person?

No one else in this world can answer that question for you, yet many of us look for the approval of others in order to know if what we are doing is correct and acceptable. If we believe ourselves to be good people, why are so many of us ready to change for others? We are social animals though and, we can be hacked to act in a way that comes in alignment with the group, even if the group is completely incorrect.

Beaten monkeys.

We want the banana but fear the social beating for reaching for it so, we fall into line and do as the group does while secretly harboring unvoiced thoughts and ideas, too fearful to speak them aloud and face the repercussions and the group retaliation for questioning the rules. "Are you too good to follow what we all follow - Do you think you are special?"

Do you think you are special?

Are you willing enough to actually find out, or do you play a little movie in your imagination where you are the hero, the knowledgeable, the strong among the flock of sheep? If only they knew your superhero status - as you go about your day behaving just like them.

Delusions of grandeur without even the bravery of the attempt.

"I am a hero! - as long as I never have to prove it..." The digital world is engineered for these people, the individualists who can be exactly who they choose to be, speak freely and act how they want to act, as long as there is the protection offered by the screen they face, anonymity - no chance of loss. Speaking it all, risking nothing of themselves - Heroes.

I say engineered because that is what the digital environments are, creations that look to leverage human behavior in a way that monetizes and manipulates to extract the things of value, money, attention... time.

How much time spent with nothing to show?

Yet, the complaints keep coming, the same complaints over and over with the same words of "if only people did as I say..." without the recognition of the position, one of dictator looking to manipulate to get personal desires fulfilled, like children throwing a tantrum in a store for being denied a toy in the hope the parents will cave to the social pressure of the herd and the embarrassment bestowed upon them by the judgmental onlookers. "They think I am a bad parent."

Maybe your parents gave in. Maybe you were beaten instead.

Lessons start young in life and while we spend our time distracted by the world, we miss the schooling that actually matters, the observation of life happening as we live it. We want to know more even though we will not use it, we want to have more even though we have no use for it.

I have my thoughts and beliefs and then, I have my behaviors. I do no think I am my thoughts, I do not think I am my behaviors as both are constantly changing - So, what am I?

One thing is certain though - I am not your teacher.

This is where responsibility lays. While we have little choice in what happens to us in this life, we do have the ability to affect the lessons we take away from our experience, and maybe tweak our behavior to be a little better for it. What I have come to accept though is, most of the valuable lessons that have led to change in me have come through hardship - it seems that being creatures eternally seeking comfort, requires discomfort to move.

Are you uncomfortable enough yet?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]