A few ideas...

You know, I was just sitting here thinking about why people are the way they are. I mean, when we hear about two misguided teens beating the hell out of some other teen for no apparent reason or about a bunch of people from one group coming together to persecute someone else simply because they are different or their ideals don’t exactly match our own. I mean, what is it that makes one person’s world view or moral code so superior to others? What gives one person the inclination to endanger the welfare of someone else because something about them is different? Part of me wants to think it’s just stupidity or simple ignorance and perhaps it is but a couple other ideas also come to mind. Because this type of behavior is so widespread and is almost always linked to certain groups, ideologies, institutions or subtle teachings passed along and conditioned- it must be a cultural dynamic. And then why do these people so blindly follow the herd? Here I imagine brainless zombies walking around destroying those that aren’t like them or converting them into the same mindless go-through-the-motions stupor. 

Here are a few ideas: there is a part of human development that many of us go through, which is essential to developing a healthy mind- a mind that can be skeptical, capable of critical thinking and independent thought. It is a stage of questioning, where we separate ourselves from the ideals of our parents, our institutions or even those that we thought of as friends and begin to formulate our own ideologies, philosophies and interests. In many instances this can resemble rebellion but it doesn’t have to. I think those around us that have some type of invested interested would rather suffocate us with their own control mechanisms and ideologies instead of seeing us lead independent lives and the primary motivator must be fear. The thing is- this is a healthy stage of human development and many people are forced to skip it. Even schools don’t seem to want to teach critical thinking, cultural awareness and learning about one’s self. And where does that leave creativity, human advancement and tolerance?

If we could get inside the heads of the people who are violent toward other groups, yell at other people because they are being different, those that take the rights of others away, or those that claim moral superiority, we wouldn’t see them at all. We would probably see the voices of their fathers or mothers, their preachers or religious groups, the bigotry of their social circles, the lies of their governments, the conditioning of their schools- so much so that the voices would have taken over any resemblance of their original self, turned it into a tiny shade of gray and replaced it with an identity of ignorance and/or hate...

Just a few ideas anyway…