Monday, November 19, 2007

You use me, I use you

This is a post from my Xanga, dated March 29, 2006.


"

Life consists of people using people.

Every single relationship is like this, whether it be national governments, vendors and buyers, personal relationships, lichens, etc. It's all about the symbiosis.

Many would probably disagree, saying that people may do genuinely kind things for people. But I'm beginning to think that such things don't exist, or occur very rarely. Perhaps the problem is people do not evaluate their motives in everyday life; they just go on, doing things that they've always done. But if one were to really think about why they do things, how the interact with others, why they help people, perhaps they would see that in the end it's all really based on their own wants and needs.

I could offer any number of examples: a government helping a struggling nation, but only because they want an ally; someone assisting another, but only because they want that person in their group, their clique; or anything else you can think of where two people get ahead by using each other.

Certainly this is not a new idea. Psychology has for some while proposed the basic reasoning behind male/female relationships and the gender-roles assumed: the females desire stability, the males desire consummation. While the basic ideology (males using females and vice versa) seems to be correct, certainly the reasons for using the person could be more diversified; both could desire companionship, for example.

And perhaps the use of people isn't so bad as long as it's not the Parasitism/Antagonism type. It gets you what you want, puts you further ahead. And in a group, it could be helpful to use others, to make the group stronger, surpassing other groups.

But once you are so far ahead, surpassing others, where will you be?

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