Injury

In my African film class, a prominent theme is violence. Everywhere. Between everyone. Every time I see violence in the movie, I just wonder how a person gets to the place where they can do that to another person. I mean, I have a hard time stepping on a bug that's big enough to make a crunch sound. I also wonder how people in general manage to convince themselves that they have the RIGHT to cause harm to and hurt another person. No, stranger, you do not have the right to hit me with a baton because I am not doing anything wrong and you have no authority to inflict injury upon my body.



I think a lot of people suffer from these type of misguided "rights" that they think they have over other people. Aside from thinking that it's okay for them to hurt another person and even degrade them, there's the false right of using other people's property, the false right of disrespecting another person, especially en elder or someone who is educated (and again, especially if they're educated more than you). I can't tell you how many times I have been irritated with my fellow students for criticizing a professor and giving them a hard time, when the professor has just so much more knowledge than the instigator, even if they aren't the most engaging lecturer.

In conclusion, I am issuing a call to everyone to stop claiming rights upon other people that you do not and will not ever have. These "rights" are inherently wrong and never justified. This is a call to a kinder, more ordered world.