I recently watched a movie featuring Clint Eastwood, though I can’t recall its name. In one memorable scene, he said, “Opinions are like an asshole; everyone has one.” Although I don’t remember the movie, that line has stuck with me, inspiring today’s blog topic.
It’s January 1, 2019, marking the first blog of the year and my first use of the word “asshole” in a post. I hope it doesn’t offend anyone.
I’ll begin with my opinion, recognizing that everyone is entitled to their own. You don’t have to agree with me or apply my insights to your life unless you think they might enhance your enjoyment and reduce negativity.
If you’re content with your life and see no need for improvement, practice a bit of compassion towards those with differing opinions. Conversely, if you sense something unpleasant within yourself, it’s up to you to address it. Remember, your allegiance to a group or its politics isn’t just harmful to those you discriminate against—it’s detrimental to you, especially as a mortal being.
Good and bad knowledge will always exist, but as the CEO of your life, you must choose your path wisely. Sacrificing your happiness and contentment for group politics is a significant loss. Your personal happiness is a precious gift from God, and wasting it on the politics of racism, prejudice, and discrimination is a disservice to yourself. If we sacrifice our joy just to fit in, impress, or gain admiration from our group, we risk losing the essence of life, which is the accumulation of happy moments.
True happiness comes from within, and maintaining your “human jewelry”—compassion, empathy, forgiveness, sacrifice, and love—nourishes your soul. If you lack these positive emotions, you’re not managing your life well. A group focused on negative emotions will not care about your well-being and will even encourage you to ignore your issues.
Addressing your negative emotions, such as hatred and prejudice, can help you achieve balance. If you don’t care about how you live, remember that your free will is a gift. Choosing to belong to a group that promotes hatred goes against the reason for that gift. Embracing humanity as a whole can heal you spiritually.
Living without compassion, empathy, forgiveness, sacrifice, and love means your soul will starve, leading to unhappiness and discontent. Do you really want group politics to control you to that extent? Is their approval worth sacrificing your most valuable assets in life?
Many of today’s problems, whether personal or communal, stem from our opinions—whether related to nationalism, racism, or religion. Understanding our opinions is crucial as we evolve. Ignoring this understanding, especially in an age of weapons of mass destruction, can be dangerous. Politically charged individuals, driven by group allegiance, can cause significant harm.
It’s essential to understand why we’re blessed with free will and the consequences of our actions. Despite our advancements, we still sacrifice personal happiness for politically charged opinions. Communal, national, and religious differences fueled by politics won’t change, making it even more critical for individuals to join humanity as a whole.
Accepted mass opinions have caused individual suffering throughout history and continue to do so. Our progress hasn’t eliminated this, as evident in our ongoing conflicts and wars. Can we evolve to belong to humanity as a whole? Can we recognize and address the flaws in our politically influenced opinions?
Life has always been diverse, with varying opinions across nations, races, genders, and religions. To be happy, we must embrace present progress with an open mind and see it as God’s will. Clinging to the past and resisting change will only lead to unhappiness.
By understanding and accepting our differences, we can evolve and find contentment in our mortal lives.
Modern life is vastly different from the past. We no longer have the luxury of working less while still managing to pay our bills. Time to socialize, pray, and fast was more abundant when fewer people competed for the same resources. Today, the world has evolved significantly across all areas of life—from modern technology and computerization to medical discoveries and a deeper understanding of our health and genetics. We now comprehend birth control, stem cells, test-tube reproduction, and cloning.
If we can’t keep up with these advances, we are simply left behind. It’s fine if you choose to stay behind, but don’t expect others to do the same. Especially, don’t force others to adopt your prejudices and discriminations. Try to keep up with the changing world.
Today, we have a new paradigm: equal human rights for all, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or religion. If you’re entrenched in religious or sectarian conflicts, understand that equal human rights cannot be spiritually violated. It’s simple—don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you or your loved ones. If you prioritize the opinions of politically charged preachers over spiritual growth, it’s time to grow up and take responsibility for your actions.
Every individual’s actions are a personal responsibility because we all possess free will. Why would God grant humans free will if not for a purpose? Ask yourself: if a leaf cannot move without God’s will, then why all this progress and advancement? If it weren’t meant to be by God, we wouldn’t have achieved these milestones. Humans now play a role in reproduction, stem cell healing, flying without wings, swimming deep underwater without gills, and digging deeper than clawed creatures. Had we remained in the past, we would still be like other creatures. All progress and advancements came from people who took matters into their own hands, under God’s will, with the help of the oxygen they breathed before acting.
Living life in a smaller, comfortable circle is not meant for humans because we are designed to evolve. Our physical bodies demonstrate this: lifting weights builds muscles, studying stretches the brain, and illness strengthens our immune system. There is nothing in the human body that is not subject to evolution. We have the potential to evolve, and it’s our duty to seek that potential and pass it on to future generations. If you try to fence yourself or your future generations in, blocking them from evolving, you are going against God’s will for political reasons. Look around and see where you fit. If you are left behind, it’s your loss. Don’t play a game of complacency with future generations, as they will blame you for their shortcomings.
A life lived within a small circle is often for security, but logically, practically, and physically, there is no true security for a mortal being. Preaching security as the purpose of life is not what God intended for humanity. We need to live boldly, understand our emotions, and be aware of modern warfare. We cannot afford to be stuck in group politics or identities. It’s time to join humanity as a whole and invest in our advancement.
If you want to know what’s happening in the world, it’s in your handheld device. The world has changed, and living according to today’s standards is essential, not just for political reasons but to avoid being left behind. If your prejudices and discriminations are holding you back, look around and learn where the world is going. In today’s world, there is no room for prejudice and discrimination. Embrace equal human rights in your heart to find a cure for the infection of negative emotions.
