Thursday August 25, 2016 #825

“And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone or that’s an evil one because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.”

 ~Phillip Pullman (from The Amber Spyglass)

825

In our ever more polarized world, we see constant effort to label people who do not share our world view as “evil” or at least as people to avoid.  This is incredibly damaging to our society, community, workplaces and families.  Instead of falling into this insidious negative impulse, seek to be a unifier by avoiding such labels and look for those things that can bring us together rather than separate us.  In almost all cases, the people you may be vilifying actually have far more in common with you than you realize.  We will never improve our world by creating separation through labels.  It is only by seeking common ground that we will come together to solve real problems.