So I'm relatively interested in how the majority of the Escapist will honestly answer this question.
My current philosopher teacher has recently argued that for the majority of human beings, the normal/average human, their self-esteem is derived from looking down on others.
The story given as an example to this is the story of a young man who has yet to really find a sense of "identity" or "purpose" in the world. Then this young man meets someone who is essentially a nazi. The nazi convinces the young man that Jewish people are the root of all things evil in this world, and the young man, as a blond haired blue-eyed Christian, decides to accept this belief as truth.
Now the young man has both identity and purpose in his life. This is because he can now view himself as someone who hates Jewish people, and his purpose in life has become to eliminate the perceived evil in the world.
He can now feel better about himself because he can now look down and hate on Jewish people. However, it isn't only the negative action of hating itself that motivates the young man. By hating Jewish people as inferior people, he is also simultaneously putting himself above them as an elite group.
The most dangerous part about this kind of separation and hatred is the fact that he was born into the "elite" group that he now places himself in. He can believe that he was simply born a better person as opposed to actually having to do anything.
I imagine the young man would probably feel very good about himself in terms of self-esteem.
Anyway the point of the story was to point out how the average person tends to acquire both self-esteem and purpose in life, although I know that example can be viewed as an extreme example.
So my question to you, Escapists, is there anyway to honestly raise your self-esteem without putting down someone else, whether it is a group or an individual.
Is there a way against the formula "In order to call X good, you must say that X is better than Y"?
P.S As a side discussion (if anyone wants to talk about this also) I also wanted to ask people how true this argument is as well. "To the average human, to be different is to be wrong."
My current philosopher teacher has recently argued that for the majority of human beings, the normal/average human, their self-esteem is derived from looking down on others.
The story given as an example to this is the story of a young man who has yet to really find a sense of "identity" or "purpose" in the world. Then this young man meets someone who is essentially a nazi. The nazi convinces the young man that Jewish people are the root of all things evil in this world, and the young man, as a blond haired blue-eyed Christian, decides to accept this belief as truth.
Now the young man has both identity and purpose in his life. This is because he can now view himself as someone who hates Jewish people, and his purpose in life has become to eliminate the perceived evil in the world.
He can now feel better about himself because he can now look down and hate on Jewish people. However, it isn't only the negative action of hating itself that motivates the young man. By hating Jewish people as inferior people, he is also simultaneously putting himself above them as an elite group.
The most dangerous part about this kind of separation and hatred is the fact that he was born into the "elite" group that he now places himself in. He can believe that he was simply born a better person as opposed to actually having to do anything.
I imagine the young man would probably feel very good about himself in terms of self-esteem.
Anyway the point of the story was to point out how the average person tends to acquire both self-esteem and purpose in life, although I know that example can be viewed as an extreme example.
So my question to you, Escapists, is there anyway to honestly raise your self-esteem without putting down someone else, whether it is a group or an individual.
Is there a way against the formula "In order to call X good, you must say that X is better than Y"?
P.S As a side discussion (if anyone wants to talk about this also) I also wanted to ask people how true this argument is as well. "To the average human, to be different is to be wrong."
