The World Wearing Filters

The problem with viewing the world through filters is that you are not seeing reality, but only a limited version of it.  You therefore integrate reality in pieces and end up with a worldview that may please you, but is actually like a big block of Swiss cheese, filled with holes.

One needn't dwell on negativity in order to see the world as it is.

One major insight that my sister had years ago, which she shared with me and I have never forgotten, was a cascade of thought that she experienced while driving alone.  She thought of all the people in the world that were dying at that instant, and how many people were sad and grieving for the loss of their loved ones.  But then she suddenly realized that there were just as many people being born, and that everywhere happy parents were celebrating the beginning of new lives, and people who were already here were celebrating birthdays.

In that instant, she had glimpsed the symmetry of the universe, where each negative is balanced by a corresponding positive.  Had she been wearing her "feel-good" filters at that instant, she would have never been able to experience that revelation.  Most of us prefer to not to see things that displease us in life, especially vile, evil things that no sane person wants to witness.  However, seeing the evil in the world needn't depress us, so long as we recognize its lesson.  It teaches us that it is not the path to be on, for it yields the opposite of joy.

We should not ignore evil and spout euphemisms of joy, but instead, learn to recognize and understand evil for what it is, so that it reinforces one's beliefs in the path to goodness.  It is no easy trick to be able to stare down evil, and many prefer to look away.  But in order to integrate reality accurately it must be viewed without filters.

Hugging trees and mystically believing in a better world is fine, so long as one realizes that it takes a lot of hard, concentrated effort and work to build a better world. 

Evil must be confronted head on at times, and fought desperately, or it will consume the unwary individuals who fail to recognize it as a malevolent force that must be dealt with.  To look away or ignore it allows it to thrive.

We ignore that with which we do not wish to deal, at our own peril.