Contents:
The “eye for an eye” retaliation approach quickly leads toward mutual assured destruction.
The advancement of technology in the military sense has produced clear examples of the effects certain human decisions are capable of producing. A clear path toward our own destruction as well as the destruction of our enemies is often evident. Whether we choose to travel down those roads is another question.
Humans are complicated beings with complicated thoughts. Our thoughts are sometimes ethical, noble, fair, and wise. Other times, our thoughts are dark, disgusting, angry, and vengeful. This article will hint on the darker realms of human thought and action.
The importance of reacting wisely to people who aim to cause you harm is often underestimated. Your reaction to any sort of vulnerable stimuli can play its part in attaining blissful peace or a torturous state of war. Your reaction can lead to hurt feelings, violence, and the end of life for yourself or others.
Below, are a few things to remember about the way you should react to those who aim to hurt.
Fear Regret
You’ll venture through life justifying your behavior to the world around you. People will question your decisions, and you’ll provide answers as to why you’re right. You’ll get stopped by cops for going over the limit, where you’ll plead your case in hopes receiving a warning as opposed to a ticket. You’ll visit courtrooms, you’ll have trials of your own, and you’ll watch others defend their innocence in dramatic fashion.
Our actions and reactions are governed by many versions of codes and ethics. Sometimes, the federal law dictates proper action, and sometimes it is a list of rules posted on a wall. The particular setting we’re in will have rules which everyone is expected to operate by. Those rules and laws are external to our psyche. They kill undesirable action but fail to hunt down its motivation.
Remember that your sense of regret is the ultimate rule-book in life. You’ll get away with actions which your intuition says were wrong. You’ll regret the way you’ve acted and thought, even though society may not have punished you for it. If you judge yourself to be a good person merely by the rules which society’s put forth, then you may be missing an important essence of being good. Some spend lifetimes trying to define what good people look, sound, and act like. You should also join in this process.
For example, the writing of these articles is a process of continuous ethical analysis. Do the methods we present in articles such as this help motivate positive action in the world or do they propagate evil? Should we write our words to be motivated by a biased definition of good and evil? If ten people read these words, how many will act to make positive change with our advice? The articles we write are sensitive to the perception of those who read. They’re written with the knowledge of regret that helping bad people to do bad things brings forth. There are few rule-books on writing which help answer the questions posed above.
Fear the act of regretting your actions/reactions in the future. Allow your sense of regret to be shaped by what you know about the world. Remember that your actions, words, and gestures are subject to bringing with them pain. It is difficult to fear regret until you find yourself swimming amidst it. The world around us will not help us should our own understanding of it force us to regret the way we’ve acted. The fear of regret is a powerful motivator of acting kindly toward others.
Serve to Muffle Negativity Rather Than Enhance It
Your reactions serve to either propel issues forward or muffle them. To ensure your reactions serve to benefit yourself and those around, you should strive to mitigate issues rather than amplify them. With memories of regret guiding the tone of your reactions, the desire for peace should guide their intention. Serve to always react in ways which amplify happiness and constrain distress. Entice others to not be able to wait for your reactions rather than dread their presentation.
In every situation which calls for action, you’ll find yourself having a choice of things you can say or do. Think of each possible reaction as having a score of how much it amplifies happiness and limits distress. Every situation will call for different reactions which amplify happiness. Getting it right takes constant thought and practice.
For example, your reaction to someone winning the silver medal at the Olympics shouldn’t be to focus on why they lost the gold. Such a reaction in this case would not serve to amplify happiness in your listener, and will not limit their distress. The pain of losing the gold medal is not something you should tap into after a successful venture for the silver. The proper reaction would be to congratulate fully, without insinuating how painful any losses may have been. You would thereby amplify happiness and limit distress.
Think about how your reactions serve to amplify happiness and limit distress in other people. Strive to analyze which potential reaction would yield the most beneficial results according to this rule. You’ll soon become good at knowing what people want to hear. You’ll become quick in choosing a reaction which is optimal for the situation you find yourself in. By being conscious of these facets, you’ll not only improve your thought-out reactions, but will sharpen up your intuitive, unplanned, tendencies as well.