A common perception that I became aware of is that most people think misanthropes are caught in self-pity or some type of elitism. I don’t know about other misanthropes, but for me personally that could not be farther from the truth. I don’t feel sorry for myself, far from it. Nor do I think of myself better than other people. I do however, set specific standards for myself that I expect from other people as well. Not standards that are unattainable, merely standards that define a “good” person. I, for example, refuse to be rude to somebody just because I have a bad day. I also try to think my actions and decisions through logically, and I think about the consequences it will have for other people around me. You might think “…well, everybody does that…” at which point I will have to disagree. I view the consideration of consequences just one of the things that go hand in hand with common sense, and the more I have dealings with people the more I am sure that morals and common sense are rare commodities in today’s life.
Nowadays people make decisions without thinking things through or rather without using common sense in their decision making process. The result being that they create problems not only for themselves, but for people around them as well. Think about it, how many of the problems you had to resolve had its origins with something that you yourself had a stake in? Even if a problem has nothing to do with you, someone will try and make it your responsibility. Psychologists are of the notion that humans are social creatures. In my opinion that is the problem. People rarely consider responsibility for their actions, and whenever things get tough, they try to distribute the responsibility to ease the weight off of their own shoulders. They don’t care about how it inconveniences somebody else, as long as they get an easier solution. That selfishness and idiocy is why I prefer my own company. The less I deal with people, the less chances there are for them to make their problems mine. Now I’m not saying I don’t run into tight spots now and then, however those are mostly limited to my working environment(you can’t avoid co-workers or your boss in an office) and the rest that aren’t I have no trouble in dealing with.
The selfishness doesn’t just stop there however. Whenever you treat people with kindness and respect you paint a huge target on yourself to be stepped on. People today see kindness as weakness. They will never admit to themselves they are lowlife scum leeching off of other people’s good natures, however if there is something to gain the wall of morality is as thick and dense as the air we walk through. Be it in your workspace where your duties and workload keeps piling up but you never get that raise to accommodate the extra work, or family borrowing money and never paying it back knowing you are in need of it, even friends not taking no for an answer or disregarding the events of your life as if it is of no importance, it’s all because of being good natured. It’s like an open invitation for people to take advantage of you. Just because most people are pricks however does not mean that I am going to become an asshole myself. I have my standards and as I said, I expect the same standards from everybody I come in contact with. If they cannot live up to it so be it. I would rather live in isolation than reduce myself to a lying, selfish, arrogant, immoral level of existence in order not to be taken advantage of. In doing that I would be no better than most people and that would make me a hypocrite.
The reason for this particular article is as an explanation for all those people who can’t understand why I don’t like going out to parties, why I choose not to mix with people, why I enjoy being alone, why I can’t understand the reason for their need of acceptance from other people and ultimately why I don’t like people in general. There are a few people in my life who are decent, understanding and who hold dear the same values as I, and for them I will always be thankful.
