Stand for Something or Fall for Anything
We have all been told that we must Stand for Something or Fall for Anything.
With the current state of our Local, National and World cultures
constantly changing and shifting like the wind, this notion and logic
at its surface makes sense and is to many, the key to how they deal
with their surroundings. Although I do believe that we must stand for
something I think the logic has caused many of the issues we are
actually witnessing in this day and age. All though I’m not normally
one to delve into the political arena, I would like to use the current
state of our political divide to highlight a major point as to why
the idea of Standing for Something or Fall for Anything is an outdated ideology, or at least needs to be
clarified.
Let’s take our current political scene for example. As we have seen
over the last year in our presidential election, a great divide has
swept our nation and has caused much turmoil inside the homes and
hearts of everyone who calls our great country home. The question we
all must ask ourselves is simple, How did we get to this point and did
it just happen overnight? The simple answer to this question is, no it
did not just happen overnight and this divide is not a new concept,
this divide has just been bolstered and brought more into the
spotlight, due to increased technologically advanced social
engineering strategies and systems that none of the average Americans
even know about.
The major reason for this divide is because we are all Standing for Something, afraid that if we do not, we will somehow Fall for Anything. But what has all this standing done for us. It has created a
culture of individuals who feel they must force their opinions on
others in order to try and force them to move rather than allow
ourselves to listen and understand the opinions of those around us. Do
not get me wrong, as I stated before I am a strong advocate of
standing for your beliefs, for the simple fact that we all inherently
have them, they are what lead to a better world. The concept I am
trying to address here is that we have taken this notion of Standing for Something and twisted it to believe that if we, ourselves, stand for
something others must stand for it as well or they are somehow
worthless human beings for not agreeing with our ideas. We so quickly
retaliate at others and are downright cruel when they do not agree
with what we ourselves have decided to Stand For.
Now the concept of Falling for Anything has led us to believe that we should not listen to the beliefs
of others because somehow and in some way we will fall into some
imaginary state of doom. Therefore we must protect ourselves from that
fall with our hate and anger. We are all afraid of the literal concept
of falling right, so why would we not fear the psychological concept
as well.
I send out this challenge to all. I challenge you to test what
you Stand for, allow yourselves to listen and try to understand the opinions of
those who defer or oppose your own. Challenge yourself to have
compassion for the life experiences that have led others to their
opinions, all while remembering why you think you have yours. Stand on
your own two feet and be persuaded to not judge to quickly and not
criticize others. If you take this challenge to heart you will truly
find what you stand for and trust me it will not be what you think it
is.
The world is full of individuals and our society wants us to believe
that we must place those individuals in groups of all like mindedness
and if you belong to that group, that is the way you must think, act
feel and live. I do believe that groups can be more effective than
individuals, however as soon as that group ignores the individuality
of its members it loses all hope of forming into a great force of
change.
To Stand for Something or Fall does not mean we must stand still on what we currently believe,
for if we stand still how do you truly know what you believe in. Allow
what you Stand for to be attacked, mocked, criticized and challenged. When this is
allowed you will find what you Stand for and you will not Fall.
Daniel K Baker
