A Challenge of Understanding

A lot of people on ATS say they understand the world, say they understand life, say they are doing what needs to be done or that there IS nothing to be done. I come on ATS and I see arrogance and confusion, ignorance and chaos. I see people trying to learn, but hindered by what they have already learned. Trying to discern, but hindered by what they have already discerned.

So I want ATS to do something for me. Many of you speak of compassion and understanding. "We need to love each other" or "we need to help the needy". How do you know what is needed? Are you sure you can go through with it? These are troubling times, and in order to help, we must understand.

And just as often as I see people wanting to heal, I see people wanting to destroy. WHat do these people know of healing? What do they know of destruction? Do they really think healing is that easy? Or that destruction is so helpful? Do they really understand what is needed? That's the purpose of this thread. To show how understanding is so much better than hate. There are hate threads everywhere, threads that promote judgment and threads that spawn spite and vengeance. Threads that make us want to burn everything down.

THat's not the answer. You must understand in order to change, because only then will you resist the urge to forego change and simply destroy. Does that make you better? No, that makes you just as bad. Anyone who destroys is someone who has taken it upon themselves to judge those they deem unworthy of existing or being free. WHo are you to make that call? Who is to say you won't be corrupted by such power? Who is to say someone may try and guide you but you resist because you are righteous?

Only understanding will prevent us from falling off the knife's edge. Understanding of what we oppose, understanding of why it exists and what it wants, and relating to it. KNOWING it. To save a drug addict and keep them alive. To reform a criminal and watch them help children all over the world. To rescue a prostitute and see her have a family. Instead of destroying unsavory elements, convert them. Save them. But to do this, you must understand.

So! Build a wigwam, lean to, a hut, a teepee, whatever you want. Build a natural shelter and stay in it for a week. Learn how to survive, and you will sympathize with survivors. Learn to take, and you will understand those who take. Not only will you see the hardships and difficulties for those who have less than you do but still struggle to survive in the same world, but you begin to understand the nature, the mentality, of those who take without permission.

It is said that to destroy your enemy, you must love him. Love happens with understanding, and understanding happens with walk a mile in their shoes. So go out on a survival trip, and really learn what it means to be alive, to fight day to day. When you know what it's like to have the whole world against you and still stand up against it, then you have cause to judge the weak and frail. Then you have cause to judge those who are doing the best they can. Then you have causes to hate those who are only trying to breathe the same air as you, because they are as afraid of dying as you are.

Then, you can judge. But chances are, you won't. Because by then, you'll understand. And instead of judging them, you'll want to help, because you've been there before. You know where they come from.

Because you've taken the challenge of understanding.

Double post.

Nice thoughts, Good thread

Great thread friend.

I try to live by the credo "You'll never understand a person until you walk a mile in their shoes."

In modern society it is very easy to dismiss people. I find this a sad fact that this is what "we" have become.

We are better than that. We are humans, we need to show our humanity.

S & F friend.