Transitional Beings

[Original Poster]

I posted another thread where I mentioned this idea and I've mentioned it enough now that I think it deserves its own thread. Human beings are in constant transition. We are always growing, always changing and always developing. However, this is contrary to how we perceive others. Not only do we perceive their situational behavior as dispositional, we have a tendency to lock them into whatever judgments we make up about them and do not provide proper room in our minds for them to develop. This struck me as especially important when I learned another member of this forum has ignored me, and I wondered if I should ignore them, too, or ignore anyone on this forum who I don't believe offers much substance to the discussions they involve themselves in. But truth be told, it intuitively felt wrong, and upon closer inspection of this feeling I realized this was because all these people that I judge as trollish are simply transitional, and they won't always be locked into that mode of thinking. They will continue to change, develop and eventually show the capacity to offer real insight for the world, even if they have not matured to that state yet. Besides, there's no reason to take anyone's actions personally. It is clear that everything people do is ultimately about themselves, and there's truly nothing to defend myself against, nothing that's actually worth the trouble of ignoring. Not only would I gain nothing, but I would lose what could be gained in the future when they do finally evolve forward. Judgments are still useful tools, and judging others is a means to protect yourself from their exploitative qualities. Knowing these qualities won't last forever is no reason not to react accordingly to their most probable behavior. And expecting people to change is to guarantee you'll find yourself consistently disappointed. There is no spectacular wave of sudden revelation I am holding out for. My actions are based upon the most accurate judgments I can surmise in the moment. But when you can get over the fear of invisible consequence and see the larger game at work, you can understand and accept your transitional role with greater confidence. We are all chess masters playing a game called evolution. We make sacrifices and we choose our opportunities carefully, and we learn to deal with circumstances wisely. Hiding from a certain position simply because it doesn't rhyme with yours only weakens your overall position. Proper tactics encourages being open to any possible assistance without being vulnerable to exploitation. Hard rules like "fool me once..." do not apply as strictly as we teach them because the world is much more complex than that. William Wallace didn't trust Robert the Bruce out of some ignorant faith that Robert the Bruce would change overnight, he knew full well that the Bruce would betray him, and yet he trusted him anyways because he realized there was no future for a free Scotland otherwise. He understood that Scotland required his faith, his example and his sacrifice. He saw through his fear for himself and his own pride, and chose instead to serve the future of Scotland. While in the end he allowed himself to be vulnerable to exploitation, in this extreme case he changed the game in a way that could not be anticipated by the English, who understood people as static beings and could not surmise the intricacies of reality. (I took this example from Braveheart and do not know how real events played out)

[tkdyo]

Interesting thought. We do quite often use the saying "A leopard cant change its spots" yet we do. All the time. Certain behavior modes may take longer or be more complicated to get out of than others. And to some extent it depends on if we even WANT to change them, but it doesnt change the fact that we actually constantly repaint our spots all the time. There are parts of me that are still the same as 10 years ago. But there are other parts of me that are decidedly different and I can see that is true in several others I am even only acquaintances with. I wonder where this idea came from anyways when its so blatantly false?

[Original Poster]

Why... why did I accidently click the fucking ad. Now I have to type this all over again. Holy fucking shit, I am upset. I had a dream where Ron Paul taught me the proper way to toss someone the keys. While what he was showing me was physically impossible, the technique he was using reminded me a lot of the technique he uses as a Politician. Rather than focusing on how slowly Americans are progressing as a society, he continues to hold out the hope that they will change, and will be ready for him. Keys represent a means to open things, and Ron Paul represents a particular technique or behavior. I think what my dreams were showing me was that if you focus on negative aspects of a person, you impede their ability to progress through them. However, if you focus on the positive aspects, these will grow until the negative aspects eventually fade out of the behavior. It's interesting how we try to show people their flaws and criticize them, whether we actually tell them everything we don't like about them or simply get used to expecting that behavior. Either way, it seems natural to get stuck on someone's negative aspects and it requires a conscious change in our own perception to switch over to their positive attributes.