Have you ever been told this at school, kindergarten, or daycare?
"Get along with each other."
However, I think this is impossible.
This world is not equal. People are not born equal.
Ideally, all people should have equal human rights and opportunities, but the fact is that people are not born equal. (Although I myself believe that all people have basic human rights.)
People are born and raised differently, of different races and religions. Some are financially well-off, some are not, some are good-looking, some are not. Some have congenital disabilities. There are many different kinds of people.
I believe that in order for everyone to get along, we need common rules for everyone.
However, we live in an age of diversity. People are allowed to have different values. What will happen then? People want different tastes from each other, and it becomes difficult to get along.
A rich person may be well-dressed and take a bath every day. Then, they will feel dirty if someone is dirty and does not take a bath every day. They have no sense of discrimination against such people.
They do not think about the reason why they cannot take a bath or why their clothes are dirty, but think that they are dirty because they are lazy and are causing trouble for others. Then they denounce the other person. The other side, the poor side, thinks they are being bullied, and the wealthy side thinks they are doing justice. The gulf is deep. This kind of continuous misunderstanding makes people feel uneasy.
So I thought it was more important not to fight than to get along.
One day, Mr. Hiroto Komoto said something like this.
People who are in the same class at school are not necessarily friends. They are like strangers on the same train. So you can't get along with them. All you need to do is not to fight.
I'm not sure if this is accurate, but that's what he meant. I completely agree.
Life is like riding the same train with other people toward the end of the line, which is death. If you get into trouble along the way, you will be forcibly removed from the train. The question is how to spend your time on the train.
It is more important to be able to stay quiet on the train than to form a friendly group on the train.
The fact that someone's ideas are close to someone else's or that someone else's tastes match with someone else's is usually a set of things that do not match with someone else. Then, the close-knit group excludes the not-so-close group. It is a caste. Then bullying occurs. Therefore, getting along is rather harmful in some cases. It creates an inside and an outside of the community and excludes strangers. Are they hated and ignored as a result of their bad behavior? Or are they being treated badly through no fault of their own? It is difficult for outsiders to judge. And since no one is without fault, the issue is complicated.
I think that schools should teach ideas like Mr. Hiroto Komoto's.
The ideal is "Everyone should get along with each other. All mankind are brothers. If you talk, you will understand. It may be too nihilistic, but in reality, when you look at the background of each person, it is a fact that we are not all friends, but strangers.
How can one love a stranger, or an enemy? In the same way that religion asks the profound question, "How can we love our enemies or strangers?
If idea A, for example, religion, is absolutely right, then idea B, which is outside of that teaching, is wrong. Certainly, there must be wrong things and crimes in this world. However, as much as possible, we should be tolerant in areas where we do not have to be concerned. People think differently, perceive and understand things differently, and may not be able to understand each other completely, but in such cases, they should be separated. That is the source of war. If there is a problem of sin against God's will, God will judge it even if it is left alone. What does God say? For example, if you read the Bible of a Christian who believes in God, it says
Do not judge. I will judge.
I asked an old man and he said that to be a friend to others, "Don't judge people and help them when they are in need, even if it is small.
He certainly has a point. It is difficult to be friends with someone who criticizes others at the very beginning, and it is usually avoided. I have to be careful too.
I think you have to get to know the other person before you criticize him or her. If they are doing something wrong, you may need to choose the right place and point out their problems. Some people will tolerate you because you are their friend (tolerance is important even if you are not their friend), while others will point out the problem because you are their friend and stop them before they do something wrong.
Either way, we should not judge in order to get along first.
Getting along" creates an inside and an outside.
Good and evil are indeed supposed to exist in this world, and laws do indeed have force.
There are times when it is necessary to be tolerant of others and to criticize or point out problems with their behavior.
It is not easy. It is not straightforward.
Nevertheless, that is why I would like to continue thinking about this issue.
