» Sat Aug 23, 2014 8:34 am What would you choose?
I recently thought on this. I know it's a loaded question and the proper reaction is that one should truly think on it before rushing to name something, but this one hit me like a sack of bricks and I cannot for the life of me think of a better answer:
I wish people were more self-aware, true to themselves and able to recognize and accept who they are.
If you're wondering what I mean, let me use Honest Hearts as the example. If you don't know, that's a DLC for one of Bethesda's (published, before someone anol-retentive with OCD has to point this out) titles, Fallout New Vegas.
The DLC is about just that: Honest Hearts. It features two main characters who are the main literary tools for getting the overarching message across: Daniel and Joshua Graham. The two are each other's foils. Daniel is honest with himself and aware of who he is, all his strengths, faults and traits, but is not above lying to others. Joshua Graham on the other hand would never lie to someone about the atrocities he's commited, but he's dishonest with himself. He's incapable of recognizing who he truly is and what makes him tick. You, as the player, are of course given the opportunity to remedy the faults of both characters, but you can also watch what happens if you let their faults continue to exist. In my opinion, while both are travesties, the results of a person that lies to themselves are more tragic. I'm talking both about in game (Joshua Graham can lead to the deaths of hundreds, Daniel can only completely destroy the life of one person and harm one tribe) and real life. I mean, there's even this paradox where if a person like Daniel lies to you, they can AT LEAST confess to it when confronted, but that doesn't happen with a character like Graham, because they themselves buy into the lies and they themselves are deceived by the excuse they feed themselves.
The thing is....I believe no human being wants to do wrong. None of us are born and think "MWAHAHAHAHA, I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL MY MOTOR SKILLS AND COGNITIVE THINKING ABILITIES FULLY DEVELOP SO I CAN DESTROY THE WORLD!" No, we tend to learn what we see. Monkey see, monkey do. And the thing is, all of us grew up to loving parents, whether that be your blood relatives or a society that cared enough to raise you as it's own. We learn love before hate, and we're more prone to love. As such, I think anyone is typically taken aback by the thought of them personally potentially doing something wrong.
So what leads to wrongdoing? There's still many potential causes and factors, but the most common one? Lying to yourself. Convincing yourself that what you're doing isn't actually wrong. Do you think corrupt politicians go home and can't sleep at night cause they hate how corrupt they are? No, they can probably sleep at night. And it's not because they're inheritly evil, but because some lobbyists genuinely argued a pragmatic and logical angle for why their stance on a political issue is the best choice and happened to toss some cash into the argument to. The lobbyists themselves can sleep too truly believing that they're fighting for the greater good and therefore bribery in this context is ok, or at the very least they're looking out for their "family" in the form of their company and all the kind, hard-working people (and their families) that work in it and depend on it to put food on the table. This is the slippery slope that leads to such events.
And that's how it can arise as an issue on a larger scale. On top of that are hundreds of people with absolute ZERO honesty about who they are on almost every front, leading to rather dysfunctional lives with limited capabilites, whether it hinder their work life, social life or other aspect. We've all met someone on the internet with a much larger ego than warranted, we all know these types. The sad truth is these people don't get far and yet we all know how much havoc and stress they can cause for a community (online or no).
So for me, if I ask myself what problem have I encountered more than -ANY- other problem in the world? What problem have I encountered more frequently than any other, and what problem do I think would have the largest and most profound universally good impact on the world? If we could get people to stop lying to themselves, be concious of who they are and live their lives that way. Know you didn't accept that lobbyist argument mostly for the logical points, it was the money that swayed you most. Know you didn't even with a good intention, that doesn't change if the act is wrong. Know who you are and you'll know peace.
