People Are Odd

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People are odd.

I mean, people are just really, undeniably incredibly odd.

Human beings are the odd-balls of the animal kingdom. I mean, it´s hard to argue against it when you look at the facts.

What other animal is going to say “ow” when they stump themselves, even if they´re not actually in pain? They just say in, just in case it might have hurt.

It´s adorable, but utterly pointless.

And no other animal has True Fiction. Ever heard about the term? It´s when they take something that´s a lie, and they all just agree that it´s the truth.

Occasionally, they even forget that they were the ones that made it up.

Like money. These little things that are (at best) made of paper and metals, and which are (at worst) nothing but little numbers on a screen.

They know that money has no real value besides the one they´ve given it. If they all decided that from tomorrow on, money would have no sort of value whatsoever then immediately… it wouldn´t.

But they have agreed, and this agreement causes them to do all sorts of odd stuff in order to get these papers of perceived value. Some of them work themselves to death. Some kill other people instead. They lie, and they cheat, and they steal, and all for a paper with some number printed on it.

You must admit that it´s pretty weird.

Nationality is another thing they´ve invented. Though it appears, they´ve forgotten it. They have made up the idea of nationality, and they´ve stuck with it. They´ve fought wars for it. Sons have lost fathers, and daughter have lost mothers, all because of some lines drawn on a map.

How odd.

I can name other examples, of course. Hundreds of them, probably. They have companies, and religions, and ideologies – all things that do, in fact, not exist outside of their own heads.

Things are simpler if you´re a wolf or a monkey. The wolf knows that the only things real are the ones it can see and feel. The monkey can lie, but it´s aware that its lie isn´t, in fact, the truth.

People are the only ones who tend to forget what they´ve made up.

The only ones capable of lying to themselves.

The only ones capable of agreeing that they will all pretend that an obvious lie is the truth.

And why do they do it?

Is it so that they can work together despite being a species with several billions’ individuals?

Is it in order to give them a feeling of cohesion that will make it possible for them to work together with strangers? Trust strangers, at least to a certain degree?

Probably.

But maybe there´s another reason besides this. A lesser reason, but a reason, nonetheless.

Maybe…

Just maybe…

Then people are just odd.

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