Writer's Block: Eraser dust
Sep. 30th, 2011 02:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleen_fiction[Error: unknown template qotd]I would erase the intrinsic idea that most human beings have that anyone "Other" is someone to be feared. I know the place where it comes from is one that helped our ancestors to survive (because it told us that the thing that went "bump" in the night might be a bear coming to eat us or that a stranger might be a drain on resources already stretched thin by subsistence living), but I'd truly rather that our species never have made it to this point, instead of us being sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and generally horrible to anyone who doesn't fit within our specific definition of "normal" (which is something that literally varies from person to person and no one really has set values for anyway).
So yeah, I would eliminate the idea that there is a specific societal standard of "good" (other than not causing direct harm to my fellow human beings) that must be lived by in order to be accepted as a human being.
My identity doesn't hurt anyone. In fact, I have never intentionally caused harm to another person. Have I done things I'm not proud of? Yes. Have I hurt other people emotionally? Yes, many times, through thoughtless action and careless words. However, I have never gone out and with malice and forethought set out to hurt someone else. And no part of my identity supports my doing so.
Nothing about me condones intentionally harming other people. I know that intent is not magical and when I hurt someone, it hurts regardless of whether I meant to or not, but there's a reason that there is a legal difference between murder and manslaughter and that difference is intent.
Both deserve consequences, but malice and forethought should play a part in those consequences.
Nothing about me sets out to hurt anyone else and I'm not special. I firmly believe that most people don't want to hurt other people, but they have belief systems that are telling them that causing harm is okay. They are told that it's okay to ignore their inherent compassion and hurt those who are different from them in the name of a god or a country or some other basically imaginary construct that human beings have come up with.
Bottom line: I would erase all of the excuses and justifications that people use to rationalize hurting those who are different from them.
So yeah, I would eliminate the idea that there is a specific societal standard of "good" (other than not causing direct harm to my fellow human beings) that must be lived by in order to be accepted as a human being.
My identity doesn't hurt anyone. In fact, I have never intentionally caused harm to another person. Have I done things I'm not proud of? Yes. Have I hurt other people emotionally? Yes, many times, through thoughtless action and careless words. However, I have never gone out and with malice and forethought set out to hurt someone else. And no part of my identity supports my doing so.
Nothing about me condones intentionally harming other people. I know that intent is not magical and when I hurt someone, it hurts regardless of whether I meant to or not, but there's a reason that there is a legal difference between murder and manslaughter and that difference is intent.
Both deserve consequences, but malice and forethought should play a part in those consequences.
Nothing about me sets out to hurt anyone else and I'm not special. I firmly believe that most people don't want to hurt other people, but they have belief systems that are telling them that causing harm is okay. They are told that it's okay to ignore their inherent compassion and hurt those who are different from them in the name of a god or a country or some other basically imaginary construct that human beings have come up with.
Bottom line: I would erase all of the excuses and justifications that people use to rationalize hurting those who are different from them.
