i’ve always stood by my beliefs when it comes to dealing with people— everybody has a choice every time, and everything he does or everything that happens to him is an effect of choices he makes, directly or otherwise. for the longest time, i’ve thought of myself as an individualist, hardcore at that. i make it a point and my cornerstone of ideals that i am living among individuals, and that society is a mere junction of people’s individualism bonded together with hopes of protecting each one’s individuality.
i try to preach this everytime people ask me for advice. when someone asks me for help about dealing or coping with other people, i always tell him that it all boils down to free will. people around him are free to do what they want. he’d be affected by those actions, but he is equally free to respond in any way he chooses. he could choose to hide in his little shell of retreat, he could man up and fight his fight, or he could be ho-hum about it and move on nonchalantly. it’s his life and his choice. he’s free to do whatever he wants. however, he must keep in mind that anything he does will affect others the way other poeple’s actions affect him. it’s an action-(non)reaction web, and everyone’s trapped in it. every man for himself. i’d always make that point, one way or another.
now, how far i’d go with what i believe in is suddenly questionable. i still believe in free will but those iron walls around my individualism are beginning to feel a little softer. i began thinking, what if people do think about other people’s welfare, no strings attached? what if people live better, knowing that there are others who share their beliefs? what if people need others to live their lives the fullest, individually and collectively? what if these questions are not really what-ifs, and that they are, rather, ideas i refused to believe in before because of my close-minded individualism?
maybe it is time that i changed ideals. modified, perhaps. i now accept that it is not individualism per se that i’ve been beliving in for so long. rather, it is just that— free will, and respect for it. yes, we need others to live and survive, even amongst people who just need others to feed their individualistic egos. it may be a little late to have realized this just now, but i sure am happier like this than not to have realized it at all.
