PC's Several Laws
Liberals, conservatives, and libertarians; humanists and the devout, all have good ideas and important roles. Folks likely won't admit it, but each of them misses something important about human nature and interactions. Wisdom can be widely sourced.
It's always personal. The actions of one's authority figures, family relationships, and sometimes new lovers, are what change people's minds. The fancy intellectual justifications come later. Such a person might never describe this process.
For the sufficiently cynical, there can be no good news. Always look for the worst and you will find it, or create it. Realistic optimism isn't being naive, it's a powerful, effective viewpoint and lifestyle.
Things in life usually fall short, if not go far wrong. Quietly prepare for this, and you will not be disappointed. Then, on those rare occasions when things go really well, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Can positive thoughts and daily affirmations create your own desired personal reality? Perhaps, and at the least, such an effort will itself be helpful. If you're making this effort and live in Afghanistan or North Korea, please be very careful.
Thoughts and prayers are awesome. Emotions are good too, yet fickle. Relying entirely upon one's self is a goal many have adopted, but that's difficult at best. Prayer invokes a wider perspective, and factors well beyond any individual. All of these comprise a path toward mature wisdom.
In general, a man marries a woman hoping she will never change. A woman marries a man with big plans for him in mind. (Other combinations are welcome to figure it all out.) Overall, it's better to be a helper than a boss; a supportive friendly team rather than criticizing a lot.
Standards guide us. Lower them far enough and life will be simple (for a while), and your friends quite easy to impress. Raise the bar extra-high and no one will ever qualify, so there won't be anyone (genuinely human) to look up to. We're all in the same boat.
What ever a person is telling you about other people, this probably resembles what they are telling other people about you. Friendship is quite valuable, and it doesn't have to be with just anyone. Concerning serious relationships, and marriage partners: don't just look for the right person. Be the right person, way down deep.
Where ever you go, there you are. The bigger new toy, the better view, the sexier image or lover, will never be enough. Learn about the hedonic treadmill. Better yet, engage with a decent, loving, realistic, larger purpose. Help family and local folks, or even tackle massive worldwide problems.
The young usually take their good health for granted, until it slips away. Move more, eat less. Some things are always unhealthy, and that's easy to find out. Eating smart really helps, although fretting about diets and conformity is also unhealthy. Much is genetic, more is situational, and still everyone can do better.
Listen to storytellers, and read their books. Print and online, audio apps, Kindles, and many other sources are affordable. Absorb countless lives and times and places, both familiar and strange. A robust inner life beats the heck out of quelling boredom with drugs.
Young people rebel against that with which they are most familiar. A Japanese teenager isn't likely to oppose Christianity, or a Brazilian to fuss about Buddhism. Religious American kids might become secular, but in the Sixties era it was often the other way around. Generation Z is surprising a lot of people.
Don't want religion imposing things? Describe the order in which your own neighbors can cease obeying all ten of the Ten Commandments. Deception, theft, rape, and murder are extremely common in nature, so don't look there for any restraints. We humans deserve good treatment, and expect it for our individual selves, even if for no one else. Human rights are insubstantial, yet everyone wants them. That originates in God.
Everybody believes. Religious beliefs stand out, yet non-religious people often embrace something else. Radical environmentalism, Veganism, techie Transhumanism, UFO enthusiasts, Marxism, union stalwarts; all these have their own merits and sins, saints and mighty forces, dire enemies and ideal futures.
There are passing thrills, from many sources natural and otherwise; and there is also confident stability, rooted in profound multi-faceted love. Contentment and lassitude are different things, while obtaining personal goals and striving in larger spheres can happen at the same time.
Teenagers want freedom to do whatever they want, right away. Ask, what can you do? What knowledge, skills, and self discipline will be put to good use? Anyone can defiantly announce they're going to climb Mount Everest, but they might end up mooching from actual climbers at base camp. Driving a car and balancing a budget require some ongoing basics.
If you think you know any normal people, you don't know them very well. Most people seem ordinary, and may act shallow upon first meeting them, yet they can reveal amazing special traits. Conversely, some folks who appear unusual, perhaps garish or rebellious, could be rather plain inside.
