It is no secret to anyone that the media is driven by ratings. One of their favourite ways of obtaining high ratings is by publishing scandalous and revolting behaviours of famous people. The latest star getting caught in this media frenzy is Charlie Sheen from the popular television show Two and a Half Men.
The media however is merely a reflection of what the public wants. People get outraged when they see someone acting in ways they cannot understand. On the other hand, if one were to provide a plausible explanation to one’s seemingly bizarre behaviour, all this irritation would immediately fly out the window similar to what Joaquin Phoenix did a couple of years ago.
The behaviour of our society as a whole is rather predictable thanks to our tendency for judgment.
People Have Strict Boundaries to What They Consider Right and Wrong
Most people have a rather firm and rigid idea of what is right and what is wrong. Everything that happens, be it situations and/or behaviours are placed on this personal “right to wrong” scale. The irritation people feel is directly proportional to how far that behaviour is from what they believe is right.
Depending on the gravity of the situation and the circumstances surrounding it, this irritation is what develops into violence and in some cases war. So how do we soothe this irritation that is at the root of so much destruction?
Our solution so far to resolving disagreements, has been to make others behave in ways we deem as “appropriate”. Parents do it to their children, politicians do it to each other. Everyone does it in some way shape or form. After thousands of years of trying, this solution has failed every single time. No one can change another in the long run.
Human Nature Does Not Change, Only Human Behaviour Does
There are a couple of things we have to realise when trying to solve this issue. First of all, it is part of human nature to make sense of his environment. It is an inner drive pushing for his evolution, a drive no one can really explain. It would be pointless to try and not process information coming our way.
Secondly, we all need to realise that we all have a unique perspective of the world no matter how similar our upbringing may have been. This is why people see different shapes in the same cluster of clouds. This perspective colours our reality. The same piece of information can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways.
Looking at All Life Experiences as Valid
The only thing that is malleable in this equation is our boundaries of right and wrong. If our goal is to soothe the irritation we feel about another’s actions, we need to eliminate the “wrong” end of our scale, thus allowing us to see everything as “right” or rather as “valid”.
Many would say that the dissipating of one’s irritation is not going to prevent another from threatening us. Well, perhaps we should understand why someone would threaten others to begin with. People feel the necessity to attack others because they feel threatened themselves in some way and if no one projects judgment towards them then there is no trigger to harming others.
