For Others Are Fools, Must You Be Too?

"Le Désespéré (Edited) by Gustave Courbet"

Oftentimes the notion of conformity is conflated with virtue; meaning the justification for an action is to simply forward the fact that it is done by others.

 “Because other people are fools, must you be so too?”
—Marcus Aurelius

        I crave understanding within myself as to why this distastes me, and others as to why they do such a deed. In this article, I try to comprehend such dichotomies, here goes.

When the time comes that a person calls out one’s abhorrent actions — and it will — and his rationalization for such a behavior is to point out that other people do it too, I see this being two-fold. One side of the coin might be the call for justice; seeing as though others enact the same idea, why should he be the one to be vindicated?

There is a strong sense of morality carved into this idea, one that should not be overlooked. However, the flipside should not be either, that which being: It is a call to sweep personal benevolence and sovereignty under the rug. Does not the call to correction become eradicated when others are dragged as scapegoats? Where does the sense of virtue wander off to when one clears himself of the responsibility to a virtuous self?

Any human being will forever be unable to look into another person’s heart or the surrounding circumstances that lead to their actions, except for one’s own. So for any man to worry about anybody other than themselves is only a waste of time and energy. As the Bible clearly states:

"’Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
—Matthew 7:3 NIV

Another behavior, which is in the same category as the former, is the practice of playing out an action to everybody by one’s self. To give a further explanation, here is a conversation that I had not too long ago with a certain individual: I had asked them why they repeatedly sent me sexual innuendos — happened regularly through the means of jokes and memes. Their response was simply “I do that to everyone, brother” followed by a plethora of detestable emojis. Eck.

Maybe they were trying to shame me into making me think that I was not the special sunshine I deemed myself to be, that I was not as exceptional as to think that I am the only one they talk this way to. But that is not the case, if anything that action tells me more about the character of the individual than it does the people they talk with.

Firstly, one sets a perception of themselves to be rather vapid since there seems to be no sense of boundaries that are clearly set. Second, if the action is done to everybody all the time, that has nothing to do with the opposite party — it all points back to the afflicting person. Does it not sound disgraceful to normalize an appalling behavior by doing it with or to everyone?

Not only were the errs of the actions not seen, but the justification presented was that it was prevalent in their behavior. Just because it is ubiquitous, does not make it right.

There is just a certain uneasiness that I feel towards an individual who does such actions. Maybe it is because of having this behavior pathologically ingrained in me in the past — one does hate in others what they subconsciously abhor in their own being. Or perhaps because these actions are clearly wrong, and the idea that others see this as either infallible or faultless chases one dumbfounded.