As people, I don’t think we can begin to fathom the consequences of our own actions, let alone the actions of humankind on a global scale. Yet, like a mosaic up close, one must step back to see the picture. What is seemingly chaotic can suddenly come into focus as a choreographed dance from a distance.

And so it is this that we must do when we think about the world we live it. To only judge things from our own limited vantage point is like trying to touch the mosaic with out nose and still see what the artist intended. Our own assumed experience, knowledge, and our beliefs l end us to discrimination against those things that are foreign to us, in their ideals, race, culture, or beliefs.

It is difficult to comprehend what discrimination has done. The problems that could be contributed to it are vast and countless, yet is still happens all the time. Discrimination has allowed countless generations of human beings to dehumanize each other, to make their fellow man less than human, something meant to be educated by force, liberated, battled, cleansed, killed and victimized. This discrimination, causes ripples. It’s victims don’t just feel worthless, but have a tendency to keep a part of that with them, and pass it on to create an ongoing cycle of discrimination and reverse discrimination.

Countless deaths can be traced back to some form of discrimination on a small and large scope. Everything from petty disagreements to massive wars can be attributed to discrimination’s name. In war, though, discrimination becomes a tool for soldiers who must, to keep their sanity, dehumanize the victims of their war. You don’t hear many soldiers saying “I just killed a man in battle that I held on equal grounds with myself.” You hear, “I killed three of those Japs today! or “Those Yankees didn’t stand a chance!” or “Mark me down for three of those towel heads.”

I think it says something for an action that calls for the degradation of humans in order to complete the action.

To me, though, discrimination can be seen on smaller levels. Don’t we constantly (and nearly consistently) see the young discriminate against the old, and the old discriminate against the young? The young seem to grow up thinking that old people know nothing at all, and old people think young people are hopelessly lost. Don’t we see in situations where there are strong differences in opinions (such as in politics and religion) that people can forget that they are talking only on opinion, that they dehumanize their opponent in order to keep their beliefs? Atheists and Christians have a long history of this. They end up calling themselves by those labels to avoid coming to terms with the fact that they are both expressing their opinions, which allows them to keep feeling they have the superior position.

It isn’t that it didn’t exist in politics before, but the masses seem to be politicized, made to be more active in politics because that is what is on TV. That is what is on the Internet. It is becoming more common to hear people referred to not as brother, or fellow human, but as liberals and conservatives. There is most certainly a difference of opinion, but this does not change the fact that we are all still human (except for those commies!). I won’t claim that some day we will learn that we all have influence on the world around us, because that implies that everyone will want to take responsibility for their own actions.

I will, however, suggest that it would be a good thing if we could keep in mind that most opinions are in the realm of possibility, that all beliefs are valid if someone believes them. It would be a good thing if we learned that two opposing ideas can exist and everyone can still be happy. All ideas are valid in that they are all ideas, whether right or wrong.