It's a silly notion, that somehow travelling around the sun a certain number of times makes you somehow more advanced than your peers... I imagine this came from older times where survival was difficult and not any part a given: when the environment would put pressures onto your sustainability and survival on a day-to-day basis, then making it from one year to the next would probably take a good deal of work. However, even that in itself implies some type of existence far richer than anything we are exposed to at the bare-minimum of survival nowadays: surviving against elements requires focus, reaction, learning, and a sort of hunter-gatherer dance of life and death. Even subsistence farming requires you to care for and nurture other living creatures, for your survival is based entirely on each one of theirs, but hopefully you could make it worth more than that in the process of the 'daily grind'. However, this archaic notion seems to have propagated into our modern paradigm, where the difficulties of the survival loop have finally been circumvented by population-wide efforts of food distribution and necessities being provided for. The fact that someone may have seemingly survived a number of years doesn't mean anything any longer, because literally any person still alive can do that, and our environment of survival has become a pretty homogeneous civil existence(well, anyone that I have ever met anyway). Honoring 'elders', especially those who are under the age of about ~60, is a waste of reverence in most cases, and I don't mean disrespect when I say that, but chances are, they lived, and are living the same life that you are living, and will live, give or take a few letters or symbols or faces, or a brand or two, maybe a different road or a slightly different location here and there. The setting changes, but the experience remains the same, and yet there they are, years beyond you, and nothing to teach you from avoiding their fate(although some will try to convince you that a few more dollars are waiting for you if you do X or Y). It's fascinating that there are hundreds of millions of other people living the exact same life, with a very similar array of feelings toward the components of this life(job, construct of marriage, closed family-units, etc) and none of them have committed to trying to change it. I mean, some have, of course, but the fact that not enough have to make a dent on this style of life, in a positive way, leads me to believe a great majority of people lack confidence in their ability to create change, and I believe I have isolated the point of their doubt.
A lot of people I talk to about their original ideas don't seem to believe that 'others', or the part of our minds we reserve for the mass of people we have never met, don't see the world the same way they do. Or somehow, they don't have the same opinions of things, especially if they have developed to some complexity. There seems to be a certain doubt that our minds could possibly have the same opinionated direction, or that given the same net of information, we wouldn't draw similar opinions from it. It's like people assume that somehow, our needs are all selfishly different, and the things we desire and extrapolate from these needs are even more different... It's sad to assume you couldn't relate to someone you don't know, as that's the same as closing the door to every person you've never met before. Somehow, people forget that the same way they have friends, and they have connections that relate to those friends, other people, even strangers, have friends, and they connect to their friends in the same way. There seems to be an air of doubt that we are all in fact human, or perhaps doubt that there are things that ALL humans in fact do: they doubt that there is glue to our race. However, historically speaking, we are collaborative in nature, with the trend of evolving societies occurring for literally all of document-able human history, from tribes to civilizations to the rise of nations, people have come together, unified, and attempted to stand up for what they believe. The issues arise when they experience the different: perhaps a different color of skin, a different language, a different view of the divine, or a different view of society, and another unified factor takes a stand: fear. All cognitive beings on this planet experience fear: fear as a defense mechanism to keep us from acting without knowing, fear as a mechanism of survival, but fear also as a restrictive entity for us to experience or attempt something new: perhaps attempting to communicate with someone from another place, or attempt to speak another language, or just try some new type of anything. We are afraid of somehow being mislead by those things we consider external to us: sources of information, people, instincts, and senses(people can externalize and doubt literally everything that is a part of them). So sad that some would actually doubt their innate senses, given any amount of input or tweaking. They doubt alternate states of mind, they doubt the 'reality' of their own experience, and how sad and draining it must be to sign one-self to this, for societies sake(a society that does not serve, no less).
However, in these times, it is important to remember that we are unified through nature. We are all brought in to this world the same way. We all have a mother and a father. We all have a need to survive. We all had a childhood, and we all felt love at some point, for that was our creation. We all feel pleasure, we all have access to emotions(although some suppress this, it is part of your experience, and it is meant to be felt, for a reason, always). We all have means of learning, from birth, throughout life. We all have the capability to conquer challenges, and we all have the capacity for change, for we ourselves have changed before and can again, or we would not be here. For these reasons, the human spirit remains a connecting force between people, and a sound reason in itself for faith in the progress of the species and the capacity for understanding between all people: we have foundation, and with foundation, connection can be built. We are learning always, for if we weren't, there would be no difference between today and the next day, and the one after. Individuals have the choice to learn or not, and that choice is simply a matter of paying attention, being cognitive, giving respect to the moment you are in. This is universal, to all species, to all creatures. The heart and the mind are our greatest teachers, when treated with respect.
[[Also, personal side note, what I have gathered from many people, is that the way you view strangers as a mass(aka the way you view 'the rest of society') and your perception of how they act, is often actually the way you treat strangers initially, and they simply respond to fit the mold you have provided for them(a self-fulfilling prophesy in a way). While there are some exceptions to this(~5% of people :P) most strangers will respond to this in this way with repeatable accuracy. Obviously, test it for yourself, if you don't believe me, but I believe this is a quality innate to the mind.
Therefore, if you have a problem trusting the rest of the world, if you believe strangers are greedy and lonely and selfish and rude, I would say the problem more than likely lies within, as I know many many people who would not fit this mold, many many people who are innately good, many many people who simply want to get along with everyone and are simply looking for signs to be comfortable around you, and when given such a sign, are more than comfortable to be friends.]]
That's all today, you are your own master, you control your own destiny, and you guide your own journey, every step of the way, Love and Light :)
