What would you do if I told you today that you were a king or a queen? If I told you that you were the next in a long line of a monarchy that has reigned over the common folk for centuries, how might you react? Would you be excited, as if you had won the lottery? Perhaps you might be terrified after becoming aware of the burden that instantly had fallen on your shoulders. The one thing that it seems any person would be most likely to do is succumb to a foul sort of pride. It is natural.
In our lives, we will never be royalty by surprise. We are not all Kate Middleton’s destined to fall in love with British royalty and with the marriage be placed into the line of succession. It simply doesn’t happen. So what might happen in a more average life? A job promotion may come your way, you may fall in love with the most beautiful/handsome person you’ve ever met, or you may in fact win the lottery, giving you that “small loan of a million dollars” that you had always hoped for. And when these freak happenstances of pure luck come our way it is easy to think a little too highly of ourselves.
We all hear the horror stories about people getting drunk with power or fame or wealth. Castro will always think himself a god over his people, Metallica will never appreciate their fans, Trump will never form a coherent sentence. It’s just the way that the world works. So I have to stop and ask if this sense of pride is human nature, or can it be resisted? Is it simply scripted within our genetic code that suddenly being thrust into prominence will corrupt irreversibly? I’m not sure.
I struggle to believe that human beings are fundamentally evil. Though to any who have known me for longer than a day I am certainly a pessimist in regards to the way in which our world functions, or even to the very nature of humanity, I still see good. I see the love that has been born of mankind. The philosopher Osho speaks of love as something that most people will never truly experience. It is a sensation that has only been known by a handful of people through time, people such as Jesus, Gandhi, Dr. King, or Mother Teresa.
Pride in the face of success is a plague that devours humanity its true. But I can’t believe that is all that is within the human capacity. I refuse to think that we are all destined to fail at the hands of our faults. There is so much love in the world. It’s plain to see amidst the destruction and hate. I was stopped by a religious man a few days ago; he attempted to win my soul for Christ in the face of the imminent end of days. He spoke of the end. I believe that we can try again.