Humans are flawed. Close relationships can mitigate or exacerbate those flaws. Many people are dissatisfied, sometimes traumatized, as those flaws manifest. Learning and healing and improvements can occur. Some folks will cast it all aside, reject the ordinary altogether, perhaps find a subculture. Yet the metaphorical wheel was invented for a reason, and whether it gets reinvented or smashed, every person still has flaws. There are no easy fixes.
Suspicion is natural, trust is risky, yet trust is better rewarded. Creating is hard, stealing is easy, yet creators come out ahead. Building takes time, wrecking is fast, yet builders prevail. Ancient cities may crumble, yet even more awesome cities arise.
Some folks are satisfied with a familiar world, while some agitate based upon goodness or greed, noble ideologies or bizarre conspiracy theories. Stupid ignorant evil people can ruin a family, but smart educated evil people can wreck nations. More often, saints and sages have sacrificed to provide tremendous improvement.
It's fun and easy to divide humans into Our Good People and Those Other People. Folks have more-or-less melanin, and more-or-less money; also behave differently in the bedroom and in the voting booth. Based upon such factors, celebrity is boosted or dehumanizing commences. In reality, as Solzhenitsyn observed, there's a line through every heart. An awareness of human commonality is increasing.
Just because Galileo was persecuted, doesn't mean your own favorite guru or theory must be correct. Dignified proclamations and fancy web sites are easy, while learning basic science and history is hard. Fringe theories are full of errors and contradictions, yet for some people, take on the force of a non-religious revelation.
Perspective matters. From an ideological viewpoint, even for someone who simply "believes they'll have another beer," others take on a different look. Radical leftists speak of libertarians and conservatives as though identical, while religious conservatives rarely bother to distinguish between atheists and antitheists. Respectful conversations help.
It's never enough. For purists, no politician, or media outlet, or business, or enduring organization; is ever sufficiently conservative, or leftist, or devout, or any other belief. Firebrands get frustrated, then "people had better wake up!" becomes a mantra. Some will push hard, while zealots get violent. In reality, the Ends do not justify the Means, rather the Means build the Ends. (Here's a meme graphic .)
Every large, enduring organization has its idealistic doctrinal purists and its pragmatic party loyalists. Despite the occasional populist disruption, or zealous revival, the plodding loyalists will prevail sooner or later; usually sooner. Improvements do happen, whether fast or gradually.
Many people are ambitious, a few are control freaks. Whether it's a village big man, a royalist aristocracy, a dictator's oligarchs, a capitalist upper class, or a socialist nomenklatura; virtually all human societies will produce a wealthy elite. It's incorrect to blame a particular system, as many promote forceful exploitation, while a genuine free market does not.
Whether steam engines or search engines, new technologies bring about concentrations of wealth. This wasn't taken from anybody, rather the overall abilities and resources of humanity increased. Kind people and generous societies will starve if there's nothing to share, so material progress is good. Though uneven at first, everyone does benefit.
Human bodies are not mere sock puppets for a controlling soul, nor are humans just clever meat controlled by hormones and neurons. Our souls are quintessential, while DNA is fundamental. With coaching, humans can rewire their own brains. Both fundamentalists and antitheists could benefit from understanding all this.
God is a much better unifier than satan. Even so, God Himself has trouble keeping His own people on track. Thus, by definition, there cannot be long-lasting evil conspiracies, or despite Hollywood glamorization, cabals of satanic supermen. Love brings real unity, while force will soon break things, on both a personal and larger scales.
The American founders said, "Only a moral people can make the American experiment work." This is difficult to perceive, much less to apply currently. People can mess up any system, yet that constitutional system accounts for common human flaws. A more ideal society will someday emerge, after both the citizenry and the leadership are honest, educated, unselfish, compassionate, and wise.
♦ We humans are rather complicated in our nature and relationships. Thus, there will be rare personal exceptions to many of these Several Laws. Among the people who read these laws, virtually everyone will assume, if not insist, that they are among those exceptions.