May 17, 2022
Words Are NOT Violence II
Daily Meditation — 5/17/2022
Part I here.
“They” believe that the state should fund and manage everything.
“They” think jobs should be hired by minority first.
“They” are of the opinion that people shouldn’t be able to be billionaires.
“They” say that borders need to be locked down, completely.
“They” tell you police should arrest non-maskers.
And you feel your blood boiling.
“How can someone be so unbelievably wrong,” you exclaim, “We need to stop these sorts of people and their views. They should be cancelled.”
Firstly, your perception of “they” is erroneous. No matter how different you may be from your neighbor or someone from Timbuktu, it is all “us.”
Secondly, as is deeply discussed in these meditations — you have no power over others.
You are utterly helpless to change their opinions.
Their religion.
Their politics.
You are completely unable to change how they perceive the world!
But!
You can alter how to perceive them. How you perceive their views.
Lastly — why should any person be canceled?
Any opinion?
Any religious practice or belief?
Any political movement?
Does a librarian protest just because some (thousands!) books make them uneasy? Offends them? Flies in the face of their perceptions?
No.
The world is a challenging, beautiful, complex, diverse place.
Focus on your perception and understand different views and others’ words are only anything when you make them something.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
