Compassion/Love vs. Wisdom in society

[Plenum]

Hi Everybody!

My own query regards the inability of myself to interact with the general public, but more specifically how to not be "angry/disappointed" at others who are still so blindly buying into this materialistic world- if everybody would open their eyes we could start to make such headway in alleviating the horrible suffering which is experienced by so many in the world.

A good example of this is that I work in a video store, so most people who come into the store for starters treat me like an automated teller machine, and only want to rent movies to keep themselves stupified and oblivious to the facts of reality. I understand that this doesn't apply to everyone, and that people definitely deserve to relax and unwind with a movie (i'm like that myself with cartoons haha), but every time someone comes to the counter I feel like screaming at them "!!open you eyes people, read a book, talk to your children etc etc rather than wasting your money on these stupid DVD's!!"

I really feel for you buddy (and everyone else who works in service retail). The closest I ever came to it was a high school part time stint at McDonalds cooking burgers ... but I saw some of the behaviour and bad temper of people when they didn't get what they wanted, when they wanted it.

to answer your question: we live in a brainwashed, media programmed society, and people just absorb the prevailing viewpoint/opinions. In a way, even up to the age of 18 I was very much a fish in that water.

So my specific query would be something along the lines of; is it better to attempt to see everyone else as the creator and forgive them for their ignorance

whenever I see poor behaviour, I try to take Socrates' view:

"if they knew better, they would do better"

and in many many cases I think this holds true. I didn't know how glorious music could be until I discovered Classical; up to then, I had lived in lower income family with not much 'culture' around. My reality was defined by limited information (way way before the internet )

and we can always take Jesus' view, if these were the words he actually said:

"forgive them father, for they know not what they do".

peace to you Troy, and thanks so much for your one off contribution.

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re-reading your post, I can see how deep a query you are presenting.

it is basically:

how best can I help the people that I meet in everyday life?

that is a HUGE topic