I probably care more about the role of my life in my environment than I care about most other people in the world

When I first said that to one of my friends, he was a little shocked. I don’t know how he feels about it now — I guess that is yet another example of how little I care about other people… maybe I should ask him sometime….

Then again, people often say “you can’t change other people, you can only change yourself”. I don’t know why people say that — why would I even want to change myself? People are often put off by my thoughts, calling them “self-centered” — as if there were something wrong with that… and yet at the same time they will say stuff like “change yourself”! Weird. Whatever….

In general, I don’t see why I should prefer any one atom in the universe over any other atom in the universe. Of course I cannot deny that there are people in my life about whom I care very much — much more than most, but the point is: If I don’t know someone, then there is really not much reason to care about them any more than I care about a pebble, or a rock, or the entire planet.

My environment — apart from those few people who are very close to me — is mostly filled with ideas. It is perhaps mostly via my engagement with ideas that I interact with many people at all. For example: I can talk for hours with people about happiness, what is a good world, a better world or maybe even the best world of all (a utopia). When other people participate in such discussions, then I also care about their ideas — I consider them just as valid as my own, and I also consider them just as fallible as my own. If people feel hurt when I knock down their ideas, then I do not feel responsible for that any more than I feel responsible for the fact that 2+2=4.

When I wrote about love, life, relationships, links and language yesterday, it seemed to me like some people might have interpreted that to mean I was concerned about the people in my life (or something like that). Of course there are people in my life who I love a lot, but in this case I was actually writing more about topics, issues, ideas, etc. that excite me, that I am interested in, discussions I enjoy participating in, and so on.

That’s all.