Illusions part 2/2

I think this article can be read alone, but I suggest reading the first part first. Because, well... it comes first.



I said it before: this is just a rant. Just a way to calm and to express myself. Yet, I don't like people who just complain. I want explanations and, if possible, solutions. So here are my explanations and maybe solutions.

Let me give you some background.
I spent my New Year's in the Everglades National Park. It was through an interschool program called Partners In the Parks. The idea is to get students from all over the US to come together and camp, hike and learn something about different National Parks.
There are some very interesting things about it I want to mention related to the previous article.
First, the students there don't know each other for the most part. Which is very interesting if you think about it. 20 students from all over the country go camping to a swamp with alligators with complete strangers for a week. Tell me, how many people would do that? I understand National Parks might not be everyone's thing, but imagine going to an event of your choosing and then think if you'd go there for a week if you knew you wouldn't know anyone. We had to sleep in a campground with just the basic needs covered, sleep in tents  and cook with people we knew less than a day and together we had to survive tens of mosquitoes bites during the evenings. I don't want to say it was hard to do as well as I don't want to say that there only a few people who'd do it, personally I loved it, but let me ask you: would you do it? Or would you be too scared, worried or stressed you wouldn't even think about it?
I think a lot of people wouldm't come and I understand. It is an uncomfortable situation. It's not the comfort zone.
But there are people who just love this idea. Approximately 15 students for every park in the program are excited to do this. They want to travel, meet new people, see the parks and enjoy it together. They are most likely worried and scared, but they still do it.

Let me ask another question: how many people would be willing to do it in their 20s? How many people in their 30s? And how many people would do such a thing in their 40s, 50s or older?
I don't mean it as an offense to the older generation.We had three advisors and one student in the range of late 30s to 40s,  I think. I'm just asking a question if older people, in general, are not too comfortable and too scared to do things like this. I'm pretty sure it is true, simply because I've heard many times something like this: "do the stupid things while you're young. Travel, drop out of school because once you're older (30+ seemed to be always implied) you'll never do it."

Let's consider another thing.
When I was speaking to the people in the Everglades or to my schoolmates, the topic of conversation seemed to be a lot about humanity, about the future, about global warming, about wars and in general about topics that are very important for humans. And when I speak to people in my generation, the uniting theme seems to be helping people and changing the world. In the Everglades, at the end of the week, almost everyone was determined to help the Everglades. They wanted to be advocates for the parks, for global warming and they were excited about doing whatever they can to help in the future. They all wanted to do good in their respective fields.
Now let's look for example at my mom. I don't want to offend her, one reason being that I completely understand her, but the point is that she told me she talked about all those things when she was younger too. She was thinking about the future of humanity, about the way people behave and she admitted it. I'm pretty sure she wanted to help too. Yet, the two of us never talked about that. We say each other almost anything, we talk about a lot of things and we used to talk about politics, news and the people. But only to think about it and to help each other with understanding it. Which is a great thing, of course, but we never talked about helping or changing anything. We talked about it because we were curious, we talked about it to learn.

I mentioned the refugee crisis already, but I honestly believe that there is a difference between the way my generations thinks about them and the way my parents generation thinks about them.
One similar example is global warming. There is a big generational difference. This could be explained easily, but in my generation no one doubts it and no one doubts it is caused by humans. Older generations are very skeptical about it. And again, there are reasons to be skeptical, but it seems very strange to deny global warming and to deny it's a consequence of human behavior.
I'm not saying the young generation is always right, we are not, but we do have one very important advantage. Young mind! And having a young mind doesn't mean you think better, but it means you have been affected by the surrounding for a shorter time.
We're coming back to the first part of being scared and of being too comfortable. Young people are less scared. They are more naive and the reasons are simple: they have been watching the media for a shorter time. They have seen less of the infinite human stupidity and unawareness.  They haven't been drilled to be scared of traveling because it's dangerous for 40 years, but only for 20. They haven't been told to be scared of others for such a long time. They haven't been told to fear strangers so many times. They haven't been told to be careful not to offend anyone. They haven't been told for that long that disagreeing is wrong. They have also been influenced by their peers who, at least sometimes, tell them to do "stupid things" like traveling, arguing, hitchhiking, talking to strangers and trying to change things.
On the other hand, their parents tell them things like "It used to be different. It's dangerous to hitchhike now. Not anymore." or they say: "World is much dangerous now. People kill each other for no reason, but it wasn't like that in my time."
Really? Honestly, is that really true or is it just mind playing tricks on you. Or the media being overly emotional and sensational?

Yet, the progress here seems inevitable. As we grow older we become same as our parents, because the world is still the same. It's not more, or less, dangerous. It is the same. And because our culture is basically the same, we will become same as our parents.
We will become selfish so we can keep our lives "safe", yet living in constant fear of others.
We will be "comfortable", yet living with constant stress and worry about money or what others think of us.
We will start believing the media that "Florida is the most dangerous place, and you can't never ever hitchhike there because people will just kill you. People in Florida are just insane."
We become "socialized." Socialized in a capitalistic world, which supports only selfish and egoistic behavior.
We become fearful for our own survival while having our needs covered several times more than is really needed.
We become envious for people who have one more bathroom in their house or bigger car while having things 90% of the world can't even imagine.