Moving too quickly can be detrimental, so take time to evolve and be compassionate towards others. Overemphasis on broader worldviews can make you emotionally distant. At the end of the day, whether you live with or without emotions, you are just a visitor. Choosing extreme views to discriminate or live a prejudiced life is a lose-lose situation.
Living constantly in intellect robs emotional fulfillment, and small moments of happiness are as important as life itself. Sacrificing emotional fulfillment for intellect disrespects mortality. Our prejudice and discrimination start within the individual who blindly buys into group politics. It’s the individual’s responsibility to look at long-term effects and analyze personally.
All humans are designed to multitask, balancing emotional happiness and worldviews. We should perform rather than form extreme opinions and fall victim to prejudiced traits. If your opinion leads to prejudice and discrimination, you may have a spiritual disorder. The easiest cure is to put yourself in others’ shoes to understand their feelings.
If individuals start doing this, group politics will change because the individual fuels the fire of prejudice. Without fuel, the fire cannot sustain. By changing our ways, humanity can evolve towards potential peace. Instead of avenging past conflicts, we should say “never again” to aggression. Our ancestors did their best with their knowledge and evolution level. Today, we can judge and relate disputes and wars to past governing methods.
Our opinions are influenced by politically charged groups, promoting racism, prejudice, and discrimination. By nature, we are spiritually and genetically human beings, but our real identity is lost in political identities. We have layers of identities—name, gender, nationality, religion, and roles. If your personal identity or opinion has been compromised by prejudice, the solution is to assume your real identity and become the CEO of your life.
A CEO understands, judges, and forms opinions according to spiritual principles: don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you, put yourself in others’ shoes, and use your free will and sense of justice. If you still struggle with prejudice, peel off the layers of politically influenced identities to find the human being within.
Remember why you have been individually blessed with oxygen, a sense of justice, and free will. If you feel compelled to follow group politics, think about the importance of living comfortably in your skin. Ask a soldier suffering from unjust actions in the name of group politics. Fighting personal demons is too high a price to pay, especially for a mortal being.
The human being is a unique blend of spirituality and physicality, where emotional whims and well-thought-out ideas can sometimes clash. Ignoring your inner spiritual self, which helps regulate your actions and judgments, can lead to inner conflicts and harsh self-judgment, potentially resulting in behavioral problems.
If you start to deprive yourself of happiness and contentment, it marks the beginning of more significant issues. Losing self-value is a warning sign, indicating the need to learn quickly how to live comfortably in a physical body. Living without spiritual awareness exacts a heavy toll, paid individually by sacrificing happiness, contentment, and satisfaction. For a mortal being, these losses are too significant. Human beings are endowed with choices for a reason, making each person the CEO of their own life.
Ask yourself if you truly feel like the CEO of your life. If not, wouldn’t you want to know why? Remember, you are the one who pays the price. If you think it’s worth sacrificing happiness, contentment, and fulfillment for group security, think again. For a mortal being, there is no true security. If you still choose to sell your soul and live unhappily, that is your choice and opinion.
Let’s consider recent events, such as the American elections, which indicate a major shift in the nation. Amid this tug-of-war between conservatives and liberals, this trend isn’t exclusive to one nation. From Syria to Russia, Yugoslavia to Brexit, and the turmoil in Arabia and Europe, everything points to a significant change worldwide. In Pakistan, recurring cycles of democracy and martial law demonstrate the difficulty of separating state and religious beliefs. Politically tainted religious activism can be deadly for individuals and can rob them of their spirituality. Conservatism rooted in identity-related prejudice and discrimination prevents the world from taking the next evolutionary leap.
Historically, changes were isolated to certain regions, but today’s changes are global. The ubiquity of cell phones with live video connections to the internet has revolutionized communication, rendering traditional newscasters almost obsolete. These irreversible changes are neither inherently good nor bad; they are simply changes we must adapt to. Being conservative in today’s technological world can make one seem prejudiced and discriminatory. Everyone must adapt to contemporary realities, such as climate change, rather than attributing these phenomena solely to divine will or punishment.
Today’s sophistication allows us to understand natural disasters scientifically rather than as divine retribution. Claiming that an earthquake or storm is God’s punishment is outdated. Believing that a leaf cannot move without God’s will while endorsing severe punishments for crimes reveals a disconnection. If a leaf cannot move, how can a human commit crimes against humanity?
It is time to acknowledge the importance of individual human responsibility. Spiritual crimes disguised as valor for political purposes are unacceptable. Such paths lead to justifying crimes committed against others. We must reflect on individual human value and responsibilities. Discriminating against others for political purposes is not only uncool but a spiritual crime, especially if one claims to be religious and godly. Believing that God shares your prejudices and discriminations constitutes another spiritual crime.
Like global warming, political changes are facts of life we must adapt to. Humanity has always been changing and will continue to do so. Examining history reveals a graveyard of human dynasties, empires, ideologies, and religions. Today’s popular beliefs may be valueless tomorrow. Embrace universal values like spirituality, God, and humanity as a whole.
Staying trapped in group-based politics prevents us from fulfilling our God-given potential to evolve. Our brains expand to create more neurons for learning, signifying our continuously evolving potential. This potential drives us to push further and learn more without end. We must discard politically tainted religious boundaries to evolve boldly and fulfill our divine purpose.
If you believe you are an inferior, worthless sinner, you have been brainwashed by politically influenced prejudice and discrimination. Take charge and become the CEO of your life. Understand that you have a free will with a personal sense of justice. Do not do to others what you would not want done to you or your loved ones, especially in the name of God.