In the scheme of things, that aren’t so grand, the debate between democrats and republicans makes no sense anymore. Arbitrary words for arbitrary people. What was a defining stance has become a comical joke. We need to start looking and debating who we are as a people. Instead of hate posts and calling each other out for our political affiliations, let us discuss what makes us the same, not different. Regardless of your ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, we should start seeing ourselves as the same human species trying to survive on this rock hurtling through space. The fact that we even exist as we are is a miracle. So why the hate? Why treat someone differently based on what they look like? Why judge someone for wanting to live a certain way? How does it affect our daily life?

Instead of making statements, we should be asking questions. Figuring out why someone wants to be the way they are. Now, if someone wants to shove their beliefs or ideals down the throat of someone else, that’s not okay either. There is something called the common ground and if we can meet there, well then we can discuss our “differences”. It will make us uncomfortable, causing psychological pain; however, from this discomfort we can grow as human beings. Make the world livable for all of us and not just the few. Truly embrace the ideals of our fore fathers that wrote the Constitution of the United States. Freedom of speech, religion, etc… things that allow us to look inward and decide whom we want to be.

At the end of the day, cliche I know, we only have to truly live with ourselves and our perception or reality. Letting others dictate your emotions sullies the human experience. Great philosophers of the past and present talk about living virtuously. This can be imagined by living a life where everyone is allowed to live their life. No one is going to make you happy, nothing is going to make you happy, not in the way you think you should be happy. Happiness is a theory of what we think we should be at all times. We rely on other things to get us there and when we finally feel it, well we want more and more. Like that old children’s book, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”. We always look for perfection instead of embracing the imperfection. The only way to truly be “happy” or as I like to call it content, is to realize that suffering is inevitable. It’s how we handle it that makes the difference.

There are a lot of great authors and philosophers that have espoused the same rhetoric and I would be remiss to not bring attention to them. One of them is Mark Manson. This man wrote “The Subtle Art of Not giving a Fuck” and “Everything is Fucked: A Book About Hope”. He touches on a lot of the same ideas. Ideas that Plato, the father of Western Philosophy started. The fact that the idea of virtuous living started so long ago shows the Human condition being a point of discontent amongst even those long deceased. Hopefully there will be a time where we focus on what makes us Human and not what makes us different. Until that day, we will live in a world that cannot show compassion in the biggest of arenas. The world court.