It’s so easy to fall into the trap of concepts. Concepts themselves aren’t inherently bad and can even be helpful by giving us a simple starting point for some incredibly complicated subjects. However, it’s really easy to start putting anything and everything into a concept or category, including people. It’s so common for people to look at each other and say “Oh that person is this and they belong in that category.” The categorization can be based on anything about them: the way they act, the way they think, their appearance, their views, etc. It’s also super common to think of someone as a physical embodiment of their views and put them in a corresponding category or box.
The problem with this is people are not their views. Additionally, putting everything and everyone into boxes can be dangerous because it makes it seem as if we know more about the world than we truly do. Even seemingly simple things are far too complex for small boxes. Humans, being endlessly complicated, don’t fit into any kinds of boxes at all. To understand someone requires removing the box and seeing them as they are rather than as a simple concept that can be summed up in a few short sentences.
One reason that it’s so hard to avoid putting people into categories is because the tendency to categorize everything is all around us. There aren’t many examples of simply observing things as they are and letting them be that way. We’re all born into a world that we didn’t design and we’re surrounded by huge systems all our lives, including societies, governments, businesses, cultures, families, communities, etc. Shortly after we’re born, we’re almost immediately put into many situations that attempt to mold us and shape us in certain ways so that we’ll accept the present systems. Growing up this way and not really being exposed to any alternatives, people believe that this is the natural order. “The world has always been this way and it’ll always be this way.”
Most people never really stop to think about how much work it took to make the world the way it is and how much work it takes to keep it this way. With enough people working together effectively over a long enough period of time, things could be vastly different than they are now. This current existence is only one of a huge (perhaps unlimited) number of possibilities. As long as people stay stuck thinking that the way things are is the way they have to be, however, we won’t get to see any of those other possibilities. Instead, people will simply continue being born into this world, getting sucked into existing systems, and adopting patterns and habits that most other people before them have fallen into. As they grow, they’ll continue to maintain those systems and cycles and they won’t have made much difference by the time they die; things will be pretty much the same when they leave the world as when they entered it. A lot of people won’t ever really think about this. Of those who do, many of them will think “It would be nice if we could really change things for the better but it’s just not possible.”
I’d like to see less dependence on concepts and systems because, in addition to limiting imagination and creative thinking, they also give people an easy way out through denial of responsibility. “I don’t have to help that person because there are systems in place for people in need.” Or “I did what I had to do/I was just doing what I was told to do.” I regularly fall into these traps as well so I know how devious they can be. Lack of systems, I hope, would make people more likely to look out for one another and keep in mind that they could one day be in a position of needing help. Less overuse of concepts could help with that by reminding us that, beyond all superficial and even seemingly significant differences, we’re all humans who get to share this Earth with each other for a little while. That’s my greatest wish and I hope I can help make it come true.