Long ago when I joined IIMB, I prided myself on my rational opinions and the skills I had. There were people I thought were smart, people who I thought were dumb, people who worked hard, people who didn't, the friends, and the enemies, the attention-seekers and ones who were down to earth... I thought I knew them all. But as time progressed, my opinions changed, many reversed. I realized that my notions of right and wrong were completely off, that each person's actions were so contextual and subjective and there was so so much behind the scenes that I didn't know about or bother to find out. It's so easy to judge, to say this is the way one should act or think. But it is all such bullshit.
I never knew the full story, the other person's side and I was so quick to classify the person into a stereotype that they probably never deserved. All of us have been misunderstood in life, judged, laughed at, but still we continue to pass judgement unto others like there's no tomorrow. Why?
There are friends who said they'd always be there but aren't, there is family who only mean well, there are people who abuse our trust and yet we continue to follow them. Our social need to belong seems much greater than our intellectual need to rise above meaninglessness. How are someone's eating, drinking, clothing, career or dating choices affecting people so much that they need to express their disapproval? It is so odd that as victims of discrimination in some form or the other, we blindly discriminate against others without understanding the context or rationale. When a professor makes racially-charged comments, when friends judge you for supporting someone they hate, you think why. Why would someone think this way? Have we forgotten the word empathy? Or is it sufficient to know its meaning and never apply it.
I never knew the full story, the other person's side and I was so quick to classify the person into a stereotype that they probably never deserved. All of us have been misunderstood in life, judged, laughed at, but still we continue to pass judgement unto others like there's no tomorrow. Why?
There are friends who said they'd always be there but aren't, there is family who only mean well, there are people who abuse our trust and yet we continue to follow them. Our social need to belong seems much greater than our intellectual need to rise above meaninglessness. How are someone's eating, drinking, clothing, career or dating choices affecting people so much that they need to express their disapproval? It is so odd that as victims of discrimination in some form or the other, we blindly discriminate against others without understanding the context or rationale. When a professor makes racially-charged comments, when friends judge you for supporting someone they hate, you think why. Why would someone think this way? Have we forgotten the word empathy? Or is it sufficient to know its meaning and never apply it.
I wish people would empathize. I wish I had done more earlier, but maybe I would have never had this realization then. So much hatred against people, cultures, religions and lifestyles persists - and for what? So that some other person in another part of the world can pass their own judgements unto us? No one's values are exactly the same. It's time we stopped expecting it to be. It's ironic that I just said that.
