Following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and of the results of the EU referendum, I made a blog post about how despite all that, my faith in humanity had remained strong. That most harmful attitudes are born out of ignorance rather than of bad intentions and that it was important not to mistake one for the other. I should start by saying that I still stand by what I said in that earlier entry, but that the events of 2020 (in particular, the ongoing pandemic) have certainly made my faith waver.
I suppose it can be put down to pure ignorance, but it’s very depressing to see quite so many people completely disregarding any guidelines during the pandemic, even though it could literally save lives. I find myself somewhat frustrated, after going out of my way to ensure the safety of others, only to find very few (if any) others making the same effort during any given venture out of the house. I understand that a lot of people will be ignorant, or won’t believe the situation to be all that serious due to the attitudes and behaviour of the government, but it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that this is the primary route cause of this behaviour, rather than people simply not wanting to make the effort.
But as much as this may have caused my faith in humanity to waver, it hasn’t extinguished it entirely. Indeed, the main thing that stops me from despairing of the human race entirely, is the kindness and empathy of my friends. On top of a long history of expressing that kindness towards me and conducting excellently themselves as people, I see them respond to the situation and take it seriously. For that I am very grateful and it is nice to receive confirmation, once again, that my friends are the best of humanity.
