Battle for position

How many times have you heard it said that living in this world is dictated by society’s norms? That the majority always wins? That the rule of thumb should be followed no matter the circumstances? I bet you’ve even said it yourself.

In our society, you need to fit in to survive. You need to cope with unending change to continue. You need to find the group where you will belong. In short, survival of the fittest.

If you don’t act the way the majority acts, then you’re an outcast, you’re strange, you’re different. And being different often means being incorrect, at least in the eyes of many.

While many will say that being weird or distinct from others is a violation of normalcy, a different me would like to disagree.

It’s really hard to find your spot in the system. It will be unusually weird to engage in a social arena where the barometer is always a subjective and inconclusive determination of success. But it will be a mistake to continue going with the flow despite knowing that it’s the wrong flow.

Still I can’t do much to alter society’s course.

What I—we—can do is to revive the faltering fire of diversity in society.

I believe that society should harmonize people, not generalize them. Society should unite, not build a wall between the majority and the minority. Society should balance the distinct views of people in our lives, not limit our imaginations.

Society should be our sanctuary, not a bloody battlefield.

People should not battle to position themselves in society because in the first place, they are already positioned inside it. They should welcome, not stamp out, differences. Society needs to be diverse to allow everyone to live to their fullest and brightest capacity.

I’m not saying that society is evil. What is evil is the system that runs society, the system that frowns on diversity and focuses on generality, the system that defines uniqueness as a threat.

For the years to come, those considered different will be the majority and those who are deemed “normal” will be the minority, creating an unending battle cycle. If the two won’t be tied at a certain point, the system will collapse, society will be destroyed, and human interaction will stop.

The remedy may sound simple but difficult: We should accept all qualities of men and women, whether good or bad, right or wrong, weak or strong, to keep society afloat and to ensure the survival of the human race.

Dreaming of a perfect society is like dreaming of a perfect life—a true illusion.

Yes, we need the two types of energy: good and bad, positive and negative. With the hope that the good energy will always keep the bad energy at bay. And a positive outlook will shine brighter than the negative shadows of others.

At the end of the day, we should not battle for position. What we should battle is oppression.

Karl Montesa, 19, is a fourth-year legal management student at San Beda College Mendiola.