Respect for The Human Condition

Consider taking one day off this week from laughing at other’s misfortune.  Take just one day of your week where you will refrain from making fun of and making derogatory remarks about others.  While you are taking this day off from being laughingly judgmental of others take note of how many times others are respectful or not respectful to you.  Keep a tally of both on a sheet of paper with two columns and at the end of the day see which list has the most entries.  Then ask yourself how you feel about the way you were treated on the one day when you did not engage in making sport of others for your own amusement.  Even if you work from home or don’t socialize very much you can still participate.  You do not have to set one foot outside of your door on this day, but if you answer the telephone or have a presence on a social network it is extremely likely that you will have a long list of insults and humiliations that were heaped upon you in just one day’s time regardless of whether or not you make any actual physical contact with people.  Your experiment is void if you return any of the “disrespects” that you received.   If your list in the “I was respected” column is longer than your list in the “I was disrespected” one, you probably don’t live in America.  It may seem to you that many of the “disrespects” were all done in good fun but for this one day they should be regarded as not fun and not well intentioned.  Did it bother you to not retaliate when someone remarked to you or about you in a rude way?  How many people were deserving of getting their ass kicked?  If you had been in a position to kick their ass would you have done it? 

A man named Dannion Brinkley was struck by lightning, declared dead and taken to the morgue some years ago.  He awoke from the “dead” and had a profound experience while he was technically “on the other side”.  I won’t go into his metamorphosis as a result of his experience.  Instead, I would recommend that you read his book “Saved By The Light” or watch the film that was adapted from the book, which stars Eric Roberts. The book is available at Amazon in both print and Kindle edition.  The film can be viewed on YouTube. 

When Dannion came back from the other side he was confronted with himself, big time!  He had been a bully and a smart ass all of his life.  He had hurt a lot of people and had been a reckless jerk.  He realized that he had a lot of making up to do in order to go on with his life with respect and meaning for himself.  He had to take a trip to the past in a very painful way.   He took on the task of making amends for his past behavior like a true adult but there were many people who were not forgiving. 

If it were possible I would wish a lightning strike upon a large portion of the human race.  As bad as things have gotten in this world I don’t know that anything else would be effective upon what people now regard as fun and acceptable behavior.  I can’t imagine anyone liking being rudely treated and harassed.  Why so many people believe that acting like jackasses to others is something they are entitled to has various causes, but it is in part a symptom of a long list of role models in film and television, and many in our own homes who display this type of behavior in our faces constantly.  It is truly a difficult thing to escape unless you live in a cave, which I have a few times considered doing, but in the absence of a cave with electricity and running water I haven’t quite made it to the point where I am willing to go completely off the grid.

Johnny Ramone tells in the documentary “End of The Century: The Story of The Ramones” about how he was such a bad-ass that he would get up in the morning just looking for ways to cause trouble for others.  He tells that he was walking down the street one day and “It just hit me.  It was like a voice going, what are you doing? Is this what you’re here for?  Is this what God put us here for?”.  I wish that this kind of epiphany would be visited on so many people right now.  Our behavior is causing the loss of countless lives every single day, when those who have been abused decide that they have had enough and either go to their workplace or school with guns in retaliation.  This type of retaliation is a result of the loss of respect for others and a loss of sanity.  It is a learned behavior that is created, not in-born and not something that we can blame on our birth chart.  How the bullies and the loudmouths out there can go on believing that their actions are of little consequence requires a complete disconnect from being human and total selfishness.  Just recently when actress Emma Watson spoke out about the need for more gender equality and caring about the rights of others there were some who were so jaded and ignorant that they created a web site to promote their view of what should happen to Ms. Watson as a result of her just caring what happens to others and daring to suggest that we should learn a better way.  Although the original “You’re Next” website turned out to be a hoax, the cheers for it’s sentiment beforehand were distressingly 100% real.

If you are incapable of taking stock of what is happening in your world and looking at what your contribution to the madness may be, you are in serious danger of being a factor in this never ceasing to corrupt and gaining so much of a stranglehold on what is considered to be normal behavior that we will never be able to evolve it out of the culture.  It is possible that you may not realize the extent of your own contribution, but if you can, for just one day this week be mindful of what you are saying and doing with regard to others.  You will be taking a seemingly small, but in reality giant step toward making more people aware of what they have been doing to others on a daily basis.  Change happens one person at a time and you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot make others stop this kind of behavior toward you but you need to be mindful of what it will take to begin the change in a culture that has been harassed and bullied so much that it is incapable of taking the abuse any longer without making this an even more unsafe place for everyone. 

Does it really take lightning to strike us in order to discover that we are here for only a short time and we have the ability to make that brief visit to planet earth something that we can be truly happy about?  If it does, consider stepping outside during the next thunderstorm because we need you to discover your true worth and contribution to what you can make of this life.  Start with just one day of being a non-contributor to the disrespect of the human condition.  You are the new role model.  Our current ones are failing miserably.