I said it before and I said it again: this is a rant. And I'll say other things: this is generalization and simplification on an immense scale. I am aware of that. I admit some of the claims can be easily disproven, and I'm not saying I am right. All I do is rant and express my opinions. You might have a completely different view and you might not even understand where I got all this. That's all fine.
What I ask for though is following: don't accept or reject this article. Don't just nitpick and say one thing is not true, so the whole message is wrong. Your experience of people might be completely different. But I also know most of the people who will read it are capable of understanding what I'm trying to say even with having little to no experience with the things described. Think about the message I'm conveying.  If you're not sure about anything, comment on it and ask clarifying questions. Then, observe for yourself. And after all this, decide on your own.

Decide if it is worth to believe in the culture we have here. Decide if the news are worth watching, then decide which ones. Travel the world to actually see if you get robbed, raped or killed as many times as people claim it happens. Hitchhike to confirm the belief that it's not possible nowadays. Do drugs.
What? I understand the traveling, but drugs? You can't be serious. Drug really are dangerous.
How do you know? Who told you that? Have you tried them?
I'm doing all of those things I mentioned and I can assure you that if you're careful, you'll be safe. Don't be stupid, don't just wave your money on the street. Don't provoke and be respectful of other cultures. Don't take unknown drugs with people you barely know. But, and this is important, do it, so you know. Truly know and see for yourself.

I admit I tried a lot of illegal drugs, and thanks to that I also know most people have very strange misconceptions about them. They received their information mostly from the news or scared adults, who got their information from news or other scared people. If you are skeptical about the news when they talk about the global warming, refugees or the risk of being killed thanks to hitchhiking, terrorists or a hurricane (which are all unbelievably low), then why not be skeptical about drugs? Do your own research. Look up their effects and their risks. And yes! Try drugs to see for yourself.
I plan to try to convince my mom to try LSD in summer. Would I really do it if it was as dangerous as some people claim? Am I really that stupid? Maybe I am. And maybe you have no idea what LSD really does and how dangerous it is. I'm not advocating all drugs, but MDMA and LSD are being studied as a possible therapy for people with PTSD, anxieties or even alcoholism (crazy, right?). Look up Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, you might be surprised.

Some time ago my friend posted an article on FB about an air pollution in Beijing. The article said that because of the ban of cars, the citizens are able to see a blue and clear sky for the first time in ages. That makes sense, right? We all know that the air in Beijing must be really bad. Yet, another friend who was in Beijing just a few weeks before that commented on the article and said something like: "I spent in Beijing 3 weeks in total during summer and winter and most of the time it was ok. I have heaps of pictures with blue sky."

People living in Manhattan believe that going to the Bronx will get you killed. Or robbed in the better case. Almost 1.5 million of people live in the Bronx. Do you really think that they are scared every day of going home? Are they permanently scared of being raped or killed? How would that even work? Who would live here if it worked like that?
I don't have any statistics, and I might believe it is more dangerous than other boroughs, but still, think about it. Do you honestly believe it is as dangerous as some people make it so?
If you are at least a little bit skeptical, ask them where did they receive their opinions.
Most people who told me the Bronx is dangerous haven't even been there!
Most people who told me hitchhiking is dangerous now have never tried it or they tried it many years ago the last time.
Most people who say drugs are dangerous have never tried them.
Most people who tell you to not travel to certain countries have never been there.
I'm not saying the world is safe. I'm not saying drugs are safe. I'm saying do your own research and don't believe when people are trying to scare you. See for yourself. Be careful of course, but see for yourself. If you believe nothing bad, or even something good, will happen, you will probably be surprised by how nice people are and how much are they willing to help to complete strangers.

Digressing a bit.

What I really ask for is this:
Think about your opinions and ideas. Verify them on your own.

This seems obvious, but there is something more important:
Don't stop being fearless. Don't lose your naivety.  Do all the things people say are dangerous, irresponsible and stupid. Believe in the goodness of people. Believe they are just like you and give them a chance without judging. Continue helping people. Don't listen to people discouraging you. Offend people by asking the wrong questions. Argue with people, so they are forced to question their opinions.

This is mostly directed to the young people, but I ask everyone to think and fight their fears because they are mostly unjustified. Don't judge before seeing for yourself, before trying things. Embrace being uncomfortable and try feeling like that a lot.
In the Everglades, I said something I want to become my new way of living.
If you feel uncomfortable about something, then that should be the only reason you need to do it.

I know this article won't change anything, but if you read it please think about it and save it. Save it for yourself and look at it every few years to see which way is your thinking going.
Are you becoming fearful of people and of trying new things?
Are you becoming more selfish and egoistic?
Are you being affected by what other people are saying?

Remember the thing about the self-fulfilling prophecy? That is exactly what is happening to the world.
It will be more dangerous if we're all scared of each other.