Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving. Options

[*mona lisa*]

I felt so terrible seeing an albino teenager on a train a while ago. I watched him for about a half hour and the whole time, he kept his head hung between his legs and tried to cover himself with his arms. He lifted his head a grand total of two times but it was only 2 seconds before he put his head down again. Now, the reason for his behaviour could be due to anything, really, but I had a gut feeling it's due to the uninformed/prejudiced/ignorant people in society.

What if ill/harmful feelings were reduced/removed from society somehow? Would people be more forgiving and open-minded if they are surrounded only by such thoughts? Or do you think they serve as a balance to keep things in harmony? As in the yin&yang? Hypothetically, that's all fine and dandy but we all know life isn't perfect.

[HakunaMatata]

No, Mona, you're the mind reader. Meanie!

To the second question: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Without that ill-will, people are much, much better people, I've seen it.

For the longest time, I've believed in balance, because it used to make the most sense. It explained why there's sadness and evil, but I've come to believe that we don't get what we deserve. By removing all that ill will that caused the albino person to look down constantly, I don't think the world will just "balance" itself by having more pain to replace the old, I think overall the world will be much better.

After all, so many people say that they want to die knowing that they left the world better than when they arrived, but if the world was "balanced", then won't you be leaving it the same? If you caused more happiness, somewhere someone's must've felt more hurt.

[LadyNakuru]

i dont think its ever possible for ill feelings to be removed.
not even if you were to wish on a genie or something.
its just not possible.
same with world peace.
people will always want to break away from the norm; people will always think that they're better than others.
its the idea of superiority.
should society all be unique, or should everybody be the same?
bringing about the discussion of communism.

i dont think its really balanced, because ill feelings are honestly so immersed in society nowdays, the nicest people involuntarily think of the meanest things sometimes. because they're just used to it. they hear it all the time and their brain just absorbs it.

i definitely think it could be reduced. i WISH it would be reduced, cause man, its so irritating hearing people talk down about others like they're sooooooooo much better than them.
when we all know they arent.
ugghs.

[viugiufgjhfhjfhg...]

What if ill/harmful feelings were reduced/removed from society somehow? Would people be more forgiving and open-minded if they are surrounded only by such thoughts? Or do you think they serve as a balance to keep things in harmony? As in the yin&yang? Hypothetically, that's all fine and dandy but we all know life isn't perfect.

I think that it's possible for an individual to feel less inclined towards holding unnecessary and/or unfounded harmful feelings towards others, whereas how this could be extended to society as a whole remains a mystery to me ^^;.

In the long term, if social groups become used to coexisting and do get to know each other better part of the harmful feelings such as gender, race and physical discrimination (for example) could see their impact on society diminished. Still talking in a purely hypothetical sense, as a society grows richer in cultural terms it should be harder for the group to manatin old prejudices and misjudgements (as well as to create new ones).

Seeing as how humans as a whole tend to gather knowledge rather than to get dumber, there's room for moderate hope on a more decent future <.<;.

[*My Cinderella.*]

I'm kind of half and half on this. I mean, sure it would be swell if negative feelings in the world were eliminated and that would cause it to be a more peaceful environment, but that is only because we don't know any better. But it is a matter of balance, there will be the people in the world that will rebel agaisnt ignorance and negativity and there will be people who are the ignorant ones. Even if there is a greater number of one, it will still be in need of balance.

[*mona lisa*]

i dont think its ever possible for ill feelings to be removed.
not even if you were to wish on a genie or something.
its just not possible.
same with world peace.
people will always want to break away from the norm; people will always think that they're better than others.
its the idea of superiority.
should society all be unique, or should everybody be the same?
bringing about the discussion of communism.

i dont think its really balanced, because ill feelings are honestly so immersed in society nowdays, the nicest people involuntarily think of the meanest things sometimes. because they're just used to it. they hear it all the time and their brain just absorbs it.

i definitely think it could be reduced. i WISH it would be reduced, cause man, its so irritating hearing people talk down about others like they're sooooooooo much better than them.
when we all know they arent.
ugghs.

I know it isn't possible but pretend it were. :) I agree that it could be reduced but that would still be very difficult. It's difficult to overcome personal bias and to completely accept others unless you were foced to do so somehow. Say if you were locked in a cell with someone you really despised, you could actually like him/her (that is, if you didn't grab each other's throats first :P).

I think that it's possible for an individual to feel less inclined towards holding unnecessary and/or unfounded harmful feelings towards others, whereas how this could be extended to society as a whole remains a mystery to me ^^;.

In the long term, if social groups become used to coexisting and do get to know each other better part of the harmful feelings such as gender, race and physical discrimination (for example) could see their impact on society diminished. Still talking in a purely hypothetical sense, as a society grows richer in cultural terms it should be harder for the group to manatin old prejudices and misjudgements (as well as to create new ones).

Haha, yeah. Things get a lot more complicated if you apply something that sounds simple to all of society.

Seeing as how humans as a whole tend to gather knowledge rather than to get dumber, there's room for moderate hope on a more decent future <.<;.

Even though becoming dumb is probably not intended, it seems like it. :(

I love what Queen Rania of Jordan said on Oprah: "Once you feel that others are like you, then you want for others what you want for yourself. And that way you start helping others ... Once you go beyond the mannerisms, the language, the cultural idiosyncrasies, you realize that you're basically the same."

Oh, how true.

[viugiufgjhfhjfhg...]

I love what Queen Rania of Jordan said on Oprah: "Once you feel that others are like you, then you want for others what you want for yourself. And that way you start helping others ... Once you go beyond the mannerisms, the language, the cultural idiosyncrasies, you realize that you're basically the same."

Oh, how true.

Problem is that she mentions changes at an individual level, and those happen a lot faster than those that affect entire societies >_>;. Still, the process itself is pretty much the same.

[demolished]

Not to be rude, but it reminds me of Michael Jackson except he's not albino.

He used to have his natural blackness, now its whiteness. It aint cool.

anyways ...

As you know, we are all shallow. We're easily shallow toward others but we can control our shallowness. Shallowness cannot disappear in humanity, I believe.

I sure all of you had heard this before, "never judge or the book cover" ... something like that.