Because the truth hurts, but not knowing it hurts twice as much.
When we were little, we had the intuition that grown-ups hide things from us; when we grew up, we discovered that we were right.
When I was 21 years old, I ran a discotheque, smoked 60 cigarettes a day, drank half a bottle of Whisky and Coke every night (not counting shots), and I was addicted to p*rn.
I thought I was the king of the world. But it was the world that ended up laughing at me.
I’m 41, and I’ve learned a few things that I think you can use.
Hold on tight because these truths will forever change how you look at things.
1. Scruples increase with age because you see more clearly the consequences of your actions.
When you are young, you tend to be laxer about things. You experiment more; you convince yourself that “you have to live life,” which is accompanied by a moral laxity that can end up screwing up your life.
Because my friend, you are of age, and you still don’t have your brain made (I didn’t have it at 21).
That’s what nobody tells you.
Believe me, when you’re 30, and look back, you’re not going to recognize yourself as the person you were at 20 — imagine yourself at 40.
I look back, and I’m between disgusted and pitiful. That’s my truth.
Lesson: do yourself a favor, and when you have the slightest clue that something is wrong, don’t do it. Because believe it or not, after a few years, you will develop something called conscience, and from a distance, you will be able to see clearly how many people you hurt and how many stupid things you did.
2. Many people persevere in their evil deeds because it is the only way to escape their bad conscience.
When you are a kid, you wonder how there can be so many bad people in the world. When you grow up, you discover that progress is a defense mechanism for both good and bad people.
My mother always told me, “Don’t smoke weed,” and I would ask her, “Why if it’s harmless?” she, who was young in the seventies, always answered, “Because you start smoking joints and end up with heroin”.
Moral of the story: bad guys don’t start by robbing banks or mugging older adults in the street. They start with minor crimes. And little by little, they persevere in their path: in their evil deeds.
Until there comes the point where they cross the point of no return, what is that point? Well, the moment they realize that if they stop, their bad conscience will catch up with them, and they will not be able to live with the memory of their crimes.
Lesson: if you sense something is wrong, ask yourself, will I be proud that I did this in ten years? If the answer is “no,” don’t do it.
3. It is hatred that keeps causes alive.
What do you care about a crime that happened 100 years ago? Nothing. To take care of it, you must be programmed with hate.
Sects, radical fans of soccer teams, and political extremists well know this.
Being an idealist is good and bad at the same time. It is good because it invigorates. It isn’t good because you are manipulable. That’s why sectarian groups target young people: because of their idealism.
Idealism + indoctrination = annulment of critical thinking.
And if you annul someone’s critical thinking, you get an ignorant person.
And only the ignorant hate. Only ignorant people fight over things that happened thousands of years ago (that they weren’t even there to see with their own eyes if they are true).
Lesson: when you get too involved in any cause, no matter how good it may seem, try to look for people who think differently from you, don’t fall into radicalism, or you will end up becoming a pawn in the service of a cause that is not yours (even if you think it is).
4. You are no better than your ancestors
When you think you are better than the human beings who inhabited the world before you, remember that we will be the past of a distant future.
You are no better than your parents. You are no better than your grandparents. You are no better than your ancestor, who lived in a cave and hunted animals with stones to survive.
Everyone did what they could in their own time.
It is straightforward to judge “heteropatriarchal male chauvinist” your father, your grandfather, or to think that your mother and grandmother “were conformist,” but you were not young in their time. So they did what they could.
You have found the world today thanks to the efforts, mistakes, and achievements of all those people that, when you look back, you think are morally more immature than you.
Today we probably do things (like eating organic meat) that your great-great-grandchildren would find savage.
Lesson: honor your ancestors. And try to evolve with the times. Do what you can, and above all, stop judging others.
5. People are not afraid of sin but of the consequences.
You’d be surprised how many people are not shy about cheating on their partner but don’t do it because of the consequences.
You would be shocked to know how many people wouldn’t mind stealing from a bank, work, or your home if they knew they wouldn’t get caught.
It would scare you how many people would be capable of assaulting others if justice, police, and prisons did not exist.
And this is important to be precise because NOT EVERYTHING IS A CRIME.
And that means that you will cross, throughout your life, with many people of doubtful morals. And those people are the ones who will end up using you and betraying you.
Those people are the ones who will end up hurting you.
Lesson: Watch your friends when they play a board game or sport. Their characteristics in the game can give you a lot of information about how they behave in real life. By doing so, you will discover the traitor, the cheat, and the liar. And you will know who is who 🙂
A virtual hug
AG
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