Tag: Philosophy Writing

Philosophy – “When Race Doesn’t Matter” – 12/28/2022

“To think on a close friend for their race, or other surface-level detail, is to spit on your memories of them for what goes beneath that.”

– Modern Romanticism

At the point of knowing an individual for there to be a stable structure of trust, a person no longer needs to see them as a stranger. There has been bloomed a friendship, strengthened through trust, only possible because of the vulnerability of finding oneself comfortable enough to confess personal details that wouldn’t otherwise be told to anyone else. Those who wouldn’t be told such personal details are more of a stranger than this befriended individual who is trusted more.

At the point of being a friend, outside of perceiving that befriended individual as a stranger, there is no need to consider a surface-level detail as race. To courage, one has found themselves capable of stepping inside that individual’s life. What purpose was there to being ignorant of them, from the surface for which we could only see them as a stranger? There was no point, same as we cannot look back upon first meeting them to comprehend “why” or “how” we became their friend. There is no limitation to be needed in terms of an explanation, since ignorance, when we once considered them a stranger, was its own limitation. Beneath all surface-level details, there is infinity. There are an infinite number of possibilities, opportunities, and paths to get to know an individual even better. There is a universe that extends beyond the blue sky for two individuals to grow their friendship together.

Why would race matter, when we can get to know someone? Upon knowing them, we no longer refer to them through their race. Instead, we refer to them with details only we know. We can use their name, and if we trust another person enough for a more in-depth detail, we can share that knowledge as well.

If race matters, we are admitting that ignorance, not knowledge, matters. At the same time, we are admitting that fear, not courage, matters. None of these things matter, for as ignorance is aligned with fear, there is never a legitimate reason to remain ignorant or in fear. For people with phobias of spiders, blood, or of heights, it is the same thing. Exposure, for the purpose of conquering such fears, is also with the purpose of stepping outside the bounds of ignorance and avoidance, in order to see the truth. To see the truth, not the facts, since one has, through trust, been able to form a connection out of what is similar, not merely different as strangers may interpret each other. It is not the facts, for facts do not change, though people do. It is truth, because truth, unlike facts, are moldable, as are people. Through gaining their trust, we are trusted with details they would not share to anyone else. As in, they have grown to be comfortable with us, instead of being comfortable with being ignorant and avoidant.

Conquering one’s fear, finding out what is true and also similar to oneself, is the same as recognizing that oneself always has the possibility of being someone else’s fear. As someone else can be a stranger to us, we are a stranger to other people as well. Should betrayal incur, because there is no longer a perception of mutual sameness due to change, a person can become unrecognizable and be no different than something to fear. That fear is now upon being afraid of a repeat of that event of betrayal. However, that fear of being betrayed cannot turn that individual back towards the comfort of ignorance and avoidance.

With the idea of befriending someone else, we have been able to open a book, instead of believing we can know anything by its cover. If we still say that race matters, then we are admitting that a book cover, not its details within its pages, holds importance. A book cover will relate to race. That book’s pages in its details and stories will relate to the person, themselves. Are we ever willing to believe that our own stories aren’t terrifying enough to be labelled as a genre, like horror? It is to mean that we might believe, through some inward conceit, that we are incapable of becoming someone else’s fear. Should anyone be judgmental enough, upon a singular book, to steer clear of it only because of what’s illustrated on the front cover? If it’s romance, though romance doesn’t matter to one person, is romance all it is? In the same sense, if it’s a different race of an individual, while we are still believing that race matters, is that race any kind of representation of that person? We should not think so, when we have yet to compare that person’s story to our own to see similarities, enough for a connection or a friendship.

Philosophy – “A Criticism of Pride” – 6/5/2022

“Out of how we can be better than others, we feel pride. Pride signals a betterment of us, over others, making it meant for an accomplishment. Even without the boast, we can speak of the betterment, of skills, as factual in understanding how pride becomes legitimated only on where it made a person, out of sheer choice.”

– Modern Romanticism

Some believe that “who they are” had not been out of choice. After this, “what one can become” reveals the skills of an individual, that are either superior or inferior to another person. With a decision comes a consequence. With self-control, in an idea of a person knowing “who they are”, means that such should be protected. We succeed, though in forgetting who we are, we become diseased in egotism. We come to believe that who we are shows that betterment over someone else, instead of what we can become.

Pride has always been that expression of betterment, that if matching what one has become, matches in perfection. What one has become, relating to their successes with involved skills, compares not to who they are, though shows understanding of who they are to not jeopardize that identity. What a person can become requires protection of their identification of themselves, that their successes do not ruin such. Ruining one’s identity has always been a result of considering one’s identity over their skills, to an expression of pride for this former notion to a person. As a person knows themselves, they can comprehend their limits upon their skills, with also their limits upon what can be adopted for further greatness and power.

If this expression of pride matches a person for “who they are”, instead of “what they can become”, it reveals their belief of betterment upon their identity. If pride signals betterment with one’s skills for what one can become, to express it for one’s identity brings about this notion that being superior can also have a relation to this. If an individual expresses their superiority for who they are, there can be nothing else to this except for a prevalent insecurity for wanting control. An individual who expresses their pride upon identification reveals their egotism in deciding that who they are can be their only superiority over someone else. Egotism, as well, shows up with a person who believes in excellence among their work, not for itself, though for who made it. If in pride, a person can express it for their identification, such shows an egotism that means whatever accomplishment has been made, it will be praised for who made it, not for what it might be.

In understanding that a creation, not a creator, means more for pride’s sake, it becomes understandable that identity shows a lesser importance over accomplishment. Identities do fade, while what remains has always been those accomplishments by individual persons, making it objective that a person for “who they are” reveals an inferiority to “what they can become”. With what a person can become, there it decides how their future and a new generation’s future, led with example, can be built. As what passes down for birthing generations are those accomplishments, not those identities, makes whatever accomplishment being someone’s identification as destined to crumble under the coming weight of the future. Bloodlines become thinned. Identities become either reversed or discarded, as there can be no pride to something that never mattered. One can be proud for what lasts, not for what fades into blankness.