Compromise

[This is the in-class essay I said I'd post if I did well.]

I am an advocate for compromise, for finding common ground between the most different of individuals or ideas, and somewhat satisfying the desires of all involved. It helps us to analyze and learn of the reasons that others feel the way that they do, and brings us all that much closer by loosening the ropes which bind us separately to ourselves and our egos. But compromise is not easy, and without it, what would happen to our right and left-wing zealots, to religious extremists, to neonazis, traditionalists, talk radio hosts and the like? The truth is, few are willing to overtly compromise or otherwise change the views that define them, that are inherent to their individualism. William Shakespeare sums up my thoughts concisely: "In time we hate that which we often fear."

Oftentimes, I find the games that are played in politics unsettling. Outspoken 17-year-olds are self-described liberal activists, advocates of freedom, while others are built upon tradition, conservatives following in the foundations their fathers built. Fueling both sides is the innate ability to hate, to despise their political opponents and find their viewpoints laughable, unworthy of consideration, diseased.

This game is not limited to politics. It is played in race, religion, gender, citizenship, and sexual orientation, among others. Life consists of precision stereotypes, black or white; we are all continually marked or categorized as "white Christian female", or "Indian Islamic male". People found their beliefs and stances on half-truths and heresay, and inevitably, hate. Shakespeare has pinpointed a major flaw in human thinking, to regard that which is foreign to us as something to fear. With repeated exposure, this fear ingrains itself into the consciousness as a hatred.

Compromise is my idealist notion of finding the best way to satiate everyone, yet providing the catalyst for learning more about others in an effort to fell our own fears. Soren Aabye Kierkegaard states, "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." Compromise. Empathy. Placing some amount of importance on that which someone else values, treasures, or believes. We, as Americans in a free nation, demand that our rights be upheld. We are free, and we say what we wish as a result of that freedom. So we hold conventions, and lambast political opponents, and point fingers, placing blame on the "evil" foreigners and "enemies" to our cause. In our black and white world, we deal in absolutes. You are one of us, or one of "them".

It is my hope that many of us can come to enforce a way of thinking that values all humanity, exploring our differences instead of fingering them as ways to catalog us and lessen our uniqueness and collective individuality. Fear is not necessarily a path to hatred, it can also be a pathway to knowledge and fulfillment. Let us use our fear as a tool to learn, our minds to consider that which benefits mankind and any great good, and our voices to preach unselfishness and a willingness to compromise, so that we may love others as much as we do ourselves.