The razor's edge of two sides

 Currently the world is divided in many ways. We have the two sides of politics raging in every country around the world, with racism or cultural differences being big voting cards. Religion is a big deal, especially with the war in Gaza/Israel, with the "right wing radicals" and "liberal lefties".  The radicalness of either side or party, differs from country to country though they both sharing an ever increasing violence and hatred towards each other. The personal opinions and preferences held by people are causing huge strains, making it harder to "love thy neighbour as thyself", when our neighbour is so different from us.

The mainstream media, i.e. TV, newspapers, etc. send mixed messages like never before, depending which paper your read or channel you watch. But now we have social media with it's hinky algorithms that constantly bombard and dictate our "feeds" with updates, news and articles, a lot of it fake news and misleading titles designed to send spam directly to our email inboxes. The algorithms are delicate mechanisms the flicker and change with every "like", "view" or scroll. Don't pause on the reels, my son told me the other day, or else you will get more videos of people you don't even know or like. I found this out recently when viewing a performance by Robert Smith (leadman from the Cure) with Olivia Rodrigo, a current pop sensation. For weeks after, I had constant "highlights" and reels of Olivia or OR as she's been branded, and while I don't dislike her, I prefer the Cure. My reels are back to being full of the Cure and I seldom see  Olivia, but it took some "curation" on my part to get my feed normal again.

This is a light-hearted look at the "two sides" of every story, coin, performance and so forth. However, people, in general, don't flip the coin and have a look at the other side and that's where an imbalance of beliefs and opinions can occur. The "right" and the "left" has never been more pronounced in society since the 1950's 60's eras, as what it is now. If you are pro-Israel, you are obviously on the "right" side of politics, religion, humanity, whatever you want to call it. If you support Joe Biden, you are a socialist "leftie". Pro guns, facist. Anti- guns, liberal jerk. The name calling between the two sides is appalling. No wonder people are picking up guns and shooting each other - it's the only way that anyone is going to shut up. Shocking! True - yes! Worrying- very! The disregard for human life has reached an all-time high.

What I consider to be more disturbing is the inability of people to sensibly divine truth, and also to accept differing opinions amongst one another. For myself, I did get vaccinated against covid during the pandemic. However, I am hesitant to tell a person, often a friend who is anti-vax, that I am vaccinated as I will possibly get brow beaten by the truth as they see about vaccines or abused for "taking the jab". These days it seems that we can only speak our truth to those who share the same truth. Scary!

 Now, obviously, I don't always agree with some of my friends and family's beliefs and opinions but I would rather spare the relationship by not arguing or trying to convince them of my point of view or staunchly held beliefs than let the "discussion" get to the point where we no longer speak at all! Do we really have to hate someone for being different?  Or is being right more important that just getting along with our neighbour whoever they may be?

There is a well-worn saying that "hurting people hurt people". The world seems to be full of a bunch of hurters right now. We hear the word "forgiveness" bandied around but only if the other person goes first. I read naff phrases like, "the light overcomes the darkness" - but what is darkness anymore? And where does it lie? Is one man's light, another man's enemy? 

Who knows? I don't. But in the words of a popular meme "if you can be anything, be kind," and how hard can that be, right?

Below is an excerpt from an article my friend shared online this morning:-

One thing that has become really clear since yesterday is that we live in at least two different realities. Talking to a friend who only knew Charlie (Kirk) as a Christian motivational speaker because that's all that ever came across her feed. She showed me videos I've never seen before of him saying perfectly reasonable and empowering things.

I showed her videos she'd never seen before of his racism, misogyny, homophobia, advocating for violence against specific groups of people. She was horrified by his remarks about Pelosi's husband's attacker being bailed out and celebrated for his violent act. She was horrified by a number of things that he said, but she had never seen or heard them before, the same as I had never seen or heard the generalized clips of him sounding like a perfectly nice loving man and father.

Neither of us had a whole picture of this man. I mentioned he was a known white supremacist and she thought I was joking. She talked about him giving a speech about finding your purpose and doing good in the world and I thought she was joking....

Here's a photo of my dog walking on the razor's edge of the two sides of every story.