MAVERICK

The Yin and the Yang: a case for going our separate ways

Countless times everyday I catch myself judging and condemning people around me based on their behaviour, their appearance, or their way of thinking (or rather lack of it altogether). I'm not proud of it, I don't feel I need it in my life, and above all it isn't pleasing since it only digs deeper in a sense of frustration and hopelessness. But I can't help it. Because I know I'm right and they are wrong.

I guess you may say I belong to the category of 'self-righteous' people, and I won't deny it: but after all who doesn't think the same, beneath the all too common facade of a phoney tolerance, that is. The only difference is that I have little tolerance for hypocrisy as well, and so I shall call it like it is.

At the same time I know perfectly well that my vision of life isn't the only possible one, and I know perfectly well that those on the other side, the ones that I so despise, think differently and deem themselves to be right whilst seeing those like me as unreasonable, at best. I'm all too aware of this, as well as of the lack of any possible common ground between us.

The divide is so profound that there is no chance of us ever understanding each other. There can only be friction, hatred and reciprocal condemnation on every instance of our crossing each other path.

So, even as deep within I feel I am right and they are just despicable, I logically accept that their view has the same right to exist as mine, or rather that these views both exist, and that this is a fact of life that we all have to accept whether we like it or not.

I find so laughable every attempt to reconcile in any way these opposite views: it's like trying to have together light and darkness, it just can't be done. And I frankly don't even care of any such attempt. All I want is to be able to live according to my ways and my principles, among others who share the same ways and principles, and never have anything to do with the 'evil' side at all. If possible, even forget that it exists.

And this summerises pretty well the case that I'm pleading for: that we should just go our separate ways, that we ought to live our different lives, and never even come close to each other. Each perfectly free and content to live the way we like it, without ever interfering with or, worse still, trying to 'convert' the opposite side.