Who doesn't love Christopher Walken?

Monday, June 2, 2014

Coexist - But to what extent?

I'm sure most of you have seen these bumper stickers or had the cards handed under your windshield wipers at some point.  For those of you that aren't familiar, they look something along the lines of this:


I know some of you will look at this and see the surface; different religions and lifestyles not bothering each other about their respective beliefs.  But I can't help but pry deeper.  Before I go into it, let me air my bias.  I was raised Christian, attended Catholic school K-12, am now agnostic with varying beliefs and support gay marriage.

Now, from what I understand, this symbol/phrase is telling us that we should all just...get along.  But my question to you is this:  Where do we draw the line?  This is where it gets complicated.

Morals are such an incredibly subjective thing, this is a near impossible feat because there is no real scale of acceptability.  Who is to say one person's morals are greater than the next?  Are we to ignore our own beliefs for the sake of another's?

Example:  Say a 'morally corrupt' dictator is going and rounding up people that he finds repulsive, for whatever reason, and executing them.  Are we to just stand idly by while they do so?  I mean, after all, who's to say their beliefs are wrong?

If we say this practice is wrong and unacceptable, and that we should end this kind of behavior, we have made ourselves hypocrites.  According to the principle of coexisting, we have to allow this in order to keep the peace.  In order to keep consciences clear, we have to create chaos to stand up for what we think is right, thus negating the idea of a peaceful existence together.

To the average person this seems plausible, but when you really get down to it, coexisting is just another majority rule.  The idea of it is beautiful, but the reality is impossible.