When you see a person expressing a view repugnant to you,

potentially with an air of confidence, maybe even arrogance and pride, maybe even gloating,

you should only understand a number of things:

 

IDEAS MATTER AS IDEAS,

i.e. even WITHOUT contact with the world — they matter for you for their own sake,

and their COHERENCE will matter for you for that same reason,

hostile ideas can’t change that, nor hostile people. They can’t change your relationship to your beliefs, unless you allow them

 

and then IDEAS matter insofar as THEY IMPACT THE REAL WORLD,

yes, and that’s why ideas matter in the first place (other than of course them being coherent matters in and of itself),

BUT again you don’t control the final outcome of the world, or even your life,

you control your actions

and control ideas you believe in and WHY you believe them

 

therefore failure of your dearly-held beliefs to be understood by others, even heard,

though sad,

is just one of a million ways in which the world is imperfect,

in general, or for you

and acceptance of that fact is no different to accepting that we haven’t cured cancer, or that animals don’t speak with human voice, or that not everybody will ever like you, etc

 

INDEED we may very well cure cancer, or whatever, save a kitten,

or we may literally blow the fuck up this world

AND it will be caused by ideas

maybe seeds of those ideas are already sprouting among us

there’s no shortage of idiotic and backwards shit we believe,

we always did

arguably we’re now going backwards again

 

you’d objectively consider it an absolute catastrophe if we blew up this world,

if your friends and family started dying, or suffering horribly,

and if I told you that this was caused by STUPID IDEAS, by STUPID SETS OF BELIEFS — it would not be a lie. Ideas can kill, ideas can create and ideas can destroy,

And if I then said that thus those IDEAS and BELIEFS were ATROCIOUS and ABHORRENT and DEGENERATE, and ultimately just an absolute CATASTROPHE — again you would agree with me

 

what if you and I can already see it

see an idea

and see where it leads

and then experience profound disgust

and outrage

and eventually, maybe, misanthropy

 

but I say the same thing,

this can be true,

and yet,

if that’s where we’re going — that is merely… WHAT-IS

if entire world burns — it’s of course horrible and it would be preferable to remedy that

and it would probably be urgent,

 

…and yet,

It still wouldn’t justify this otherwise justified and understandable disgust, and hate, and misanthropy,

because

the world was never perfect to begin with

you still had to live, and live your best

you still only really controlled what you could THINK and DO and BELIEVE IN,

and the world becoming WORSE than it used to be, or better, still doesn’t change that

 

of course world becoming MUCH WORSE than it used to be is the most disgusting outcome,

far worse than merely you or I suffering,

and yet, for you and me, the 99.9% is still just what we THINK AND DO AND BELIEVE

there’s not much room to fret,

even in the most perfect world we still suffer and die

might as well suffer and die in the imperfect world

might as well find joy and love in the imperfect world

 

might as well be an IDEALIST and DEFEND one’s ideas and CAREFULLY SELECT what one believes in and lives for,

and yet,

even if the entire world believes the opposite,

be at peace with that

 

..last but not least

this is easier said than done

the world can REALLY degenerate

the world can REALLY be wrong

the world can REALLY self-destruct

the world can by chance do REALLY REALLY WELL — only to SQUANDER IT ALL

if humans can fail — so can the world

imagine the most pathetic failure

someone who had it all and wasted it

that’s our world, potentially, one day

and you may actually know how to cure it

and you may be unable to stop it

 

…and then you’ll still have to choose to BELIEVE YOUR IDEALS,

as the world burns,

and choose to NOT disavow those ideas,

but NEVERTHELESS live out the rest of your days in an otherwise state of utter peace and joy and love, in a conflicted and joyless and loveless world

-if someone asks you what you believe — you’ll tell them. They’ll call you EVIL, then return to their business of destroying the world

-if someone asks you what you think about and worry about — you’ll tell them. It won’t primarily be the world. It will be you and your loved ones and what you love

-if someone asks you what must be done and if you’ve done it — you’ll tell them. Tell them what you did, and why. Where it maybe made a small change, and where you let go and went back to your own business

(and of course often you yourself will be the problem. Except of course you couldn’t know that, couldn’t really wish the obliteration of the world and yourself)

 

Again don’t take it for granted how bad the world can turn, or how good,

AND YET don’t take it for granted that your life is 99.9% you and your loved ones and what you love — and 0.1% “the world”