Sunday, July 26, 2015

Putting aside differences

It seems that, despite living in a time of "acceptance", we are more black and white in our views as a society more than every before. Never before have so many people been able to share their views with so many other people like they can now with the internet and social media. Where before you may feel one way about something, you probably didn't have the opportunity or reason to tell that to other people. Now, you see a post on social media that you don't agree with and odds are your going to fire back with a response to argue it. The fact of the matter is there are 7 billion people on this earth, each and every one is individually unique and has a mind that has no exact match, and therefor no one will have your exact same opinions and views. It is for that reason that most situations or social issues really don't have black and white answers and in order to advance and move forward as a species we need to realize this as a whole; because set in stone division will get us no where. When you read a story like this one you see that you had 28 men, all from different places with different skills and interests. They didn't always agree on everything, they didn't always feel the same way about things, and they all had different emotions to different issues, but that didn't stop them from working together to do what had to be done. There is a lesson to be learned from this, you don't always have to agree with everyone around you and you don't even have to always be understanding of them, but accepting people for who they are and finding mutual ground and working together is what makes the world go round.

3 comments:

  1. I just don't think there is such thing as "black and white" anymore. As you stated, there are SO many views now, and while we accept so much more than society ever used to, or that anyone ever thought society would for that matter, it's happening! At the end of the day I think what it comes down to is that everyone has a common goal, which also relates to your post and the book. At the latter part of the book, everyone just wanted to get home, so the differences and of the sea men had meant nothing at that point. They just wanted land and safety.

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  2. I agree with Leanne. Yes, there are some specific topics in our country that some see black and white, but in general I do believe we have all come along way in terms of acceptance. Like you mentioned every men had different concerns and problems but they all came together to stick it out to the end not giving up, and that is extremely important.

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  3. I agree that there are so many people in this world who are unwilling to look at things from different perspectives. Shackleton's journey could have gone in a completely different direction had the crew not have been able to put their differences aside. It is unfortunate that in today's age people cannot be open and responsive to different ideas until the situation is grim and people have no choice but to work together.

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