What People Are

People are people. All different, and in some respects, all the same. People on E2 are mostly American, mostly young, mostly college kids or at least, that's how I read it. And mostly male

There's some stuff we need to keep in mind about young men and about how they see the world. They like everything explained neatly and broad, sweeping rules and generalisations are one way of managing this.

Naturally, the one thing that needs most explaining for them is the thing that they least understand. If you search through E2, you'll find a lot of nodes entitled What women this and why women that and how women something else.

This is one of those things that becomes less relevant as one grows older and begins to realise that women are exactly what men are. People.

Just to make it absolutely clear to everyone, people are scum. They lie, they cheat, they abuse each other and everyone around them.

I just got divorced - if you has asked me six months ago what my wife was like I would have told you she was a treacherous bitch. And she was. But then, I became a treacherous bastard as part of the process of learning that.

I wasn't before. But that doesn't mean she ruined me or made me into anything or that I was a better person. It means that side of me existed in potentia and these were the correct circumstances to bring it out.

And it doesn't mean that she was a worse person either, it just means that side of her had been brought out before she met me and mine hadn't.

We all have the potential to become many things. What we become depends on what happens to us and how we deal with it. That's what people are. People are potential.

Wouldn't it be great if we could celebrate that instead of denying it?