People as Means/People as Ends
How do you view people? How do people view you?
It's very easy to view people as a means to an end. We're nice to our boss in hopes of getting a promotion or keeping a job, not because we actual like our boss. Some people view their significant other as nothing more than an object for getting sex, not a separate and individual person.
When we view people this way, as what we can get from them instead of actual people with their own needs and desires and personalities, we diminish ourselves. People are not objects to be manipulated as we desire, they are individuals and of the Divine. When we see them as objects, we lose our own ability to connect with that Divine, to grow in their presence and let them grow in ours.
Every time we see someone as a means, we say that piece of the Divine doesn't matter. We deny reality in favor of control, putting ourselves in the center of a world that doesn't match reality. We set ourselves up as petty gods, denying even the humanity of the person we're dealing with. And, in the long run, we damage our own world, because people don't like being treated as objects.
Questions:
Who do you treat as a means? Why? What do you hope to gain?
Do you let other people treat you as a means? Why?
How do you see people you don't have a real connection with (shop clerks, people on trains, etc.)? Do you think there's a difference if they're strangers you're unlikely to see again?
It's very easy to view people as a means to an end. We're nice to our boss in hopes of getting a promotion or keeping a job, not because we actual like our boss. Some people view their significant other as nothing more than an object for getting sex, not a separate and individual person.
When we view people this way, as what we can get from them instead of actual people with their own needs and desires and personalities, we diminish ourselves. People are not objects to be manipulated as we desire, they are individuals and of the Divine. When we see them as objects, we lose our own ability to connect with that Divine, to grow in their presence and let them grow in ours.
Every time we see someone as a means, we say that piece of the Divine doesn't matter. We deny reality in favor of control, putting ourselves in the center of a world that doesn't match reality. We set ourselves up as petty gods, denying even the humanity of the person we're dealing with. And, in the long run, we damage our own world, because people don't like being treated as objects.
Questions:
Who do you treat as a means? Why? What do you hope to gain?
Do you let other people treat you as a means? Why?
How do you see people you don't have a real connection with (shop clerks, people on trains, etc.)? Do you think there's a difference if they're strangers you're unlikely to see again?
posted by Vieva @ 5:13 PM
2 Comments:
At 1:37 PM,
Vieva said…
I think we usually don't even see people like grocery clerks as people at all.
And they are people, and they are part of the Divine .. they're not just part of the store, y'know?
At 1:37 PM,
Anonymous said…
I have been used as the "means" far too often. And most of the time, I knew it and allowed it. Sometimes I allowed it because I hoped to be a sort of "seed" that would later sprout and bear fruit. Sometimes it was because I was in a situation I could not change, and yes, sometimes I resisted it with various degrees of success.
Being rather big on Kant's Categorical Imperitive, I beat the hell out of myself if I catch myself using others as means to an end. I do see grocery clerks as people--proof is I wont' use the damn machine reader aisle, I WANT a human being, thank you. I don't like talking to phone electronic switchboards, either. Its not convenient, this tendency of mine---if I could use folks easily, I'd bring more attention to the Labyrinth. I COULD kiss up to the press, using them as they think they are using ME. I haven't so far---and constantly query myself: am I obeying the 'don't use people' rule, or obeying my pride? I'm still asking. And the logician within reminds me yet again, that "Everyone does it." IS a logical fallacy, not a justification.
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