'Most people believe they are doing the right thing' is a statement that can be hard to come to terms with.
I used to have a recurring thought: 'If only 'that person' knew what I knew, if only 'they' could see it how I see it'
I can be quite challenging to accept that two people watching a movie can have differing opinions when you replace 'watching a movie' with 'listening to a plea for help' or 'arguing about human rights'.
I started thinking about this while I was reading a discussion between Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro. They touch on a subject that I found very interesting in ethics: the banality of evil. Hannah Arendt was my first introduction to this idea.
Hannah Arendt wrote a very, I think, important piece on the trial of Adolf Eichman in Jerusalem for his crimes against the Jewish people during the Second World War. Arendt describes how she comes to realize how 'normal' or 'unremarkable' Eichman is. It would be easier if he were simply a monster.
It's easy to brand people with the one thing the two of you disagree upon. It's easy to forget that they truly believe that they are not doing or thinking anything wrong. It's also easy to come to the conclusion that you must show them they are wrong, or tell them that they are doing wrong. It's easy to forget that clichés are clichés for a reason and compassion is truly useful.
It's hard to try and understand or value someone when they don't seem to want to understand or value you. But it's even harder, I think, to find common ground with someone when you have drawn a line.
