Misanthropy Is A Survival Mechanism
One question that seems to come from anyone who gets to know me for a long enough period: why are you so anti-social? Well, look around. What the fuck would I want to have to do with all this? “Monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground”, as Maynard said. All this neo-skull-bashing and chest-thumping doesn’t really make for much of a pretty picture, if your perception of the world is beyond just what your eyes can see, but what your mind, and your innermost Self knows.
I might like attention, sure, when I have something to say, I would like it to be heard – that to me makes logical sense. I hear most humans are fans of logic. I find this a little hard to believe, perhaps logic itself is subjective. Now there’s a shocker. Just because I like attention doesn’t necessarily mean I like those who give it. You can listen to Gandhi speak for hours on end and then leave and go murder a man. In one ear, out the other – bypass the grey matter. Or you could listen to Hitler speak for half an hour and go home thinking you’re doing the right thing, because you’re right, you were born right, others are wrong, they were born wrong. You know what’s right and wrong, of course you know, it’s been told to you. Now why would anyone lie to you?
If at this point I seem to be beating around the bush to you, well then consider that bush is your skull, and I’m just gently knocking on it as I walk around it, just to hear the sound – you hear that?
I like certain people. Not necessarily for their material possessions, I like those material things as individual objects that have no attachment to any one person, they are entirely utilitarian. Not even so much for their physical appearance, that is simply sensory. And even beyond the emotions that they evoke, that’s just emo. I like them because there is some sense of depth in who they are, not just as humans, but as beings of this Universe.
When a human being displays compassion, towards not only their fellow man, but even to abstract concepts of the Universe and Existence in itself, that to me, is beautiful. In my opinion, compassion doesn’t have to be to any “living” thing, it could even be to an idea, as vague as it might be. It doesn’t even have to be one that is common with anyone, not even me.
But of course there are certain ideologies that don’t sound as nice as others. I don’t know who’s to say what’s right or wrong at that point, sometimes humans choose the most despicable ways of realizing these ideas, simply by choosing the easier path, or that which will reap the most material, or even personal gratification. Human beings are after all creatures of self (the Ego, not the Atman). And I find that… a little disappointing.
The Ego, however necessary it may be to our function and our lives as we know it, is not all there is. It is not all that exists within you, for it does not exist without you, and there is something that does so. All those atoms and molecules that make up for your physical form, your constantly detiriorating vessel, they never die. They feel no pain, no emotion, nothing so much as human as even a slap across the face.
They are devoid of your Ego, and they are at peace, constantly vibrating held so close together. Electrons orbiting around the center, just as the Earth makes its perpetual movement around the Sun. Perhaps they understand compassion better than any human would.
What language do they speak? Is there any such language at all, or even a need for it. Or simply an awareness of where they came from, or what they evolved from, perhaps there is some level of awareness, perhaps even consciousness, a chance of intelligence?
Now I feel at peace, or at least calm, just typing those last few paragraphs down. And I don’t want to get back into the topic of human beings and their behaviour. What started as a rather disturbing statement made by a friend, and my subsequent response, which was of course fueled by misanthropy and dripping in sardonic, comic spite, eventually turned into this after a few moments of looking within instead of looking around. Turn your gaze inwards, and perhaps You will see.
“A secret turning in us makes the universe turn. Head unaware of feet, and feet head. Neither cares. They keep turning.” Rumi.
